I am writing from my head and not using wikipedia, so maybe I forgot someone.

Borg, Edberg, Nystroem, Enqvist, Norman, T. Johansson, J. Johansson, Bjorkman, Soderling, even Vinciguerra (someone remembers him ?)

Sweden has always been a powerhouse, what has happened that they only have Ymer brothers right now (who are not soo good btw) ?

 

Yes you forgot someone and that is MATS WILANDER!

 

The Gen Ys in Andreas Vinciguerra, Joachim Johannson and Robin Soderling were born in the first half of the 80s and would be too young to remember Bjorn Borg before retirement. The long careers of some of those Gen Xers deep into the 2000s papered over the cracks for a while, but once Soderling went into indefinite absence it was unmistakable wasn't it.

Maybe there were competing sports, a downturn in the economy, less emphasis on Davis Cup, less emphasis on being a sporting nation (e.g. see Finland now), idk. Maybe the Swedish women was their true level, and the men were just overperforming for a while or given undue priority?

I suspect it is the lack of a big tournament. Stockholm was downgraded from Super 9 status in 1995, and for a while there it was a decent late season tournament but has faded in relevance this century. The only other that comes to mind is Bastad on clay. They probably needed a Masters level tournament to glue some generational presence. A tournament where you can guarantee most of the top 10 will come to play to give that legitimate feel.

 

There's already a thread about this. Wait a sec...

Here, three of them:

What's wrong with Swedish tennis? | Mens Tennis Forums (2014; 54 posts)
What happened to Swedish tennis? | Mens Tennis Forums (2019; 11 posts)
Why is ex Tennis Super Power Sweden now a dead duck? | Mens Tennis Forums (2021; 61 posts)

 

There's already a thread about this. Wait a sec...

Here, three of them:

What's wrong with Swedish tennis? | Mens Tennis Forums (2014)
What happened to Swedish tennis? | Mens Tennis Forums (2019)
Why is ex Tennis Super Power Sweden now a dead duck? | Mens Tennis Forums (2021)

Ok, apologies. Obviously it's a transgression to exceed in a decade 10% of the number of threads started today about Djokovic's visa.

 

The only time since 2001 that they made the Davis Cup SFs appears to be 2007, and Thomas Johansson and Jonas Bjorkman were still in the team then.

 

Surprising to me they last won Davis cup in 1998 and not much success in the 2000s.

During that decade the could call on Norman, Enqvist, Thomas Johansson who were all slam finalist of course in that period and Bjorkman was also a solid player in singles and world class in doubles so really strength in depth in that period.

Then Soderling and Joachim Johansson emerged in the mid 2000s so didn't seem an issue in those times.

Interested how many other countries in that time had three different players making the final of a slam in 2-3 year period aside from obvious ones in US and Australia.

 

Off topic: one could also ask, "what happened to Hungarian football?" They were the masters of the game in the 50s and then came that very long silence.

Seems like Sweden have their own silent phase to deal with.

 

Off topic: one could also ask, "what happened to Hungarian football?" They were the masters of the game in the 50s and then came that very long silence.

Seems like Sweden have their own silent phase to deal with.

As a Hungarian, I can deeply agree. The same thing happened to Hungarian football. The last time we took part at the world cup is 1986. Our last world cup goal was scored by Lajos Détári, popularly called as "the last Hungarian world class footballer", who will be 60 this year. Same story as with Swedish tennis. The once-upon-a-time greatness.

 

At least Norway has Casper Ruud now from completely nowhere (other than his dad, who was a player).

 

It's discussed here... Sweden Mystery: Where have the tennis vikings gone? · Tennis-Prose.com

 

Anyone remember Kent Carlsson?

A lot of solid players from Sweden not mentioned:

• Jarryd
• Sundstrom
• Svensson
• Gustafsson
• Pernfors

 

We must not forget that Sweden was the first team outside the big four to actually win a Davis cup final. South Africa won the cup in 1974 but the final was not played as India boycotted them due to apartheid.

