Batting icon Sachin Tendulkar has picked the legendary Roger Federer as one tennis player he would have loved to bat with given the latter’s “cricket connection” and interest in the sport.
A regular at the Wimbledon over the years, Tendulkar met Federer when he visited the centre court in London to watch some tennis action on Saturday.
“One tennis player I would love to bat with has to be Roger because also he’s got cricketing connections,” Tendulkar told Star Sports on the sidelines of Wimbledon.
“His mother is from South Africa and he follows cricket and when we sat together and chatted we discussed a lot of cricket not just tennis so it has to be Roger.”
The 51-year-old from Mumbai also said he loved playing tennis with the late Australian spin great Shane Warne and former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and described them as cricketers who would make best doubles partners.
“There are two strong contenders unfortunately we lost Shane Warne a couple of years ago but I enjoyed playing tennis with Warne in fact we played together in London and the other guy is from Indian cricket team Yuvraj Singh who has also retired but Warne and Yuvraj would be the ones.”
Era of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal has come to an end: Shastri
Former India coach and player Ravi Shastri feels Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the future stars with the era of Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal having come to an end.
“The era of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, you feel is coming to an end, or has come to an end, and it’ll be Sinner and Alcaraz who will keep the flag flying,” Shastri said on the sidelines of the Wimbledon.
“As far as the competition goes they’ll have some great battles in the future and we hope another couple come on the way.”
Talking about his favourite player in Wimbledon, Shastri said, “At the moment, Alcaraz, I saw that final last year, in that fifth set, he’s, got some energy, some strength.
“When I saw him first, it reminded me of young Nadal, the way he whacked that ball, the power with which he hit it and he’s like a bull in that fifth set, you take him to the fifth set, you better be fit, otherwise he’ll clean you up.”
Shastri also went down memory lanes and narrated how he met multiple Grand Slam winner Jimmy Connors.
“The first time I ever came into the Wimbledon was in 1982, when Connors won it and Vijay brought us in and he took us into the dressing room, he took Sunny and me into the locker room, as they say, not the dressing room and met Jimmy Connors at that time and I’ve been coming ever since.”
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