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German great Becker crowns Nadal new king of courts

category: Tennis

22.07.2008 01:00

Boris Becker says the newest king of tennis was crowned at Wimbledon as Rafael Nadal ended the glory run of Roger Federer.

Germany's own tennis icon said that after watching the pair play possibly the greatest Wimbledon final ever a fortnight ago, he thinks the guard at the top has been changed - even if the rankings continue to show Federer as number one.

"Obviously in the world rankings, there is still a number one called Federer," said the 40-year-old Becker on Monday prior to his induction into a local Canadian Hall of fame at the Toronto Masters.

"But if you talk to anybody in the world of tennis, the number one is the winner of French Open and Wimbledon.

"I think there's a change in position at the moment," he said of his opinion that Nadal must now be considered the best player in the world ahead of the Swiss.

"The winner is known now so you have to give credit."

Becker said that Nadal's fast rise is due to his own improvement, not a fall in Federer's lethal form.

"Nadal has just improved to a level that nobody expected him to play," Becker said. "We all knew that he's great on clay, but nobody expected him to play that well on grass."

And Becker thinks it bodes well this summer on hardcourts for the Spaniard.

"Even now on the hard courts, he's going to have big improvements. It's because of the serve. He has a much better serve and much better positioning on the court on a hard surface. That's the reason why he's at the position right now."

Becker said that Federer "is playing as good as always. He didn't drop a set at Wimbledon into the finals.

"You cannot really blame him for playing badly," Becker said. "You can only give credit of Nadal really raising his game to another level and winning."

Original text is here

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