 

All the young Swedish boys decided they wanted to be hockey players instead. After Swedes were permitted to enter the NHL, the numbers of those taking up tennis started to drop off.
Interestingly, many of the Swedish hockey pros seem to play a lot of tennis in the off season. I'd bet some of them are really good at it, too.

 

I think I have commented on that particular suggestion in some previous thread, but it was a few years ago, so the argument can be made once more. Yes, Sweden (like Canada) is a hockey nation, but that has been the case for a long time, it was true even at the height of Sweden's succes in tennis. What has changed during the last decades is that floorball (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorball) has become popular, and it has absorbed a lot of talent. If I would point at one sport responsible for the decline in Swedish tennis, it would certainly be floorball. While it is a fun game to play, I'm not so much a fan of viewing the game, since it is far from a big sport globally. It is quite telling that Finland and Sweden has won every major tournament since the very beginning.

 

Sweden is a country of 10 million. The more pertinent question is maybe how they used to be so good.

 

I think simply:

Spawned a good number of top players, an effect that lasted for several decades. Also numerous Davis Cup wins to go along with the individual success of Borg and some of the stars after him.

 

I know that very few casual tennis watchers in the UK have heard of Wilander because he never did anything at Wimbledon. I'm not sure how much of an effect that would have globally though.

 

I would agree with many arguments that have been made, in particular, that one cannot take for granted that Sweden with a population of around 10 millions should have players at the top. Still, there is a rather important factor that may not be known to so many outside Sweden, so I will repeat myself from a previous thread on the same topic.

The sport of floorball (Floorball - Wikipedia) has grown very popular in Sweden in the last decades, and I think it absorbs a lot of talent. This is the main difference over time since all other popular sports were popular already 50 years ago. In my mind, although floorball is fun to play, this state of affairs is a pity because there are enough team sports anyway. The world doesn't need another one, and up to now, floorball is only taken seriously in Finland and Sweden.

 

I would agree with many arguments that have been made, in particular, that one cannot take for granted that Sweden with a population of around 10 millions should have players at the top. Still, there is a rather important factor that may not be known to so many outside Sweden, so I will repeat myself from a previous thread on the same topic.

The sport of floorball (Floorball - Wikipedia) has grown very popular in Sweden in the last decades, and I think it absorbs a lot of talent. This is the main difference over time since all other popular sports were popular already 50 years ago. In my mind, although floorball is fun to play, this state of affairs is a pity because there are enough team sports anyway. The world doesn't need another one, and up to now, floorball is only taken seriously in Finland and Sweden.

how about innebandy, another Swedish idiosyncrasy much like Taco Fridays (lol)

 

The anomaly in swedish tennis history is the explosive national tennis enthusiasm triggered by super star Björn Borg, which lead to having an exceptionally high number of top players in the 1980's and 1990's.

Then the tennis talent level faded back to average.

I don't think socio-economic factors are really pertinent. Tennis is very accessible in most of Europe. It's an elite sport mainly in the heads of people, in that kids consider it uncool compared to football, basketball, etc. A sudden emergence of a tennis teenage idol can change that.

 

Same happening in another former European tennis powerhouse - Czech Republic.

 

Interestingly the women's side is still flourishing. Wonder what's behind this difference. Similar to US (although US men's tennis is on the rise currently.

 

swedes became soft, too much democracy made them wimps.

 

Remarkable how Sweden is historically zilch when it comes to woman tennis players.

 

Indeed. I suppose you need role models. Borg set the ball running for Swedish males, and then his successors set it running for a generation even after that, but then it dried up. Nobody set it running for the females.

It's the same thing in table tennis, Swedes have done phenomenally well on the Men's side and basically nothing on the Female one.

 

Vinciguerra was one of my favs to watch. It’s too bad he retired so early

 

I remember Joachim Johansson was one of the last Swedes who were in top 10 and was unlucky to suffer shoulder injury sice he turned 23. He hit 51 aces against Agassi in 2005 Australian Open which was a new record that time. He could achieve some important titles if injury didn't stop him.

