Roger Federer is an artist, there will not be too many like him - Bahrami
Who will be the players that replace Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal once the Swiss and the Spaniard retire from the professional tour? In an interview to Sports.fr, the former player Mansour Bahrami answered this question showing not to be worried about the future of tennis. "That kind of question was asked 40 or 50 years ago at the time of Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall. Then again after Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase. But it will continue. There will be other players like Federer and Nadal. They may be less amazing, someone will be like Andy Murray, some others like Federer. Like Federer, I do not think we will find too many. He is an artist."
On how prize money increased over the decades, Bahrami added: "When I reached the doubles final here, I earned €15,000. Now it's €500,000. It has nothing to do. Now you win a first-round match and you get 60,000. Ilie Nastase, when he won the tournament in 1973, earned $5,000. Now people come to us and tell us it was great. I was already told: 'Mansour, my wife did not like tennis, but when she watched you, she started playing tennis. And my son too." It may be nostalgia. In the past, there were players like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, Yannick Noah. Something was always happening on the court. It was not always pleasant. Nastase, when he was a world No. 1, insulted the crowd. But there were people who were insulting him earlier than he would do with them. But it always full packed. Now there are so many rules that players, if they start saying something, immediately get warned."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2LtcxgD
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