Professional Tennis, Cheering, and Love of Country

A question that came to mind while watching the Rogers Cup semi-final between Rafael Nadal (of Spain) and Novak Djokovic (of Serbia), won by Djokovic for the right to lose in tomorrow's Finals to Roger Federer (of Switzerland):

When did professional tennis become a forum for fan expression of patriotism and love of country in rooting for particular players? Or, put a different way, when did professional tennis players begin playing "for country," becoming so identified with their countries of origin that fans who root for that player do so as a form of cheering for ountry, often by specifically invoking aspects of love of country in cheering. This was illustrated in this semi-final, where there were competing Serbian and Spanish flags hanging from the grandstand walls. Federer's fans turn out in t-shirts with the Swiss national symbol (red cross on white field).

Has it always been this way? Tennis players always have been identified with their home countries--Bjorn Borg was Swedish; Steffi Graf was German; Margaret Court was Australian; John McEnroe used to wear a "USA" warm-up jacket onto the court. And the media always made a big deal of it--Bud Collins used to refer to Graf as "Fraulein Forehand"). But it seems as if the player/country connection is more explicit from the player's standpoint and the fans have picked up on it in their rooting. Djokovic's win tonight becomes a source of Serbian pride. But tournament tennis is not like the Olympics or the World Cup or the Davis Cup, where one represents one plays on a "national" team, thereby explicitly representing or playing for one's country. But fans root for particular players as if they were.

Maybe this is just a product of the globalization of sports, something hardly limited to tennis. Fans always have and will latch on to players from "their" lands or who share their backgrounds and take personal pride in that player's success (interesting comments on this phenomenon here). And the increasing globalization of professional sports, with more athletes from more places on the scene, means there are more players from "my homeland" for whom I can root. It then is only a small step to waving Swiss flags and singing the Swiss national anthem after Federer wins.

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