Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic can expect an automatic nomination to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame within five years of retiring from the support, according to CEO Todd Martin.
Voting is set to close on Monday for the ‘Class of 2020’ which features Conchita Martinez, Sergi Bruguera, Jonas Bjorkman and Goran Ivanisevic.
Fans are able to vote on which candidates they feel are deserving of induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the players will be entered at a ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island which is home to numerous artifacts and memorabilia spanning over 140 years.
In 2018, the criteria for entry into the Hall of Fame was modified to introduce the addition of automatic ballot inclusion for players ‘who have attained extraordinary levels of achievement’.
Those players will have won three major singles titles and have been world No 1 for a minimum of 13 weeks or have won five major singles titles and for doubles have 12 major doubles titles and have been world No 1 for a minimum of 52 weeks or have won 15 major doubles titles.
Federer, Nadal, Williams and Djokovic all comfortably meet the demands with a combined 78 Grand Slam titles in their illustrious careers.
And speaking in an interview with Express Sport, Martin opened about Hall of Fame policies.
“The way that our policies and procedures are written, we have gone out of our way to make sure there is no committee that thinks strategically about when to induct somebody,” he said.
“Somebody like Roger will be on the first ballot he is able to be on and if he doesn’t get voted in, there’s some kind of controversy out there that we don’t know of.
“So theoretically, if Serena, Venus [Williams], Roger, Rafa and Novak and Maria [Sharapova] all retired on the same day, they would all be inducted in the same year.”
2019 saw Mary Pierce, Li Na and Yevgeny Kafelnikov inducted and Martin is enthused about the candidates for next year.
He said: “Martinez is in my eyes one of the most consistently great players in the women’s game.
“She won Wimbledon, she’s won some slams in the doubles but the biggest thing for me, and she was number two in the world, is the fact that she was there for 15 years straight. It is one thing to have a handful of good years, it is another thing to sustain that level for so long.
“Five Fed Cup titles that she was part of, I find her resume to be, although missing of slam after slam, there are few people that have sustained a level of excellence for that long.
“Jonas Bjorkman, probably the most unique candidate on the ballot because largely his candidacy is based on his doubles results. Winning several slams with different partners all the time but he also had a great singles career.
“He was as high as No 4 in the world in singles, made it to the semi-finals at the US Open.
“Sergi Bruguera – Two time French Open champion. Unbelievable player. Changed the game in some ways because he introduced a level of spin that I don’t think many of us had ever dreamed of. And he probably paved the way for the Nadals and Ferrers of this world.
“Goran Ivanisevic – Finally won Wimbledon as a wildcard entrant. As charismatic a guy as we had on the tour back then.
“And I think energised Croatia and is probably responsible for a lot of their success in the sport since with Ivan Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic, Borna Coric and Marin Cilic.”
Tennis fans can vote for their favourite International Tennis Hall of Fame class of 2020 nominee Jonas Bjorkman, Sergi Bruguera, Goran Ivanisevic and Conchita Martínez at vote.tennisfame.com now through September 29.
