Nick Kyrgios has often spoken out on the fact that tennis officials must do more to market and promote players beyond the 'Big 3'.
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Controversial Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios divides opinion like few others in the sport. However, while his outspoken nature and on-court antics often frustrate many, one of his beliefs has received backing from a tennis legend.
Kyrgios has often spoken out on the fact that tennis officials must do more to market and promote players beyond the ‘Big 3’ i.e. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
And this is something that former Grand Slam winner John McEnroe agrees with. McEnroe, himself an outspoken and colourful person on-court, believes the sport needs more ‘personalities’.
“I’ve been talking about the need in tennis for personalities,” McEnroe told Eurosport. “You need to have a rooting interest in someone.
“Whether you think he’s the bad guy, some people think Djokovic is Darth Vader. Everyone loves Roger Federer.
“It’s not like it is in team sports where you can root for your city or your country. So this idea of expressing yourself and showing personality is very important.”
But McEnroe also admitted it would be hard not to focus on Federer, Nadal and Djokovic due to their massive achievements in the sport.
“It would be pretty hard on the other hand not to focus the last 10-15 years on those three guys. What they’ve done is beyond belief, out of this world.
“Winning 20 majors each. I used to think I had seven, that’s pretty good. Well it doesn’t look so good now.
“This is an amazing thing. We’re looking at these legends that are playing at the same time and doing things that are absolutely extraordinary. But at the same time I do think tennis needs to look around for other guys because the future is now.
“These guys aren’t going to be doing it forever and we desperately need to see that.”
McEnroe further added that he would like to see Nick Kyrgios be someone who gets more marketing and promotion from tennis’ higher-ups.
However, the American added that Kyrgios would need to show the effort needed to win Grand Slams. And McEnroe also named a current top star who he enjoys watching.
“I completely agree with Nick on that and I’m hopeful that he will be one of the guys that we will be able to focus on… if he can go out and consistently give the type of effort necessary to win majors.
“In the meantime, (Daniil) Medvedev, I love the way he is on the court, he’s a personality in a different way. He’s like a chess master. So there’s ways we can work on that and absolutely need to.”
