Boris Becker strongly shut down Gerard Pique’s radical proposal to change tennis scoring by stating that football/soccer stars shouldn’t be the ones discussing the future of tennis.
Pique, a former Barcelona star who also owned the Davis Cup a couple of years ago after the ITF struck a deal with his investment group Kosmos, pretty much said that tennis needs to completely revamp their scoring and make it a lot faster.
When making his argument, the former Barcelona centre-back said that players should have only one serve and that AD scoring should be removed.
If that were to happen, the 38-year-old argued that tennis would instantly become more attractive and draw more fans.
“We tried to change certain things, but there’s no way. The ITF doesn’t want to change anything,” the former soccer star said during his conversation with Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas.
“Why do you serve twice in tennis? It’s 30 extra seconds of someone bouncing the ball. People don’t want to see that.
“They also don’t want to watch a game with deuce-advantage-deuce-advantage for five minutes. There should be a golden point at 40-40.
“Tennis needs to evolve to adapt to the current speed and attract those young people who are tempted to watch many other things like HBO or Netflix.”
Becker slams Pique’s take
“A very good footballer shouldn’t be discussing the future of tennis. With all respect,” the former six-time Grand Slam champion wrote in his response.
A very good footballer shouldn’t be discussing the future of tennis 🎾 ( with all respect @3gerardpique https://t.co/JmBaXfUw8N
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) February 28, 2025
Meanwhile, Pique and Kosmos’ infamous deal with the ITF ended in 2023.
When the deal was inked, it was supposed to be for the next 25 years.
Tennis World USA