 

I just noticed that the current two top swedish players are Mikael Ymer (ATP 318) and Leo Borg (ATP 548).

There are only 8 swedish players in the Top 1000. By comparision, 92 French, 86 italian players.

Has swedish tennis ever been that bad in history?

 

Not in my personal history.

Borg was a big breakthrough, you’d have to check before him to see if it was similar then. I doubt it, though.

 

@Boogalo That's Elias Ymer, Mikael Ymer was suspended and retired, then changed his mind, then, don't know how that story ended. He's supposed to come back next year. (?)

Mikael Ymer changes his mind on return to tennis amid anti-doping ban: "Retirement was boring" | Tennis.com

It’s the latest twist in a convoluted saga for the Swede, who reached a career-high No. 50 last year before he received an 18-month suspension for missing three drug tests back in 2021.

www.tennis.com

Anyway, yeah, seems like no prospects coming up in the near future.

There's also another thread here that seems to have some more insights.

https://www.menstennisforums.com/threads/the-demise-of-swedish-tennis-is-the-saddest-story.1025158/

 

@Boogalo That's Elias Ymer, Mikael Ymer was suspended and retired, then changed his mind, then, don't know how that story ended. He's supposed to come back next year. (?)

Thanks, I mixed up their names. I'm aware about what happened to Mikael.

 

Also what happened to Swedish posters on this board?
Sporadically still posting... but not regularly.

 

Henrik and Bjura are solid posters who still show up from time to time. On the other hand we can do without orka-n who didn't add much to the forum. Cannot remember that many Swedish posters though.

Swedish tennis is only relevant through Magnus Norman coaching. This man should be in some academy bringing in some talented young players.

 

Ouch...I thought Swiss tennis is bad enough, then I look at Swedish...Not even a guy in top 200.

 

Sweden is a shit country the last 15 years.
Lilttle kids go into other sports not in tennis anymore there.
Minorities and muslims dont enjoy tennis and are not putting their kids in tennis ..and they are increasing every year.
?
?
?

 

#902·Aug 14, 2024

Slasher1985 said:
And how do you know players in the 60s didn't do the same?

Tennis was initially an upper class sport, certainly.

That said, I don't think players like Pancho Gonzales or Manolo Santana came from wealthy backgrounds.

Furthermore, to my knowledge, Björn’s father, Rune was a salesman at a men’s clothing store in Sodertalje, a suburb of Stockholm, was an accomplished amateur table-tennis player in the 1960s.
The first prize was a tennis racket and that's how his son hit his first racket by hitting the ball against the garage door.

It's pretty much the same thing for other ATGs from the 70s and 80s;
Connors' father worked at the St. Louis Toll Bridge, although his mother taught tennis.
Wilander's father working at the only factory of the village, and that it was here he started to play tennis after a parking lot was turned into a tennis court.

" "It was located close to the main railway line, so if you missed by far, which we did a lot, we had to run for 50 meters. Otherwise, the ball ended up on the railway and then it was gone. It was here I learned to play tennis."

And I'm not mentioning the top players from Eastern countries who should not ride on their fortune, like Nastase and Lendl... in industrial cities like Ostrava...

Only McEnroe came from a very wealthy background with his father an eminent member of a firm of New York lawyers.

#903·Aug 14, 2024

Regarding most of the Swedish players, they came from backgrounds that were not poor, but modest by Western standards of the time.

Whether it was Borg, Wilander, Edberg and the others like Nystrom, Jarryd etc, but Sweden benefited from an excellent detection system, with wizards like Percy Rosberg, then later, formed a team spirit of young people under the tutelage of mentor like “Jonte” Sjögren.

This is not a Swedish "miracle", it is the reward of an excellent detection system which did not allow any potential talent to be lost.

Regarding Wilander, @Henrik post this

https://www.menstennisforums.com/threads/mats-wilander-on-tennis-and-life.983542/