Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has expressed his admiration for tennis icon Roger Federer, revealing that he would have loved to bat with the Swiss maestro due to his "cricket connection" and interest in the sport.
Tendulkar, a regular attendee at Wimbledon, met Federer during a visit to the centre court in London. "One tennis player I would love to bat with has to be Roger because also he's got cricketing connections," Tendulkar said on the sidelines of Wimbledon.
"His mother is from South Africa and he follows cricket and when we sat together and chatted we discussed a lot of cricket not just tennis so it has to be Roger."
The 51-year-old from Mumbai also shared his fondness for playing tennis with the late Australian spin great Shane Warne and former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, describing them as cricketers who would make the best doubles partners.
"There are two strong contenders unfortunately we lost Shane Warne a couple of years ago but I enjoyed playing tennis with Warne in fact we played together in London and the other guy is from Indian cricket team Yuvraj Singh who has also retired but Warne and Yuvraj would be the ones."
Meanwhile, former India coach and player Ravi Shastri believes the era of Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal is coming to an end, with Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz emerging as the future stars.
"The era of Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, you feel is coming to an end, or has come to an end, and it'll be Sinner and Alcaraz who will keep the flag flying," Shastri said on the sidelines of Wimbledon.
"As far as the competition goes they'll have some great battles in the future and we hope another couple come on the way."
Shastri also praised Alcaraz, who he believes has the potential to be a dominant force in the sport. "At the moment, Alcaraz, I saw that final last year, in that fifth set, he's, got some energy, some strength," Shastri said.
"When I saw him first, it reminded me of young Nadal, the way he whacked that ball, the power with which he hit it and he's like a bull in that fifth set, you take him to the fifth set, you better be fit, otherwise he'll clean you up."
Tags: #SachinTendulkar#RogerFederer#Wimbledon#Tennis#Cricket#ShaneWarne#YuvrajSingh#RaviShastri#JannikSinner#CarlosAlcaraz
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