[VIDEO] Stefan Edberg inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame

[mauroed79]

During a Centre Court ceremony at the Rexall Centre yesterday night, Stefan Edberg was officially elected into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame.
In his speech he praised the organization of the tournament, explained how important tennis was and still is in his life and thanked the fans for supporting him throughout his career.

Roger Federer also congratulated Stefan with a video message that was broadcasted on the giant screen, regretting he wasn't able to reach his idol's level of serve & volley style.

In other video messages, Thomas Johansson explained what Stefan meant for Swedish tennis, along with Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander, while Daniel Nestor recalled the legendary Davis Cup tie of 1992, in which he, as an unknown 19 year old guy, managed to defeat Edberg, back then world number one.

Unseen on the internet so far, here's the entire video of the ceremony, with Stefan's speech and no commentary but the original audio.

Watch the video»

 

[Mainad]

The commentator got the dates of Edberg's 2 singles finals wrong. He said they were in 1985 and 1986. Actually, they were in 1986 (lost to Becker) and 1987 (lost to Lendl).

Edberg never won a singles title at the Rogers Cup but he did win the doubles title with Pat Cash in 1987 (has he been inducted?) and was a runner-up with fellow countryman Anders Jarryd in 1985 (lost to Flach and Seguso).

 

[California]

Thanks for posting. Great player and classy guy.

 

[Irish Lass]

Does anybody have a list of who is in Rogers Hall of Fame? Can't find one.

 

[mauroed79]

Does anybody have a list of who is in Rogers Hall of Fame? Can't find one.

I forwarded your question to the media office of the Rogers Cup, saying it was in fact very strange that there's not a list of the Hall of Famers available on their website. They replied very quickly (the media office is really efficient) with a list of the inductees, promising they will work on a website section dedicated to the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame.

Here's the list of members:

2014 Stefan Edberg, Don Goodwin, Arantxa Sanchez
2013 Stephane Bonneau, Billie Jean King, Simon Larose, Sebastien Leblanc, Frederic Niemeyer, Pete Sampras, Derek Strang
2012 Jim Courier, Martina Hingis, Lorne Main
2011 Andre Agassi, Stacey Allaster, Jimmy Connors
2010 Grant Connell, Chris Evert, Glenn Michibata
2009 John Beddington, Pierre Lamarche, Eugene Lapierre, Maurice Leclerc, Richard Legendre, Monica Seles
2008 Boris Becker
2007 Carling Bassett-Seguso, Sebastien Lareau, John McEnroe
2006 Robert Bedard, Roy Emerson, Ivan Lendl, Martina Navratilova