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Andrea Petkovic Leads German Tennis’ Return to Prominence
Published: April 20, 2011
Both world No. 1 players became legends in their country.
Between the end of the '80s and the end of the '90s, tennis was so popular that there were a bunch of great tournaments around the country: Berlin, the Masters in Frankfurt, Masters 1000 in Hamburg and Stuttgart.
Moneymakers also came up with the idea of having the 16 best performers of the season at the four majors participate in the Grand Slam Cup, a million-dollar tournament happening the week before Christmas.
But all good things come to an end.
When Graf and Becker made the decision to retire, they left the kind of heritage Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang left in the United States when they quit.
Andy Roddick was the only one to live up to the expectations, while tennis in the Eastern part of Europe was exploding.
Meanwhile, in Germany, no player came close to the popularity Graf and Becker had.
Therefore, the Tommy Haas-Nicolas Kiefer generation had the burden of following in the footsteps of Graf and Becker, which they could not do.
Tennis ratings on television then began to drop, fewer children were interested in a tennis career and most of the big tennis tournaments in Germany had to be sold to countries where tennis was more prosperous, like Spain.
Nevertheless, recent results from the Fed Cup German team, the equivalent of the Davis Cup for the men, might bring a new wave of hope for Germany.
Andrea Petkovic is becoming more and more popular each month, while Julia Goerges and Sabine Lisicki have the ability to become top-10 players, though they might never rise to the popularity Graf had.
Tennis has become a worldwide sport, whereas the United States, Sweden and Germany dominated the tennis fields 20 years ago.
Behind the strength of its rising stars Petkovic ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis
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