Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have been the 2 big winners in 2017 against all the odds. Both tennis legends have surprised the entire tennis community after they shared the slams titles and they ended the season as world no.1 and world no.2
Marat Safin had the luxury to play both in “his days, ” and even if he has a huge respect for them, he believes that they shouldn’t rule the tennis world at their age if things were “good.”
There is something wrong
The Russian released a rather straightforward interview while he was in London on occasion of the Champions Tennis played at the Royal Albert Hall to comment as follows
“If Federer and Nadal are still winning I think there’s something wrong. I don’t see any upcoming superstars today.
I’m not saying that our times were the best, but when I was growing up, players were winning ATP tournaments at 16, 17, 18.
Players used to retire by the time they got to 30. At 32 you were a dinosaur. Now you see players who are still running at the age of 38. The upcoming young guys just aren’t at a high enough level. If you can still manage to run at the age of 38 and still be No 1 in the world, it means there must be something wrong with the other players.”
Why we disagree
We get Marat’s point, but there was a guy many years ago that at 39 was still managing to reach a US open semi. His name is Jimmy Connors, and it was 1991, and that was the days of Sampras and Agassi. There was nothing wrong with that!
Tennis has changed and evolved and with better training and more forgiving gearing, the experience is becoming more important than the power of youth.
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