Is Italy the new Sweden in men’s Tennis !

[Crocodile]

Is there anybody here on this forum from Sweden or knows about the Swedish Tennis situation? What Im referring to is the amazing period Sweden had in the 80’s and the subsequent decline there after. Right now I would have to say that Italy is right up there with 8 men in the top 100. Maybe some of you can comment about Italy’s success as well right now.
People sometimes suggest that these things are cyclical, but there must be a reason why Italy is doing well and Sweden not so well.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Fotboll (soccer) and ice hockey are the most popular sports in the Sweden. Other than fotboll, Sweden's climate is more conducive to winter sports than warm weather sports

However, Racketlon is fairly popular in Sweden (after Finland) -- since the late 1980s or early '90s. Racketlon is a combo sport where players compete in table tennis, badminton, squash & tennis. Most Racketlon matches are played indoors -- except sometimes the tennis matches are played outdoors if weather permits

 

[Crocodile]

Borg, Wilander, Edberg, Nystrom, Pernfors , Yarryd, Bjorkman, Carlson, Enqvist, Johansson, Norman, Bergelin, Soderling, Davidson, pretty extensive list over the decades but highlighted in the 80’s, yet right now it’s a bit bleak. The Swedish fans used to gather in droves at the grand slam events and quite a few Davis Cup finals appearances.
Now it looks as if Italy is doing well.

 

[stringertom]

The Italian federation has had their ducks in a row for the last decade or more. Their president Angelo Binaghi took office in 2008 and has proved to be an organizational genius, building their player development program from grass roots, organizing more tournaments per capita than any other country and making sure they grow their audience along with the players and tournaments. For example, instead of the mess America has on who broadcasts what, Italy has SuperTennis broadcasting the largest chunk of the ATP/WTA schedules, dovetailing with Sky Italia coverage for slams.

Athletic children become aware the sport is a viable career path from a young age. It quickly becomes apparent they don’t have to hit the futbol pitch to make it big. This first crop beginning with Berrettini and Sonego were pre-teen when Binaghi took over, when Futures and Challengers weren’t every week events and before both NextGen and ATP Finals moved to Milan and Turin. Sinner, Musetti and a few more slightly younger players are in the pipeline to insure some continuity.

The other factors that give Italy a leg up on what Sweden had and what Canada has happening now are climate and location. Outdoor tennis is a reality there for a much larger fraction of the year and there are many other countries a short commute away so the kids can mix with their contemporary players in France, Austria, Switzerland, even Bavarian Germany for tournaments held within hours of the more heavily populated area of the country from Rome northwards.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Borg, Wilander, Edberg, Nystrom, Pernfors , Yarryd, Bjorkman, Carlson, Enqvist, Johansson, Norman, Bergelin, Soderling, Davidson, pretty extensive list over the decades but highlighted in the 80’s, yet right now it’s a bit bleak. The Swedish fans used to gather in droves at the grand slam events and quite a few Davis Cup finals appearances.
Now it looks as if Italy is doing well.

Some of those Swedes got into Racketlon after they retired from the tennis pro tour. Below is an image of Björn Borg playing table tennis against Sharif Khan (squash player) in an event in the late 1970s that was a forerunner to Racketlon. For this particularly event, every competitor competed in all sports except their primary sport. That is Borg competed in all events except for tennis; Khan competed in everything except for squash. Khan ended being the overall winner in this multi-sport "racket" event

 

[Crocodile]

Has anyone here played any tournaments in Italy or taken a group of players there to compete before things got bad with the bug?

 

[Rosstour]

They are the new Spain

 

[Dan Lobb]

They are the new Spain

Canada and Spain contested the ATP Cup final, they both look good.