The influence of Sweden on men's professional tennis

Résumé du document

This paper will treat the different aspects that Swedes have brought to men's professional tennis over the last decades. I chose to speak about this because not only I am a big fan of this sport since I was a child, but also I believe that Swedish men's tennis has taken a huge part in the history of this sport. Suedes are also well-known for their performances in football, hockey and also the Olympic Games, but I wanted to focus on tennis, where we could see a lot of superstars since the astonishing rise of Bjorn Borg. I will start my paper with some explanations about tennis, rankings and tournaments, then I will show the impact of Sweden on this fancy sport. The point of my paper is trying to answer this question :
How did Swedes leave their mark on professional tennis and what will happen next ?

The ATP World Tour is the Association of Tennis Professionals. It was created by professional players back in 1972. Its equivalent for women is the WTA (Women's Tennis Association). The ATP supervizes most of the masculine tournaments.

Extraits

[...] Then comes Wimbledon just two weeks later, played on grass in London. Finally, the US Open comes in September ; it is played on hard courts bit faster courts than in the Aussie Open) in Flushing Meadows, New York. Wining one of the Grand Slams provides 2000 ATP points, but as I said before, they are not ATP members, just like the Davis Cup where nations play against eachother. ATP Masters 1000 There are ten Masters 1000 (previously called Super Nine, then Master Series) tournaments trhoughout the year, like for instance Madrid, Rome and Shanghai. [...]

[...] This is why you will not be able to see such great matches compared to bigger events ; I mean that top ten players don't necessarily need to play them and prefer to focus on big tournaments, or at least the ones they enjoy playing, just like in Federer's hometown Basel (this tournament is an ATP 500). Tournaments in Sweden There are two ATP 250 tournaments in Sweden. The first one is SkiStar Swedish Open, which takes place in Båstad. Last year, it was won by Sweden's former world number 4 Robin Soderling. The second one is If Stockholm Open, won last year by Frenchman Gael Monfils. Both these tournaments were often won by Swedish players such as Thomas Enqvist, Thomas Johansson and Mats Wilander. [...]

[...] Most epic matches The 1980 Wimbledon final was such a thriller. Bjorn Borg was facing John McEnroe and finally prevailed 8/6 in the fifth set. Borg was stymied on five match points in the 4th set tie-break before winning in in one of the most electrifying game in tennis history. The 2009 French Open quarterfinal may not be the most beautiful match ever, but probably one of the most surprising. Robin Soderling overcame Rafael Nadal, who lost his very first match in Roland Garros. [...]

[...] I don't mean to suggest that there is not potential anymore among Swedish tennis players, but none of them is good enough to beat the greatests, at the moment. With Robin Soderling out, there is no Swedish hopes anymore. But with such a great history, we can assume that someone will came out and win again. We have seen in this paper how big the impact of Sweden is in professional tennis. We all remember these great athletes who made us hold our breaths everytime they played in big events. [...]

[...] Sweden have had at least four players who reached the wolrd number one ranking, which is remarkable. Also, we must not forget the others who reached the top ten and left their mark in the history of the sport as well. Nevertheless, Sweden is now waiting for their next champion, as no Suede is ranked better than world number 50th today. Hopefully, we can still wait for it watching the trophee of Legends, starring Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander or Thomas Enqvist, who is doing pretty well these days ! [...]