Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has been enjoying a vacation in the United Kingdom after his commentating stint in the recently concluded T20 World Cup. In his visit to the UK, the legendary cricketer was present at the Wimbledon and BritishGP. He bumped into tennis legend Maria Sharapova, as he posted a photo with her on social media, praising her talent on the court and also called her a fashion icon. The photo went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, and fetched over 12k likes within a couple of hours.
“Great to bump into the gorgeous @MariaSharapova. Did wonders for the game of Tennis for the sheer Quality and Style she brought to the court. A Fashion Icon,” Shastri wrote on X.
Meanwhile, he also shared a special moment with tennis great Rod Laver at Silverstone during theBritish GP.
“The Chance meeting with The Rocket at Silverstone. Arguably the greatest in the Game of Tennis. Humility personified. @rodlaver,” he posted on X.
Shastri also shared his experience of witnessing some high-quality tennis from close quarters as he feels that Wimbledon exudes class, while the crowd is also completely different to other sports like football or cricket.
” Fantastic, I mean it just oozes class, I’ve been coming here for more than 30 years now, on a pretty regular basis whenever I’m in England in the summer, it’s been fabulous, there’s just something about this tradition, there’s history, it exudes class, like I mentioned, this quality, the vibes are different, the crowds are different, it’s a lot softer than football or cricketing crowds but it’s quality,” he told Star Sports.
Shastri also talked about the Indian players participating in Wimbledon and shared an anecdote about when he first watched Wimbledon in 1982.
“Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi did it for years, Vijay Amritraj did it before that, in fact, the first time I ever came into the Wimbledon was in 1982, when Connors won it and Vijay brought us in and he took us into the dressing room, he took Sunny and me into the locker room, as they say, not the dressing room and met Jimmy Connors at that time and I’ve been coming ever since,” he added.