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1/26/09 10:22 AM | Johan Lindahl
Boris Becker has slammed German tennis after all 20 of the country's players crashed out during the opening week of the Australian Open.
The three-time Wimbledon winner who sparked the tennis boom in his homeland along with Steffi Graf two decades ago, told Bild am Sonntag: "Our tennis has probably never seen worse times. We are in a drought."
Tommy Haas, 31, was the last German to exit Melbourne as he lost to Rafael Nadal in the third round.
"There is no 19 or 20-year-old whom I have recently seen on Centre court at Wimbledon, the US Open or Australian Open," railed Becker, 41. "And there is no young German player who has managed to take a set of (Roger) Federer or Nadal.
"Where are the teenagers who do crazy things on the court?"
The six-time Grand Slam champion has blamed the nation federation for failing to develop the next generation - the same criticism also leveled at former tennis power Australia by 1987 Wimbledon winner Pat Cash.
"The times have changed but instead of solving problems there was careless action... I see no clear position of the DTB in the sporting and the political area. Other successful tennis nations like Spain or France show us how it is done," said Becker.
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