Absence of court support follows excess of success

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John Roberts: Johansson the 'dwarf' with a giant's presence

Sven Goran Erikksson, Sweden's sports personality of the year on the strength of guiding England's footballers to the World Cup finals, has accepted an invitation from the Lawn Tennis Association to attend this week's Davis Cup tie between Britain and his home country. Eriksson, work permitting, will be in Birmingham for the opening day of the tennis on Friday and watch Aston Villa play Chelsea the following day.

Diplomat that he is, Eriksson is unlikely to paint his face in Sweden's colours or add his voice to a repertoire of chants such as: "We are yellow, we are blue, we are Sweden, who are you?" His presence in the National Indoor Arena, however, may draw attention to Sweden's small gathering of support. Although the tie has attracted a sell-out crowd of 10,200 for each of the three days, only 200 spectators are expected to travel from Sweden.

This is the latest indication that the Swedes may have become blasé about their success at tennis almost to the point of regarding the sport as a recreation rather than a source of national prestige. It is hard to imagine the day when the LTA will be confronted with too much of a good thing.

Only one Swedish tennis writer was on site when Thomas Johansson won the Australian Open eight days ago, and she did not arrive in Melbourne until two days before the final. To be fair, there used to be an exodus of Swedish reporters whenever Bjorn Borg was eliminated from a tournament, and Stefan Edberg was disappointed that not a single Swedish reporter turned up for his 1989 victory at the Masters in New York.

LTA officials were surprised not to receive more requests for block bookings from Sweden, but the tie was a sell-out weeks before Johansson's success in Australia perked up interest in his homeland.

Johansson was not short of vocal support during his Australian campaign. "The Swedish fans helped me so much," he said. "It was great to be playing in front of them." The majority of Johansson's Melbourne glee club were young Swedes spending the European winter touring the Antipodes. While this does not mean they are only fair weather fans, Jonas Bjorkman did make the point that he and his fellow Swedish players sometimes provide them with tickets and occasionally join them in the pub to thank them for their support. Then again, Pat Rafter has done the same for Australian fans in New York.

Although 10 years separated Johansson's first major title and Edberg's last hurrah at the United States Open in 1992, Swedish players have amassed a total of 25 Grand Slam men's singles championships in the 28 years since Borg's initial impact at the French Open in 1974. Prior to that, Sven Davidson's French Open victory in 1967 stood as Sweden's lone success at the highest level of the game.

Borg, the winner of 11 Grand Slam titles, was also the catalyst of Sweden's first success in the Davis Cup in 1975. Tennis's premier men's team competition is at the heart of Sweden's love affair with the sport – in their case a sport of the people introduced by a king (Gustav V) who learned to play during a visit to Britain in 1878.

King Gustav, who later took part in handicap tournaments on the Riviera, entering under a pseudonym, Mr G, and partnering great players such as Suzanne Lenglen, founded Sweden's first tennis club. At the last count the clubs numbered 765, offering a total of 3,000 outdoor courts and 1,500 indoor courts for the use of 350,000 players.

Sweden (population 8.7 million – 50m less than Britain) competed in 12 Davis Cup finals between 1975 and 1998 and won seven. Since the World Group was established in 1981, Sweden have reached the semi-finals or better 16 times. Their last triumph, against Italy in Milan in 1998, involved an epic opening match between Magnus Norman and Andrea Goudenzi. SVT, the Swedish terrestrial television service, cut its coverage with Norman serving at 5-4 in the fifth set. Regional news programmes were shown in place of the dramatic climax to the match. Gaudenzi saved a match point before a torn shoulder ligament caused him to retire when serving at 6-6, 0-30.

The previous year, when Sweden played Italy in the semi-finals, coverage of a match between Thomas Enqvist and Renzo Furlan was cut for a children's programme. And none of Sweden's monumental 1996 final against France in Malmö was shown live.

BBC television were prepared to give the elbow to "Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men", for live coverage of Tim Henman versus Greg Rusedski in the third round of the Australian Open, and probably would give an arm and a leg (perhaps only an arm) if Tim and Greg took Britain to a Davis Cup final.