Former world No. 1 and six-time Grand Slam champion Boris Becker fired back at former Barcelona star Gerard Pique’s comments on the tennis format. The German legend took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to Piqué’s suggestion that the sport should shorten match times with fewer serves and other modifications.
“A very good footballer shouldn’t be discussing the future of tennis. With all respect, @3gerardpique,” he wrote on his profile. Pique shared his vision in a conversation with his former Spain teammate Iker Casillas.
“Why do you get two serves in tennis? That’s 30 more seconds of someone bouncing the ball. People don’t want to see that, they want to see the point. They also don’t want to watch a five-minute game with deuce-advantage-deuce-advantage. There should be a golden point at 40-40,” he said while appearing on Bajo Los Palos.
Pique, who famously helped revamp the Davis Cup, explained that his experience with the International Tennis Federation led him to create the King’s Cup, as he learned that changing established rules in a sport is not easy.
“We tried to change certain things, and there was no way. The International Tennis Federation doesn’t want to change anything,” he said. “After that experience with the Davis Cup, what do you say? Well, I will create my own competition. I will set the rules that I want and what I think is going to work,” he explained.
Pique’s experience with the Davis Cup was short-lived
The 2010 World Cup champion, through his company Kosmos, worked with the ITF in 2019 to introduce a new Davis Cup format, in which the finals were played in a single location, eliminating home-and-away ties except for the qualifying rounds.
The new format wasn’t well received by fans, players, or experts, including Lleyton Hewitt, who has been Australia’s captain since 2016. By the 2023 edition, Kosmos had stepped away from organizing the Davis Cup, and last year, the ITF announced another format change, reinstating more home-and-away matches ahead of the finals.
