During an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, Pat Cash spoke about countryman Nick Kyrgios, the tradition of wearing only with outfits at Wimbledon, who is the best player in tennis history and the personalities on the tour.
World Number One no, But he can win a Grand Slam
Cash said about Kyrgios that for the moment he can´t aim for reach the top of the ranking due the ups and downs that he has in and out of the courts.
“To be No. 1 you have to be consistent every week, like Novak Djokovic. Nick is an emotional kid and he has ups and downs, and that makes it difficult to be World No. 1”, said the former Aussie player as he added “I think Nick can win a Grand Slam. If I was his coach, I would like to realize this goal.”
Last season Kyrgios reached the Estoril Open final (lost to Richard Gasquet) and made at least the third round in every Grand Slam event (Quarter-finals in the Australian Open, third round in Roland Garros, fourth round both at The Championships and US Open) in 2015 as he reached his best ranking in June (25) and end the year as 30.
Against the tradition in Wimbledon
The former world number four said that the tradition of only wearing white outfits at The Championships is playing against the tournament itself as there is no attractiveness to the new generations.
“For Wimbledon it's not positive to keep going with the white. And old mentality does not help tennis that like all the other sports need publicity, have new colors, otherwise the children choose basketball or football. It´s wrong wearing always white. I understand that sponsors can have a certain influence, but there is not personality anymore, it seems that we watch a cricket match and not a tennis one.”
Who is the best player ever?
When Cash was asked about who he considers as the best tennis player ever, the Aussie pointed out that every era has his best player so he can´t choose only one.
“It's complicated to choose it, every Era has his player. You gave to focus on tennis history to find it. It´s really impossible to choose a name, but if I had to choose ten, I would say: Nadal, Federer, McEnroe, Connors, Lendl, Laver, Rosewall, Hoad and Pancho Gonzales.”
Making an emphasis on the Eras in tennis history, Cash talked about the transition for be amateurs and professionals.
“Maybe I don´t know enough well the past, but I think the biggest change was the transition for being amateur to professional. In ’62 Laver realized the Calendar Grand Slam but he was not professional, instead of him the others were professionals.”
And finally he also gave his opinion on why Roger Federer can´t be named the Greatest Of All-Time.
“Now to everyone Federer is the best in the history and because of his style and technique, he will be among the best five of all the time. But to be the best you have to be much stronger than your opponent and it was not always the case for Roger against Nadal. For example, Rafa never impressed on grass and never won ATP Finals that are played on indoor hard courts.”
Cash in favor of the bad boys of the tour
Finally Cash spoke about what he calls lack of personality in the tour. “In tennis sometimes personality lacks. In Wimbledon we are losing it a little bit.”
“The bad boys and interesting people like Becker, McEnroe and Connors attracted the public. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray have personality like the girls as well, even if they play tennis the same way. Every tournament is similar and it´s beautiful if we see different personalities.”