Former world no 1 Novak Djokovic expressed his fears about the way forward for tennis in his press convention on Saturday. The 37-year-old Serbian mentioned that “membership tennis is at risk because of the rise of different racket sports activities reminiscent of padel and pickleball”.
Novak Djokovic gained his third spherical match at Wimbledon on Saturday towards Australian Alexei Popyrin (ATP-47), however the Serb clearly nonetheless had some power left within the tank. After the match, he gave an eight-minute speech on the press convention about the way forward for tennis and warned concerning the rise of different racket sports activities, reminiscent of padel and the favored American pickleball.
The Serb was solely requested to provide his opinion on the rule that three profitable units should be performed in Grand Slam tournaments, however clearly felt the necessity to additionally tackle his different considerations – concerning tennis.
“Tennis is a really world sport that’s beloved by hundreds of thousands of kids. They wish to choose up a racket and play, however we don’t make it accessible and inexpensive,” started the present world quantity 2.
If we don’t take collective motion, padel and pickleball will take over all tennis golf equipment.
Djokovic referred to as for a basis to guard tennis at membership stage. “Padel is rising strongly and is on the rise. Individuals say ‘tennis is tennis’, and that’s true. Tennis is the king of racket sports activities, however at membership stage tennis is at risk,” the Serb warned.
“If we don’t take collective motion, padel and pickleball will take over all of the tennis golf equipment as a result of it’s merely extra economical. You can also make three padel courts from one tennis court docket. Anybody who can do math is aware of that it’s way more worthwhile for a membership proprietor to put padel courts.”
“We’re nonetheless doing a nasty job when it comes to preserving grassroots tennis,” the Serb added. The way forward for grassroots tennis, he mentioned, had lengthy been in jeopardy in international locations like his native Serbia, as a result of there was no sturdy federation, historical past or massive budgets.
America within the grip of pickleball
In Europe and elsewhere on this planet, padel has been on the rise for a number of years, even though the mix of tennis and squash was invented in Mexico within the Nineteen Sixties.
It’s performed like tennis however on a court docket that’s 3 times smaller than a tennis court docket. Gamers can even use the glass partitions that border the court docket. Worldwide, there are mentioned to be 30 million padel gamers and 63,000 courts.
A lesser recognized sport in Europe, however quickly gaining floor within the US, is pickleball. The mix of tennis, badminton and ping-pong is the quickest rising sport in America.
Former tennis participant Kim Clijsters has additionally swapped the tennis court docket for the pickleball courts and is even co-owner of a pickleball workforce, along with American Soccer legend Tom Brady. 13.6 million others have already tried their hand on the fashionable pickleball.
Seven-time Wimbledon winner Djokovic will face Dane Holger Rune (ATP-15) tonight for a spot within the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Associated:
