Bhupathi: Wimbledon was the best shot for Roger Federer e Serena Williams

Former World No. 1 doubles player Mahesh Bhupathi says that the cancellation of Wimbledon was a big blow for Roger Federer and Serena Williams, who could have both achieved records at the All England Club this year. Federer has won a record 20 Grand Sam singles titles but is being chased by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who could both overtake him in the coming years while Serena Williams could have tied Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon.

Speaking to the Mail Today, Bhupathi says, "Wimbledon was the best shot for both of them to achieve records. You never write out greatness and both are chasing it. Let us see how it pans out. Both have not been playing recently and are fresh. Having said that, as you grow older, you definitely do slow down, even if by a small per cent. One has to wait and see what happens in 2021."

Bhupathi also said that the current tennis shutdown will severely affect the lower ranked players, who do not have savings and endorsements to fall back on. "Only ten per cent of the players in both men's and women's sections have savings and endorsements to fall back on, the rest are constantly matching expenses. Most tennis players survive almost on a weekly basis. Players ranked even in the top 50 or 60 last it out from pay cheque to pay cheque. There is absolutely no comfort zone. Tennis is a very expensive sport in every sense and if you add travel costs, and what they pay to their support staff, it is a big burden. In tennis, it is like this, at the start of the year, the top players have to commit to their support staff (coach, physio etc) and the payments are like $2 lakhs per year. What the player earns, does not matter, he will be spending what has been committed to the support staff. All through their careers they are travelling and there are really no guarantees. It is not like other professions where you have a job and can take a pay cut. In tennis, you play and earn if you win. The situation now is very bad and there are no back-up plans."

Bhupathi hoped that the tennis administrators would come up with some kind of plan to help the players. "There has to be some kind of a plan in place which can help players sustain or you may see many careers coming to an end."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2K6Hxzg