Former Grand Slam finalist Magnus Norman says that Swedish youngsters need to compete more if Sweden are to develop young talents with a potential of making a name for themselves on the WTA and ATP Tours.
There was a time when Sweden dominated the world of tennis with players like Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, and others. Today, Elias Ymer is by far the best-ranked of all Swedish men’s players in 175th place.
On the women’s side, Kajsa Rinaldo Persson is the best Swede in 253rd place.
The question is whether Sweden has the capacity to recreate the glory years when they had a great number of male players in the Top 20 rankings?
Ex-star Magnus Norman, now long-time coach and founder of the tennis academy Good to Great, has a clear opinion on how to nurture tomorrow’s new tennis stars.
“Competition can sometimes appear as a dirty word,” Norman wrote in his newsletter earlier this year about how he experiences Swedish sports culture today.
And Norman has a clear message. “Children and young people must compete more. Play a lot of matches and compete for points to understand the game.”
“We have had good juniors, but we have not done a good enough job in the transition phase between juniors and seniors”, he says to Expressen.se. “When I’m out and about, I talk to many international coaches and, generally speaking, many people there learn to compete quite early.”
Norman who reached the final of the French Open in year 2000, points out at the same time that it’s not just about learning to win. Equally important, if not more important, is the art of learning to deal with defeat.
“If you lose, there is often a new tournament around the corner. So you don’t have to be too broken or depressed. You have to learn to be able to take something with you from the losses. What can I do better next time? What did I do well? And then you go home and work on it. Hopefully, it will be better in the next game.”