12-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic has supported the decision to place matches involving members of the Next Generation on the premier courts at grand slams.
The former world No.1 made the remarks following criticism by Fabio Fognini. During the French Open, the Italian described the Next Gen campaign as ‘B***S***.” Criticising the tournament for placing their matches on the bigger courts. The initiative aims to support and promote players under the age of 21 who are currently ranked in the world’s top 200. Last year Milan hosted the inaugural Next Gen Finals where Hyeon Chung won his first ATP title.
“The ATP does many good things, but I don’t agree with this one, I don’t understand this NextGen thing. I don’t agree to all this attention given to these young players.” Fognini said.
Questioned about Fognini’s comments following his second round win at Wimbledon, Djokovic took a more diplomatic approach to the debate. Saying that he doesn’t have an issue with how Wimbledon are managing their schedule. On Thursday the Serbian was relegated to Court Two for only the second time since 2009. Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev’s match with Taylor Fritz was played on Court 1.
“Fabio is my generation, born ’87. Obviously it’s hard for him to deal with the fact that he’s not young any more.” Djokovic joked.
“Maybe we should make our own PresentGen, CurrentGen, or OldGen tour.”
Continuing to speak about his younger rivals, Djokovic says their time on the show courts have been rightfully earned. There are currently 10 players under the age of 21 in the top 100 on the ATP Tour. Zverev and Borna Coric are the only two in the top 20.
“I don’t see it as necessarily a bad decision from the ATP to kind of promote the young players.” He said.
“At the end of the day,we don’t have new faces on the tour. It’s been the dominance of the four guys. You want to see new players.
“Everybody was saying that the time is going to come, so it came. Now we have Zverev, Coric, Thiem that has been around, a couple other players. They deserve the attention.”
Djokovic will play Kyle Edmund, who is a former member of the Next Gen, in the third round at Wimbledon on Saturday.
