Tennis has undergone a landscape change following the retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams, with Rafael Nadal set to be the next huge name to leave the scene.<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic has also found himself under increasing threat from a new generation of superstars following Grand Slam victories for Carlos Alcaraz and, most recently, Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n
Asked whether it\u2019s healthier for tennis to boast one or two generational talents or an increasingly wide-open field at the summit, Henman said: \u201cIt\u2019s a really good question because at the end of the day, I think you\u2019ll find we\u2019re never satisfied.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you had the dominance of Federer and Nadal and Djokovic, people would say. \u2018Oh, it\u2019s too predictable, we need other players to have a chance.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Tim](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/02\/Tim-Henman5-6b4e743.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C722\" "\\"Tim")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\u201cAnd then with the women\u2019s game, going back three or four years ago, people would say, \u2018Oh, it lacks identity, there\u2019s 25 women that could win Slams.\u2019 We had people coming from the outside like Sofia Kenin in Australia and it was very difficult to predict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is always important within the sport is that we have rivalries. We\u2019ve been blessed with those for generations. I\u2019d like to see some of these rivalries build, whether that\u2019s with Djokovic and Alcaraz, Djokovic and Sinner, Sinner and Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr whether that\u2019s Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka, Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Gauff, whoever it may be. I do think the game is in good shape right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the increasingly competitive nature of Grand Slam tennis over the last couple of years, Henman still believes there\u2019s one outright man to beat. He said: \u201cI still think Djokovic is the player to beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy his own admission, he probably played one of his worst Grand Slam matches in the last 10 years in the Australian Open semis against Sinner. But, you know, he won three of the four slams last year, he won the tour-ending championships.<\/p>
\u201cThere\u2019s similarities between the men\u2019s and the women\u2019s game right now. I\u2019d say on the men\u2019s side, Djokovic, Alcaraz, Sinner and [Daniil] Medvedev have slightly separated themselves. Medvedev has been in six Slam finals and he\u2019s only won one but his effort in Australia was was phenomenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the women\u2019s side, you\u2019ve got Swiatek, Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while new talents are emerging to challenge in both the ATP and WTA Tours, and while new rivalries are blossoming, the format of the sport remains largely unaltered despite the emergence of shorter formats in other sports such as The Hundred in cricket and the Shoot Out in snooker.<\/p>\n
Henman has adopted an \u201cif it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t try to fix it\u201d approach to the major tournaments on the tennis calendar, but is prepared to experiment with fresh formats in future, whatever that may look like.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe should always be prepared to experiment. However, we need to experiment in the right forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where something like the Next Gen has been a great opportunity to try different things. However, you know, at the top of the sport, certainly led by the Grand Slams, if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Masters 1000 tournaments, I think they are great products. I would be very reluctant to have to fiddle around with those but there\u2019s been some great additions in different sports and there can be in tennis for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sky Sports Tennis \u2013 the new home for tennis fans \u2013 launched on 11th February on Sky and NOW.<\/strong><\/p>\n [squirrel-affiliate-playlist squirrel_playlist_id=\u201d610\u2033 \/]<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch, check out our TV Guide<\/a> or\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/b><\/a>, or visit our Sport<\/a> hub for all the latest news.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013 subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/b><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Tim Henman speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the future of tennis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":46154,"template":"","categories":[1,7,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/02\/tim-henman-on-brewing-rivalries-the-post-goat-era-and-experimental-tennis-formats.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Tim Henman speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the future of tennis.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/46153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"