Bernie Ecclestone has revealed how close he came to changing forever the international game of tennis. Sportsvibe reports that the F1 chief executive led a consortium including legend Boris Becker and former player turned businessman Ion Tiriac that wanted to take over the game a decade ago. Ecclestone, who said the trio came "very close" to running tennis, said the International Tennis Federation ultimately asked for "too much money".
"I argued that the sport needed to be better geared towards television," he said. "We would have introduced one serve only per point and also a timed cut-off point to a match so that everyone knew, especially the TV companies, how long a match would last. Another idea we had was to segment the match into two or three, timed parts of, say, 20 minutes each. I admit it was radical but the sport needed to do something, although it has improved a little since our talks," he added. (GMM)
Bernie Ecclestone almost took over tennis - report
- Published on 28 Mar 2013 16:12
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- By: Rob Veenstra
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Formula 1 Calendar - 2026
Date
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Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
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Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
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Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
6 - Mar 8
Australia
Albert Park
13 - Mar 15
27 - Mar 29
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
10 - Apr 12
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
17 - Apr 19
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
1 - May 3
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
22 - May 24
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
5 - Jun 7
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Monte Carlo
12 - Jun 14
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Circuit de Catalunya
26 - Jun 28
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Red Bull Ring
3 - Jul 5
United Kingdom
Silverstone
17 - Jul 19
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
24 - Jul 26
Hungary
Hungaroring
21 - Aug 23
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
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