Djokovic: “Tennis is in danger, clubs are converting courts over to padel and pickleball”

Novak Djokovic has progressed to the Round of 16 at Wimbledon with dramatic comeback win against Alexey Popyrin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and 7-6 in just over three hours. The Serbian is still recovering from surgery on a knee injury that forced him to withdraw from Roland Garros and in the post game press conference the veteran star offered his view about the current situation of the sport.

“Now we have padel tennis, which is growing and emerging. People have fun with that and say: ‘Yes, but tennis is tennis’. Tennis is the king or queen of all racquet sports, that’s true. But at the club level, tennis is in danger. If we don’t do something about it, like I said, globally or collectively with the growth of padel in Europe and pickleball in the United States, we’re going to see more tennis courts converting to padel and pickleball because it’s cheaper. You have a tennis court and you can build three padel courts on the same space…do the simple math. “It is much more financially viable for a club owner to have that set-up,” said the Serbian.

The need for innovation

Djokovic also spoke about how necessary innovation is in tennis. “The Grand Slams are always going to go well. I think our tours need to be better and we are lucky to be playing a global sport. But I think one of the studies done by the PTPA three or four years ago, showed that tennis is the third or fourth most popular sport in the world, the most watched sport in the world, along with cricket. Number one is obviously football. The second is basketball,” the Serbian explained.

“I think there is a lot of room for growth and I feel that we are quite fragmented as a sport. “So there are quite a few things that I think we should really look at collectively and try to improve,” he said.

He also highlighted the importance of athletes being able to make a professional career from tennis. “We need to increase the number of players who make a living from this sport. Very rarely do I see the media writing about the fact that you only have 350 or 400 players…men, women, singles, doubles… in all areas that make a living from this sport on this planet . “That is deeply worrying to me.”

“The winner of the Grand Slam makes good money and will have no problems making a living from the sport, but we have to take care of the base level. “Tennis is a very global sport and is loved by millions of children who pick up a racket and want to play but I feel we don’t make it accessible as it should be” concluded the 37-year-old.