What happened to tennis?

When I was a young boy, tennis was one of the hottest sports in the world. When Wimbledon took place, the world came to a halt. I don’t think there was any sport in the world that grabbed everyone’s attention as a match between tennis greats.

I remember the fading of Billy-Jean King and the rise of Chrissie Evert. I remember when the young Romanian teenager named Martina Navratilova grabbed the world by storm by taking on Chrissie and beating the icon. Then again by openly admitting that she is a lesbian and joined the great Billy-Jean as one of the very few sportsmen or –women that openly admitted the big taboo. She did, however, let her racked do the talking and during the eighties specifically she produced some of the greatest performances the world has ever seen.

Jimmy Conners took the world by storm when the old Rod Laver’s and Ken Rosewell’s started moving aside for the young, very different player. Arthur Ashe was the first black player to make any sense out of the top rankings and just as it looked like the world rebel Conners was going to control world tennis, the Swedish star, Bjorn Borg, hit the scene. I wonder if there is anyone who could ever accomplish what this man did it his short career until his shock retirement. Never had the world ever seen such a controlled performance by a player. Every loved him. He was the new machine. Add with that the amazingly fit Guilermo Vilas, the blond Vitas Guiralitis and the ice king Ivan Lendl and the world saw same of the most amazing tennis they could have asked for. The competition was touch and no clear winners of tournaments existed, except for Borg who controlled Wimbledon until…….

Yes, that until came when the world realized that Conners was actually a nice guy as the new brat on the block was the new sensation, John McEnroe. The Brat swore at player and umpires. The world hated him, but he played excellent tennis. He drew crowds everywhere he went and people wanted to se him in action. The game was no longer about the hitting of a ball across the net, but rather about the characters that played it. They put this sport right up on top on the popularity list.

One by one these players started retiring and the new generation of Edberg, Williander, Sampras, Agassi, etc. did not have the profile or presence on the court as these players had. Not even the new generation lead by Federer is grabbing the attention. They may be good players, but co character. Steffie Graff and Monica Seles continued the rivalry in woman’s tennis, but after the stabbing of Seles, people seemed to slowly loose interest in tennis. The men were boring and the woman – although they started looking much better, their rivalry was not as intense and no longer followed to the same extend a tennis was followed during the seventies and eighties.
Today, many very big tennis supporters watch the game on telly if they hit it by accident. In the past I could recite the top ten or even the top twenty in the men and women’s tennis with no problem. Today I am not even sure who the top male and female players are. With the disappearing of the true characters in the world, so did the supporters.