Why wasn't federer able to influence swiss tennis as becker did in germany?

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dominikk1985

Legend
Fed is of course a big star in switzlerland but unlike becker he didn't really cause a tennis boom in his country.

when becker won wimbledon as a 17yo there was a huge boom of tennis. everyone was sending his kid to tennis and the number of tennis players more than doubled in a few years.

why didn't that happen in switzerland despite having a much better player than boris was in germany?
 
Germany is a sports powerhouse nation generally. Switzerland has great cows, not much sports potential (plus small country).

/thread
 
Germany had a tennis boom already in the mid 70s, way ahead of Becker. Private clubs became more open for the middle class and many public tennis courts and indoor facilities were built. Schools became more involved with tennis. Even some Tennis magazines, the older Tennis Revue and the new Tennis Magazine were established. Germany had a great infra- structure for tennis, especilly on the marketing sector. The big sporting companies like Adidas or Puma were waiting for the first real German tennis champion since von Cramm, and in the mid 80s, Boris and Steffi, both products of this early tennis boom and both from the same region, arrived on the scene. With this new stars the tv audiences shot into orbit (up to 20 million viewers for a Graf - Sabatini match at the Masters). People like Tiriac made a lot of money with tournaments and events. There were up to 6 or 7 big events per year in Germany. Its a pity, that German tennis has declined so much. Now we have not a single big event any more. Very bad politics by the German Federation contributed to the downfall.
 
Can anyone name a good young Spaniard following on from Nadal? Young people from every country saw Federer: No reason why the Swiss would follow any more than young people from other countries.
 
nadal and the other 14 or so top 100 atp spaniards followed from moya, etc... not to mention several non-spanish players.

actually, i'm not sure about nadal, is he a product of the spanish tennis federation? i know that federer came through the swiss federation.

RE: Soft Image...
This is ironic seeing as Federer is probably one of the most aggressive all court players currently on tour. he's no swiss pansy and has no problem being aggressive on court with his tennis... even dropped an f-bomb earlier this year against murray.
 
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forzamilan90 said:
Germany is a sports powerhouse nation generally. Switzerland has great cows, not much sports potential (plus small country).

/thread
Click to expand...

it is a small Country but small countries can get crazy about sports too. lithuania has only like 3 Million People but it is totally crazy about Basketball.

Jamaica is small and they are crazy about sprinting.

the People in switzerland just don't react to fed like jamaicans react to bolt, they are going totally crazy about him. the swiss of course admire fed but you won't see them going nuts about him and any kid wanting to become a Tennis Player.

Is it because the Country is quite rich are People there are more reserved anyway?
 
BTW: I'm not saying why switzerland is not producing other Players. you cannot expect such a small Country to produce a lot of Players.
I'm more talking about rec and youth Sport. it did gain some popularity in switzerland but it was not Close to being a boom like in Germany.

It is also true that Tennis was already a factor in the 70s in Germany but still the number of Players more than doubled during the 80s after beckers and grafs success.
 
forzamilan90 said:
Germany is a sports powerhouse nation generally. Switzerland has great cows, not much sports potential (plus small country).

/thread
Click to expand...

This is pretty much it. I have visited Switzerland, it's a lot about farming and quiet laidback lifestyle in main cities like Geneva. Great place to live if you want peace and quiet. From what I've heard about main German cities is partying and nightlife.

I think in general German people consist of more younger people and a more vibrant lifestyle.

I've visited Spain, Switzerland, France, the UK. My favorite in terms of scenery was Switzerland by a lot.
 
I'm not sure why Switzerland has not produced any great players after Federer, but it's a complicated question. A lot of things have to fall in place for a country to produce several good/great players soon right after a great player accomplishes a lot. On that note, Bjorn Borg must have had a big influence in Sweden. After Borg there was a great group of Swedish players that followed in his footsteps including Wilander, Edberg, Nystrom and Jarryd. Both Nystrom and Jarryd broke into the top 10, while Wilander and Edberg both reached #1. Wilander won the French Open in 1982 just a few months before turning 18. Borg won the FO in 1981, but did not play the 1982 French Open. Borg did practice with Wilander quite a bit in the lead up to the '82 French Open. It was strange seeing Bjorn Borg absent from the '82 FO and then seeing this young guy come out of nowhere to take the title!

