Andy Murray believes it is ‘impossible to say’ whether the current generation of top players would beat the legends of years gone by. The topic has been hotly debated in recent weeks, with Boris Becker and Nick Kyrgios becoming embroiled in an online war of words at the end of last year.
Kyrgios told The Athletic that players like Becker would not be able to cut it in today’s game because tennis has evolved so much since the 56-year-old’s heyday. Becker went on to hit back via social media, insisting that Kyrgios lacked the ‘credibility’ to speak about him because the Aussie has never won a Grand Slam title.
Murray was asked for his thoughts after beating Denis Shapovalov in Dubai but stopped short of taking sides, saying: “We actually have been having a few discussions with my team about that, some of the players here the last few days, wondering if some of the players from 20, 25 years ago, if they were playing today with the equipment they had, where they would be ranking-wise and stuff.
“It’s obviously impossible to say, we’ll never know, but the game has obviously changed. A lot of the players from 25, 30 years ago were obviously playing serve and volley, a lot up at the net. There was almost like quite clear game styles, almost, players that liked particular surfaces.
“You had players that loved playing indoors and on grass, on the faster courts, then you had players who were clay court specialists. Whereas now, because the surfaces have become more similar, you maybe don’t have that as much. A lot of the game styles have become kind of similar.”
Murray went on to suggest that although the top players of today are largely better from the baseline, those in previous eras were stronger from the net due to the quicker courts they had to play on.
“I don’t necessarily agree that players are all around better players, but the majority of tennis is played from the baseline and from the back of the court,” added Murray.
“I believe that now, because of the balls and the equipment and everything and the strings, the players are so good from the back of the court. I think that’s improved. The moving, I mean, some of the guys at the top of the game, the way they move now is unbelievable.
“I don’t think players now play as well up at the net as they used to. I think that’s how the game has evolved. I don’t think because of the surfaces and how close they are, it’s easy to be successful playing up at the net, so there’s less of a need for players to be strong at the net, whereas 25, 30 years ago you had extremely quick courts.
“Strings were not as forgiving as the ones today and you had to play up at the net more. That’s what players practiced. They were better at the net than the players now. It would be interesting to see someone like Becker playing against some of the top players in the world, to see what would happen because I don’t know. I don’t know for sure.”
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