There won't be a void after Federer, Nadal, Djokovic retire - Tiriac
The Madrid Open owner Ion Tiriac spoke highly of some of the biggest tennis legends. The Romanian, talking to Tennis Magazin, said: "Federer and Nadal deserve every recognition in this world. I am a fan of Nadal because he is totally committed to the sport. You rarely find an athlete like him. As for the up-and-coming players, I am not worried. Of course this year's Wimbledon was a disaster for the next generation as all of them lost early. The mistake is on the system, which doesn't allow a very young player to compete in big tournaments. You have to give wild cards to sub-18 players, in the main draw or qualies. Of course there are many Challengers but the Challenger level is lower. It cannot compete with ATP tournaments. But I think there will be no holes once the Big Three retire. There will always be 128 players competing in a Grand Slam. The game may be faster or lower but players will always be there."
Tiriac also spoke about the Davis Cup format: "They should stay in prison forever. They are ruining a 120-year tradition with Davis and Fed Cups just because of money. That's not sports. It's the most ridiculous thing I ever saw. These people are sick. Tennis is the second bigger sport in the world, we have an unbelievable technology to broadcast matches on TV, better than most of the other sports. The only thing that should change is to make the ball by 25 percent bigger. But now it's just about money. Now a Wimbledon first round loser earns £50,000, something it's not right. When I won the French Open with Ilie Nastase in 1970, I got 100 dollars. There is no limit. Also what the footballers earn is not something normal."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XGnpdl
No comments