Sweden’s once prominent position in the world of tennis has been hampered by national coaches ‘failing to improve,’ according to former world No.4 Robin Soderling.
The 33-year-old spoke out about the issue during a special press conference held at the French Open on Thursday. Soldering was the last Swedish player to contest the final of a grand slam tournament back in 2010 when he lost to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. His career came to an abrupt end after he failed to recover from a long-term illness. Soldering was hit by mononucleosis in 2011, a viral illness also known as glandular fever. He spent four years away from the tour before officially retiring in 2015.
Since his retirement, there is yet to be another Swedish superstar in the sport. The Ymer brothers have illustrated glimpses of their potential, but are yet to break out onto the main stage. 22-year-old Elias, who is coached by Soderling, has been ranked as high as 118th in the world and has four challenger titles under his belt. Meanwhile, younger brother Mikael is yet to break into the top 300. They are currently two of three Swedish men ranked in the top 400. The other is world No.303 Markus Eriksson.
“Tennis got really popular in Sweden, and all kids, both boys and girls, they wanted to start playing tennis. Then you get all the talented kids to your sports, and then of course it’s easier.” Soderling explained.
“Just by Björn Borg’s success, we had Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander, and then Magnus (Norman), Thomas Enqvist, Thomas Johansson, all these players, and it was just a self-playing thing. It just went on.”
So how did Sweden lose its grip in the sport? It is something that be attributed to a variety of factors. Although for Soldering, he feels that a lot of it is to do with his country’s approach to coaching. During the most successful part of his career, he was mentored by fellow compatriot Norman. Who has since been known for his collaboration with three-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka.
“You don’t win tennis matches today the same way you won tennis matches in the ’80s and ’90s. I think the federation, the coaches in Sweden got a little bit lazy because one thing had been working for so many years, and they thought it would just be working by itself in the future.” He said.
“But when the tennis changed, the sport improved, I don’t think the coaches really improved. They didn’t see what was going on, and they were coaching the players in the same way.
“I think that’s why we don’t have any players. And now there is other sports that are much more popular. It’s difficult. All the kids, they want to play football.”
During his career, Soldering won 10 ATP titles, including the 2010 Paris Masters.
Sweden’s top five players (as of 7/6/2018)
No.122 Elias Ymer
No.303 Markus Eriksson
No.368 Mikael Ymer
No.419 Christian Lindell
No.605 Jonathan Mridha
