Country Shift in Tennis
Thirty years ago, half of the world's top 100 tennis players hailed from the United States. Australia also had many top players and the majority of the rest of the players came from Europe with a few from South Africa as well. Today, the talent is much more spread out around the globe. Russia, which in 1993 did not have any top 100 female players, now has more than any other country. Meanwhile, the United States now has about five female
players ranked in the top 100. Smaller countries such as Croatia, Serbia and Poland are mini tennis powerhouses with a few highly-ranked players and several other countries have one star player, e.g. Fernando Gonzalez from Chile. Countries such as France have many strong male and female players, e.g. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon, Amelie Mauresmo and Alize Cornet. Some countries have several talented male players, e.g. Argentina and Spain. Sweden peaked in the late 1980s following the Bjorn Borg era and has had a few talented male players, e.g. Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander. Germany, which still has a number of male and female players in the top 100, was at its strongest in the mid 1990s during the Boris Becker and Steffi Graf eras. In the next 30 years, the distribution of tennis players will definitely shift yet again… with Asia likely to increase its share of top players.
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