In the end of July Mats Wilander will be back to Sweden, his native country, to play the Svaneholm Open with old stars like John McEnroe and Pat Cash. He partially does it in order to inspire the future younger players. "It's easier to be inspired when you are on a court than when you check your mobile phone from home and you see two points and then you switch to the following channel. I was inspired by Björn Borg. Jonas Björkman and Thomas Enqvist always say that they were inspired by us. Then Robin Soderling and Thomas Johansson, who was inspired by Bjorkman, came. It's clear that you want a new generation of players breakthrough. When I comment on Eurosport, I cannot say if I want a Swedish in the final or not. I am interested in the quality of tennis, seeing players do their best and win matches. If there is a Swedish, it's obviously much funnier in many ways. The question I usually get asked by is: What happened to Swedish tennis. It's clear that the world of tennis does not have the sound of Sweden. You miss Bjorn Borg but you also miss what comes after. It's a bit like when the Beatles stopped playing. We used to win Davis Cups, me and Stefan Edberg, and we were rivals only when we faced each other. We trained hard and we had a good attitude and we respected the game", said Wilander.
Asked if he feels obliged to help the Swedish tennis, Wilander replied: "No, I have the obligation to give back to tennis but you can never give back everything, there is no chance. Tennis is much bigger than Roger Federer who is the best in the world. He is building schools in Africa. Arthur Ashe once stopped the racist allegations on the street. So many guys used tennis as a way to make the world a better place. So it's important to get more tennis stars."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Z5I6Pd
Tennis