‘They’re gonna convert all the tennis clubs into paddle or pickleball’

NEW DELHI: World No. 2 and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic raised the need for tennis to increase its innovation factor and conceded that the sport’s future is under threat.

Shortly after scraping past Alexei Popyrin in a Wimbledon third-round match that lasted four sets, Novak Djokovic was quizzed on the future of five-set games and the diminishing audience for long-format tennis matches.

The five-setters continue to be exclusive to men’s tennis at the four Grand Slams. However, the matches have recently been under scrutiny with tennis legend John McEnroe suggesting to do away with five-setters and instead introducing a 10-point tiebreaker after four sets.

Djokovic dismissed the need for such changes but admitted that tennis could lose its space to sports such as paddle or pickleball if it fails to reinvent itself. The 37-year-old said that the expensive nature of tennis was one of the major factors impeding the growth of the game at the club level.

“Tennis is a very global sport and it’s loved by millions of children that pick up a racquet and want to play. But we don’t make it accessible. We don’t make it so affordable. Especially in countries like mine that doesn’t have a strong federation, that has Grand Slam or history or big budgets. I think collectively we all have to come together and understand how to maintain the sport’s, let’s say, foundation or create a new foundation, a cornerstone of really what tennis is about, which is the base level, right, the club level,” the Serb told reporters at Wimbledon after his third-round win.

Djokovic admitted that the lack of marketing and engagement of young audience is hampering the sport’s progress.

“In terms of innovation in our sport… other than Slams, we have to figure out how to attract a young audience. Tennis on one hand is in a good place, but at the same time, when we look at Formula 1 for example and what they’ve done in terms of marketing, in terms of growth of the sport, in terms of the races around the world and how popular they are.. I think we need to do a better job on our respective tours. The grand slams are always gonna do well. But I think our tours need to do better. We are lucky to be very historic and a very global sport,” Djokovic added.

‘King or queen of racquet sports’

Djokovic cautioned that tennis could soon lose its spot to paddle or pickleball at the grassroots level due to the economical factor.

“Now we have the paddle or padel that is growing and emerging. People kind of have fun with it and say, Yeah, but tennis is tennis. Tennis is the king or queen of all the racquet sports, that’s true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered. If we don’t do something about it, as I said, globally or collectively, paddle, pickle ball in States, they’re going to convert all the tennis clubs into paddle and pickle ball because it’s just more economical,” Djokovic remarked.

The Profressional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), led by Djokovic, had shared an infographic in December 2023 which highlighted that tennis’ revenue sharing stood at a lowly 18 percent, which is considerably below other major sporting leagues in the world.

“I think one of the studies that was done by PTPA 3 or 4 years ago showed that tennis is the third or fourth most watched sport in the world along with cricket. Number 1 is football or soccer as you call it in the states. Second is basketball. Then it’s tennis and cricket. But tennis is number 9 or 10 on the list of all sports in terms of using its popularity, commercializing or capitalizing on that. I think there’s a huge space for growth. We’re quite fractioned as a sport,” Djokovic added.

The World No. 2 will return to action in the Round of 16 against Denmark’s Holger Rune on Monday.

Agencies

Agencies