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Edberg news

3/5/02
Call me irresponsible ...
Not Stefan, but his pal, Boris Becker. To wit:
Disappearing Act: Becker Withdraws From Naples Event With Flu
By Richard Pagliaro (Tennis Week)
03/05/2002 John McEnroe has waited years for a shot at Boris Becker on the senior tour. Today, McEnroe will finally get his shot — only it will come from behind a podium at Naples Bath & Tennis Club in Naples, Florida as McEnroe meets the media to discuss Becker's sudden withdrawal from this week's Nuveen Champions.
The 34-year-old Becker informed tournament organizers yesterday that he was withrawing from the event, citing the flu as the cause. Seven-time Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander will replace Becker in the draw. Wilander — the winner of three Australian Opens, three French Opens and one U.S. Open — will take Becker's place in the Premier Properties Group and in the schedule. Tonight's schedule has been adjusted to accomodate Wilander, who is traveling to Naples. Pat Cash will play Jimmy Arias in tonight's first match followed by Wilander vs. Bahrami.
Becker's sudden decision to pull out comes a day before his scheduled first-round match and three days after he told the media in a conference call he was fit and prepared to play in the event. Becker, who joined the senior circuit last summer, has not completed any of the three senior tournaments he has entered, pulling out of previous events in Europe and London citing an assortment of injuries.
Becker's withdrawals have earned him the wrath of McEnroe, the top-ranked player on the senior circuit, who has criticized the former Wimbledon winner for a lack of commitment to the tour. An irate McEnroe blasted Becker for his sudden withdrawal from their scheduled showdown at the U.S. Open in September. It was scheduled to be a showcase for the senior circuit: a $100,000 winner-take-all exhibition match immediately following the historic U.S. Open women's final between the Williams sisters before a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium on the final Saturday night of the tournament. But the curtain came down on the show before the first ball was struck as Becker withdrew from the match, citing a left foot injury.
The timing of Becker's withdrawal in September, less than 36 hours prior to the scheduled start of the match, reportedly prevented organizers from finding a suitable replacement player. A disappointed McEnroe said the cancellation has damaged the credibility of both Becker and the tour.
"He (Becker) is undependable and now he's gonna have to prove he's dependable, which is not gonna be easy," McEnroe said in a conference call with the media. "Boris doesn't seem to recognize the magnitude of what he did. The credibility that was lost not only for him but for the senior tour. I don't think he even recognizes the magnitude of what happened."
Becker concluded his career on the ATP Tour with frequent withdrawals from events and has continued that trend in the early stages of his senior career. Frustrated by Becker's inability to consistently compete, and by the lack of challengers capable of forcing him to elevate his level of play, McEnroe may be contemplating cutting his senior career short.
"I don't even want to report what he's done since coming back in terms of this (pulling out)," McEnroe said of Becker. "It would not be good news — let's put it that way. It's very, very disappointing. I was looking to keep myself going another year or two years. I suspected I'd have to work harder and I'd probably even lose more, but was I excited about that prospect. I'd be challenged more and I'd have to play better. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do at this point, to be honest. I don't want to train a couple of months and them not show up.
Becker's latest withdrawal is a significant blow to the credibility of the tour, which had heavily-promoted a potential Becker vs. McEnroe showdown in Naples. In a conference call with the media last week, McEnroe characterized Becker as a "key component" to the future of the senior tour and suggested the consistent participation of former Grand Slam champions Becker and Stefan Edberg was vital to the future of the tour. While reiterating his desire to renew his rivarly with Becker on the senior tour, McEnroe admitted he wasn't sure Becker shared the same feeling.
"I'm coming in with the attitude that I can't wait to play him," McEnroe said. "I can't control what he does. Boris Becker's got a lot of pride and he wants to prove he can still play is what I'm assuming. He knows that people have been disappointed by the fact that he hasn't finished events. So if I were Boris Becker and I was the champion he was when he won all his Grand Slams and what he represented to the sport, I would come in with the attitude that not only am I going to finish this tournament, but I'm going to win it. And anything less than that would be disappointing to me and I'm assuming disappointing to him. Having said that, I don't know for sure. But my hope is I'll play him, without question."
Becker's decision to pull out yesterday raises more questions about his future on the tour.

2/16/02
This event too is reportedly canceled, due to some "contractual disputes."
An article in www.aftonbladet.se about an Edberg-Becker event in April:

Kungamötet Edberg vs Becker blir inte av 
Beckers möte med Edberg ställs in på grund av kontraktsstrul.

Stefan Edberg mot Boris Becker i Stockholm?
  Glöm det.
  Prestigemötet blir inte av.
   Tillsammans har Stefan Edberg och Boris Becker vunnit tolv Grand Slam-titlar och bjudit tennispubliken världen över på odödliga ögonblick.
  Uppgörelserna i Wimbledon har för alltid skapat ett unikt intresse - och mötet i Kungliga tennishallen skulle ha blivit det första efter avslutade proffskarriärer.
  Nu missar svenska fans godbiten.
  
"Redan sålt biljetter" 
  - Kungliga tennishallen AB bryter vår överenskommelse om att bjuda tennispubliken på detta prestigemöte. Vi har redan sålt biljetter och intresset för matchen är mycket stort, säger Thomas Wallén från Göteborgsföretaget PR Event som tänkt arrangera tennisgalan, i ett pressmeddelande.
  Ett uttalande som Kungliga tennishallens vd Joachim Haas reagerar kraftigt mot.
  - Vi skulle hyra ut hallen till PR Event, men vi tackade nej till det datum som var aktuellt. Vi har aldrig kommit till någon överenskommelse, säger Haas.
  Är något annat datum aktuellt?
  - Nej, det har inte diskuterats.
  Syftet med matchen var att samla in pengar till Stefan Edbergs stiftelse, som har som mål att utveckla svensk juniortennis.
  Boris Becker hoppas fortfarande att mästarmötet kan genomföras.
  - I Tyskland såg man fram emot matchen som jag hoppas blir av någon gång under 2002, säger han i pressmeddelandet.

