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As flags fly over Beijing, here a look at the 10 supreme in tennis times past.

As flags fly over Beijing, here a look at the 10 utmost nations in tennis annal.

1. Australia
Never mind that the flow of top has slowed to a drip. What most is the Aussie code and how it has long set the gold set for how tennis players should comport themselves. Back in the days when such stars as Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, John Newcombe, Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong kept Australia atop the tennis world, the apothegm was “head to the net, chief to the pub.” But that blas outlook belies a first work tenet, praiseworthy company and fundamental-rate . Leave the grumbling to wankers from fresh . Often occupied as coaches and partners for players from tons of countries, these guys and gals are Federal Court rats of the highest order. Always have, at all times will. Stop the presses if you ever meet a grandiose Australian.

2. United States of America
Decades of success, invention and commercialism have long kept the U.S. at the fore of tennis. America is where a man like Richard Williams has the guts to contempt normal insight and dare push two infantile African-American girls to the top. America is where an risk-taking instruction pro like Nick Bollettieri created an college — like the Williams family, without top-down influential engagement — that’s as a developmental Ellis Island, nurturing coming pros from around the world. No nation has won more Davis Cup and Fed Cup titles than the U.S., a saga of championship play that goes back more than a span. While another are presently surpassing the U.S. both on the courtyard and in the business of tennis, it was America that laid the institution for much of at the moment’s trained circuit.

3. France
Yes, the peak a month of Sundays came in the ’20s, when the classy Suzanne Lenglen and the fabulous Four Musketeers the world. But France to make the mark you’d expect from a people where style is ultimate. From Hall of Famers Francoise Durr and Yannick Noah, to Fabrice Santoro and Amelie Mauresmo, distinctively original have successful . The French Open at Roland Garros has also stepped up noticeably. As only just as the late ’70s, a range of political and cost-effective contributed to shallow fields. But thanks a lot to a French visionary Philippe Chatrier, Roland Garros resurrected itself and has emerged as a popular, substantial and enchanting part of the tennis calendar.

4. Great Britain
On one hand, the last time this populace had a Grand Slam men’s singles victor, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain thought Hitler could be kindly talked into making stillness. Fred Perry’s Wimbledon win in 1936 is the most contemporary triumph on the books. And the women have only been a bit better — nobody since Virginia Wade’s Wimbledon victory 31 yonks ago. But oh my, these the silent majority invented tennis, creating Wimbledon. No close in the world the mystical and open power of Centre Court. For that alone, Great Britain remains near the head of the tennis bench.

5. Spain
Rafael Nadal is now at the background of an task force that’s been the game for nearly two decades. Recent Grand Slam such as Albert Costa, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moya and Sergi Bruguera may only have won at the French, but tournament form a template for nowadays’s stamp of physical baseline play. Spain has also emerged as a top-tier schooling pounded for from many , as by the success of the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona. Add in important coaches such as Jose Higueras and champions Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez, Manuel Orantes and Manolo Santana and the mlange is spicy.

6. Russia
Like spam on your computer, a new Russian tennis phenom seems to surface every three resume. No other land in modern tennis history has so rapidly made a name for itself. Its players are workhorses, hard, tons of tournaments and engaging an ample cut. They are also thoroughly committed to team play, every time front and inside for Davis Cup and Fed Cup.

7. Czechoslovakia
The inhabitants no longer , but its tennis heritage is noble, distinctive and innovative. Back in the ’20s and ’30s, Karel Kozeluh was one of the top pros in the world, on a par with sister Hall of Famers Bill Tilden and Ellsworth Vines. Later in the ’70s came “the bouncing Czech,” three-time Slam triumph Jan Kodes, additional Hall of Famer. But Czechoslovakia’s chief gift came in the form of Martina Navratilova and Ivan Lendl. Overcoming early in their particular careers, each critically upped the ante in what it targeted to be a career tennis player. Navratilova was the pioneer, the main to handling the off-square fitness and food treatment that’s since become de rigueur for all pros. Lendl hastily . To these two champions — winners of a combined 26 singles Slams — the proverb was simple: In the pursuit of excellence, dispensation no bridge unturned.

8. Switzerland
In the moving picture “The Third Man,” Harry Lime, a integrity with low-key daring by the well-known Orson Welles, takes a swipe at Switzerland. Says Lime, “In Italy for 30 centuries under the Borgias they had conflict, terror, murder and murder, but they Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love; they had 500 an age of democracy and peace — and what did that produce? The bizarre chronometer.”

Since the picture was made in 1949, Lime was long gone when two productive geniuses from Switzerland: Martina Hingis and Roger Federer. Any nation-state that’s the base for such distinct is as bulbous to tennis as the Beatles’ of Liverpool is to the olden times of pop harmony.

9. Sweden
In many ways, this state of affable gents exclusive up the layer from Australia as the of friendship, sportsmanship and flexibility. Bjorn Borg was, of course, a tennis rock star, a man who even at present at age 52 can command devotion by viewing up at Roland Garros and Wimbledon wearing a blazer. Later came -Slam champs Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, accompanied by a ensemble of classy, modest warriors whose most latest incarnation is one of the most appreciated men in the entire hobby, Jonas Bjorkman. Like Australia, Spain and Russia, Sweden has by now long been an brunt player in high-outline events like Davis Cup.

10. India
For , India has been the pre-outstanding Asian tennis residents. Granted, save for the current ascent of Sania Mirza, all the accomplishments have come from men. But for decades, the times gone by of Indian tennis has been marked by repeated Davis Cup and, most agreeable of all to tennis fans, players who wield rackets with brilliant taste. Way back in the ’60s there was Ramanathan Krishnan, a man with strange piazza view — which he passed to his son, Ramesh Krishnan. Add to this the sleek Vijay Amritraj (who’s also made a mark as a UN envoy) and his brothers, the elegant Leander Paes and the diligent Mahesh Bhupathi. Though current signs heart to China displacing India as Asia’s leading tennis country, the Chinese have many to take before they can surpass India’s characteristic remnant.

Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 2:30 am and is filed under Tennis news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.