Mats Wilander won the Grand Slam trophy seven times during his career, in 1988 he won three of the four biggest tournaments, but the quarter-final at Wimbledon was the best result of his career. During his career, he was at the top of the men’s singles world rankings for twenty weeks, and was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002.
In his opinion, the Wimbledon organizers made an extremely bad decision when they collectively banned Russian and Belarusian competitors from the tournament due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which resulted in the ATP and WTA organizations not crediting the world ranking points after the results achieved this year. Nevertheless, he sees that this has not affected the quality of the game so far.
I recently watched, for example, the five-set match between David Goffin and Francis Tiafoe, where both players mobilized amazing energy, and I didn’t see for a moment in the tennis players that there wasn’t such a big stake in advancing. This is Wimbledon, a special place where there is a serious fight even if there are no world ranking points. Of course, it can be very difficult for players who would make a big jump in the world rankings after this year’s Wimbledon after their surprisingly good results. For example, in the women’s field, Tatjana Maria, who is not in the top 100, is a quarterfinalist, but she does not receive a single point for her performance, of course it can be very difficult to deal with mentally, that no matter how good a result you achieve, you will at most remain in the position you were in before the competition. In the men’s category, Tim van Rijthoven exploded at the beginning of the grass season and this year he played in the round of 16. If points were to be distributed, he would come up to around the fiftieth-sixtieth place, but he also remains outside the top 100.
– expressed his opinion of the Swedish legend, whom viewers can meet on the Eurosport screen every day of the Wimbledon match.
He added: he considers the exclusion of the Russians an extremely bad decision, but it is very difficult to form an opinion on a politically connected topic. However, he is very happy that despite the known conditions, the standard of the game did not change, he saw the same excellent matches in the first week as during the previous Wimbledon tournaments.
Our paper asked that Eurosport expert, what is his opinion about Márton Fucsovics, who played in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year, but this year the first round marked the end for him.
Márton is an excellent player with no weak points in his game, an extremely good tennis player in all areas. The only problem I see with him is that maybe he lacks confidence in his game. In terms of his ability, he could even compete with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, but I see fear in him when he faces a bigger challenge. However, he also has excellent punches, which is combined with a good fighting spirit. What is going on in his head, however, is very difficult to tell from the outside. Mentally, it can be extremely difficult to deal with this situation, when a person falls out of the top 100 through no fault of his own, but only he can decide what position he is satisfied with in the world rankings, what motivation he takes to the field, because if we only look at his skills, he can quickly fight back among the best. Márton is a really good guy, I really like his game
– said Wilander, who believes that Fucsovics will have to climb back step by step in the world rankings in the future, and he even sees a chance to go further than the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament.
We also asked the legendary Swedish tennis player whether, in his opinion, we will ever see one of the biggest fans’ favorites, Roger Federer, on the tennis court again, and if so, what might be the result he can achieve before the end of his career.
Roger Federer’s true greatness can be measured in the fact that he was able to dominate the field with amazing dominance after his first Grand Slam victory. The dominance he showed against Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Szafin, Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero – who were all excellent players – made him truly great. Another factor that made Federer a legend was his quality of not being afraid of opportunity and handling pressure in his place. The best example of this is when, at Roland Garros in 2009, Rafael Nadal lost to Robin Söderling to a huge surprise. In my opinion, Federer will most certainly not return to the court until he feels that he can compete with the top players. I am convinced that he will come back in some form, I would be very happy if we could see him at Wimbledon one more time, but it will certainly not happen until he feels physically at 100 percent.
Regarding the Swiss legend, Wilander brought up the return of Serena Williams this year. He expects something similar from Federer, who returns to the court by saying: the goal for me is not the final victory, but just to enjoy the game and focus on the current match. In his opinion
Federer will not return to the court with specific goals, he just wants to enjoy the game.
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We also looked at the contenders for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, who the Eurosport expert thinks is the favorite for the final victory. He said: we definitely have to count on the final favourites Nick Kyrgiossal, who can surprise you at any time.
In the first week, one of the most interesting for me was Rafael Nadal’s game. This is what I will be most curious about in the second week, as Novak Djokovic has already shown what an overwhelming playing power he represents, but Nadal has not shown this so far, except against Lorenzo Sonego, against whom he played with amazing dominance. It seems that he performs above his strength in every match, he really wants to win, but on a grass court, where the conditions change every five minutes, it is very difficult to play tennis without mistakes, I will be very curious about his performance. Of course, we can’t leave Nick Kyrgios without a word either, who is finally performing up to his abilities and is once again playing tennis that can beat anyone in the field. You can even march to the semi-finals or finals with this game, and if you’re already in a Wimbledon final, why not win it? I’ll be curious to see which Kyrgios we’ll see in the next few days
– concluded Wilander, who added that in the last six or seven years, he had not seen such a dominant game from the Australian players as at this year’s Wimbledon tournament.
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The 2022 Wimbledon Open Tennis Championship lasts until Sunday, and Hungarian viewers can watch the matches exclusively on Eurosport 2 and Eurosport Player.
(Cover image: Getty Images)
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