Serena Willliams may be the greatest ever, says WTA CEO
In an interview to The Tennis Channel, the WTA CEO Steve Simon commented on the status of the women's Tour presently. Simon said there is a great mixture between younger and older players: "It's a special time," said Simon. "It's a renaissance period because it's not too often that you have someone like Serena Williams, Venus and Maria Sharapova who are the history of the game, Serena may arguably be the best player that has ever played in history, then we have a group of existing stars that have clearly established themselves, the Haleps, Pliskovas, the whole crew, and now we have this young coming in and so the dynamics between the three tiers and the three different levels of athletes is exciting."
On youngster Cori Gauff's potential, Simon concluded: "Coco is 15 and per our eligibility rule she is allowed to play 14 events this year and then as she turns 16 she can play 17 and then at 17 she can play 20. It's a rule that we feel very strongly up because we are trying to make sure that these players have longer careers and these 15-year-old kids and how often do you have 15 and 16 kids entering the workplace and being in that environment, because there is much more than just playing tennis on the court, and we have seen as the players' career now, they are healthier, they are playing longer, we are not losing them because of injury and overplay, or stress that comes with being a professional athlete. So you are gonna see a lot of Coco Gauff, she is a very talented young player, she obviously played the Miami Open with a wild card, so we are gonna see an awful lot of her over the next few years and hopefully helps her transition in a very healthy way to the tour."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Vz1Ppm
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