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That Switzerland has no sports potential, is a bad joke. The Swiss have produced a lot of famous ski runners, both men and women, ski jumpers, bob drivers, climbers, a lot of good footballers, track and field athletes and so on.
 
Becker was a Davis Cup legend. In 1988 and 1989, he almost single handedly took West Germany to 2 Davis Cups, the 2 finals against Sweden when Becker was at his absolute peak and the famous tie against the USA in 1989 when Becker beat Agassi in 5 sets. Federer has a very good Davis Cup record, but has never won one and doesn't seem to have the same affection for the tournament that Becker did for so many years.
 
Becker's explosion onto the tennis scene was a sudden one as soon as he kicked Kevin Curran's ass (who upset J. Mac & Connors during the fortnight) to win Wimbledon as a 17 year old. And while Federer ascended the ranks quickly, he was a somewhat 'known' commodity. I recall a 19 year old Federer single-handedly schooling the (pretty weak lineup) US Davis Cup team of Todd Martin and a throughly outclassed ("I can't volley!") Jan-Michael Gambill.

In short, there was more of a sudden "buzz" when Boris burst on the scene. Along with Becker there was Steffi Graf who was a more compelling style of player than the prissy, big-foreheaded Swiss Miss Hingis. So German tennis in the early 80's was what Swedish tennis was in the 70's. They were rock stars in their respective countries let alone the tennis world. Switzerland? Seems like more of a laid back landscape even if both Switzerland and Germany share the same DNA.
 
TMF said:
Agree. Becker also got help from Graf who was even more famous than him.
Click to expand...

actually boris was more popular. everyone agreed that graf was a better player but boris was loved more because of his emotional nature and playing style.

of course graf helped but Hingis was no slouch either in switzerland. graf was respected and admired for her results but not really loved like boris was.
 
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dominikk1985 said:
actually boris was more popular. everyone agreed that graf was a better player but boris was loved more because of his emotional nature and playing style.

of course graf helped but Hingis was no slouch either in switzerland. graf was respected and admired for her results but not really loved like boris was.
Click to expand...


In the early year of their career I would say Boris was more popular, but up in the 90s when Graf was still racking up slams, she was more of a public figure.
 
I'd agree that Becker was a bigger star early on. His first Wimbledon title run was amazing and just grabbed the attention of the entire tennis world. Graf did not have the same fan appeal as Becker in the 1980's, but that did start changing. Once she established herself as one of the greatest players ever, she had a meteoric rise as she became at least as big a star as Boris Becker. It is true that both players had a big impact on German tennis. Graf became my favorite player after Chris Evert retired. Amazing player.

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wimbledon+1989_via+mirror.co.uk.jpg
 
Although he was idolized more than any other player, Beckers direct influence on German tennis is debatable. His ego hurt him in this department. He once organized a youngster team, including Kiefer, but this poject went to tatters. Becker also became for a while Germany's Davis Cup team manager, after firing Nicola Pilic, one of the most successful team captains in history. But he didn't get along well with the players, and he gave up the position after a year or so. Today he seems to be more involved in poker than in tennis.
 
urban said:
Although he was idolized more than any other player, Beckers direct influence on German tennis is debatable. His ego hurt him in this department. He once organized a youngster team, including Kiefer, but this poject went to tatters. Becker also became for a while Germany's Davis Cup team manager, after firing Nicola Pilic, one of the most successful team captains in history. But he didn't get along well with the players, and he gave up the position after a year or so. Today he seems to be more involved in poker than in tennis.
Click to expand...

his direct influence was not great but he brought like millions of Kids to Tennis because they wanted to be like him.

it is really a shame that the DTB couldn't convert that Hype to create top Players. the Overall Level of german Tennis certainly increased and a lot of good Players have been produced but very few have been top20 guys. most of those Kids seemed to be like 400-80 in the world. we had a ton of those and they were fine Players but something was just lacking.
 
Even with all the conditions and larger numbers of junior players, that's no guarantee that a country will produce any tennis champions. It may increase the chances somewhat, but truly great, standout players are born as much as they are made. Look at Spain for example, with then increased number of players there after Nadal's rise, why aren't there more top Spanish players under 25? Numbers simply aren't enough.
 
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