Despite Alexander Zverev’s success at the French Open, six-time Grand Slam tournament winner Boris Becker is concerned about the current situation in German tennis. “There is a big gap behind that,” said the 56-year-old on Eurosport: “I’m worried about the 18 to 21-year-olds. If they come from the youth sector, I see too few good players who can assert themselves.” Apart from Zverev, only Jan-Lennard Struff (39th place/34 years), Dominik Koepfer (67th place/30 years), Daniel Altmaier (83rd place/25 years) and Yannik Hanfmann (85th place/32 years) are currently in the top 100 of the world rankings. The best U21 player is Marko Topo (20 years) in 423rd place.
He himself could imagine working for the German Tennis Association again, but: “The new president Dietloff von Arnim approached me last summer and said he would like to talk to me about whether I could imagine joining again. I am still waiting for that conversation today,” Becker revealed.
For him, it is not a question of money, stressed the former “Head of Men’s Tennis” at the DTB: “I did it on a voluntary basis and would do it again today – but I would really like to have a conversation.” However, he has the feeling that greater involvement from ex-tennis professionals is “not wanted”.
At the Grand Slam tournament on clay in Paris, only Alexander Zverev of 13 German players reached the third round. The situation is particularly worrying for the women, where Angelique Kerber (36) has not been able to keep up with the world’s best after her maternity leave and younger players such as the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier (24) have repeatedly suffered major setbacks.
A new competitive sports concept from the DTB is intended to bring about improvement. It is “a great concept,” said former national coach Barbara Rittner, who worked on it herself: “Now it’s time to implement it, of course.” And Rittner and Becker see a lot of catching up to do. “You can’t develop players on the drawing board, they have to be developed on the pitch,” said 51-year-old Rittner.