Anders Burström

Nice photo (right) - one I had not seen before - found on Sports.com accompanying an Italian article (12/12/01) on Tennis Players and their Coaches, in which Stefan and Tony Pickard were mentioned.

2/11/01
I have gotten confirmation from the writer of this article from http://www.sportal.se/nyheder.asp?sportsgren=Tennis&nyheder_id=2508 that indeed there is a Edberg-Becker exhibition match scheduled for 4/16 in Stockholm:
Tennisrivalerna Stefan Edberg och Boris Becker möts igen. Racketlegenderna, som spelade tre raka Wimbledon-finaler mot varandra, ska spela en uppvisningsmatch den 16 april.
Bom-Bom Becker mot Stefan Edberg. Den 16 april möts tennislegenderna i en uppvisningsmatch i Kungliga Tennishallen i Stockholm.
Edberg, som hunnit bli 36 år gammal, spelade 35 matcher mot Boris Becker. Tysken vann 25 av dessa. Spelarna möttes i tre raka Wimbledon-finaler 1988-90.
jim.jaber@sportal.se

I am shaking with excitement, which is only tempered by my understanding that Becker is notorious for pulling out of a commitment at the last minute - just ask John McEnroe and the Champions Tour.

It turns out that Stefan has appeared in at least two exhibitions in Sweden, sponsored by the Klammer Tennis Club. The more recent one took place on November 23, 2001, an Edberg-Larsson exhibition. The other took place on November 29, with Andreas Vinciguerra:

The club published a nice web page about the 2000 event, from which the photo above was shown. Read about the article here, which has more photos from the event.

Excellent photos of Edberg (one of which is shown below) in an event in London, year 1999 can be found here, thanks to Mick McCarron (mick@mccarron.co.uk, http://www.mccarron.co.uk/mick), who - in response to my enquiry - wrote:

I found photos of Stefan as he appeared at the Wimbledon Champions' Parade in year 2000, see http://www.photoworld.freeserve.co.uk/cp-edberg.htm, which apparently offered for sale photos taken from the year 2000 Wimbledon Champions parade.
The photos as shown in the page can be found here.

From www.dispatch.co.za, Feb.8 2002(with photo):
Johansson joins elite band
TENNIS
Maud Thorne
SWEDEN is about a third the size of South Africa, yet it has raised many players -- especially men -- who have reached the pinnacle of world tennis.
Recent winner of the Australian Open championship, Thomas Johansson, now joins this elite band together with players of the calibre of Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander.
By comparison, the women have not shone among the stars. For instance, when Borg was the top player in Sweden, his female counterpart was the unknown Margareta Forsgardh.
Borg was born in 1956 and was a master of the two-handed backhand which, in those days, was relatively rare. In his wonder years he won the Wimbledon title from 1976 to 1980 and reached the final in 1981.
In capturing this coveted crown for the first time, Borg beat Ilie Nastase 64, 62, 97. In 1977 he edged past the original grunter, Jimmy Connors, at 36, 63, 61, 57, 64 and in the following year he again beat the American, this time in straight sets. The 1979 final was a titanic struggle against Roscoe Tanner, where the Swede triumphed 67, 61, 36, 63, 64.
And so to that epic match about which the tennis world will never stop talking: the Borg v McEnroe final in 1980.
Borg salvaged only one game in the first set, took the next two and then the drama unfolded. In the longest tiebreaker in a Wimbledon final, the two players traded match points and set points in unbearable tension even for the spectators. How their families must have suffered, not to mention the players who appeared to have nerves of steel. After 34 nail-biting points, John McEnroe levelled at two-sets all. The deciding set was an advantage set and again the score reached six-games all. Eventually Borg inched past to take the title for the sixth time at 16, 75, 63, 67 (1618), 86.
This must rate as the best-ever final.
McEnroe turned the tables in 1981, after yet another marathon cliff-hanger. Borg just missed going 20 up in sets by dropping the tiebreaker after capturing the opening set. McEnroe won the next tiebreaker as well and then made no mistake in taking the fourth set for his first crown with a score of 46, 76, 76, 64.
Borg had been beaten at Wimbledon for the first time in 42 consecutive matches.
The Edgberg-Boris Becker rivalry followed the Borg-McEnroe era.
In 1988 Edberg won his first Wimbledon title defeating Becker 46, 76, 64, 62, Becker returned the compliment the following year and then Edberg had his turn again as he beat the German in five sets in 1990.
Wilander never won a Wimbledon title but, as a teenager he held the French title and two Australian crowns. A second French title came in 1985. Wilander's best year was 1988: he narrowly missed the Grand Slam. Having captured the Australian and French titles, he lost in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon, but went on to take the US crown.
Other great Swedish players of yesteryear include Sven Davidson who regularly featured among the top ten seeds at Wimbledon in the 1950s, and Jan-Erik Lundquist who played his best tennis in the next decade.
Besides the Big Three in the 1980's, there were the so-called lesser lights: Henrik Sundstrom, Anders Jarryd, Joakim Nystrom, Michael Pernfors, Jonas Svensson, followed by Thomas Enqvist, Jonas Bjorkman, Magnus Gustafsson and Magnus Larsson to name but a few.