Swiss Tennis celebrates its 125th anniversary

On June 28, 1896, eight Swiss tennis clubs founded the Swiss Lawn Tennis Association, the first tennis association in continental Europe. Swiss Tennis, as the national umbrella organization has been called since 1988, is celebrating the anniversary corona-compliantly throughout the year with sustainable campaigns for the entire Swiss tennis community.

The Covid-19 pandemic also thwarted Swiss Tennis. A planned anniversary event was canceled last year and the budget allocated for it was largely shifted to various smaller measures with lasting effects in order to better cover the current needs of the tennis community, as Swiss Tennis President René Stammbach explains: “We wanted to that the whole tennis family can benefit in one way or another in the anniversary year. It is the tennis players, the clubs, centers, the tennis teachers, officials or tournament organizers who have shaped and developed Swiss tennis together with Swiss Tennis for 125 years. We would like to say thank you for this. “

Around 900 clubs and centers with 160,000 members belong to Swiss Tennis. 50,000 have a competition license and regularly play in over 3,400 organized tournaments and championships. The approximately 500,000 hobby tennis players who do not belong to any club but who swing the racket on a regular basis testify to how popular tennis is among Mr and Mrs Swiss and their children.

They can pursue their hobby in around 3,600 spaces. According to the 2018 report from Tennis Europe, the European umbrella organization, no other European country has a higher percentage of tennis players than Switzerland.

As the umbrella association for tennis in Switzerland, Swiss Tennis is responsible for the development and promotion from the grassroots to the top, with a focus on promoting young talent in competitive and top-class sports and the development of popular sports.

In spring 2021, Swiss Tennis launched the “125-franc anniversary campaign” together with 515 participating clubs from all over Switzerland. Using an online campaign and direct approach, hobby players were sought who wanted to rejoin a tennis club for the first time or after a long break.

Season membership was offered at a special price of CHF 125.00 and the association also supported the participating clubs with CHF 300.00 per new member towards the membership fee. The campaign was a complete success: 4,649 new members joined a club of their choice at the start of the summer season. Swiss Tennis invested a seven-figure sum in this campaign for its members. Follow-up campaigns for new members will follow in autumn to extend memberships beyond the anniversary season.

The second lockdown in winter 2020/21 hit the tennis centers particularly hard. The result was a huge drop in sales due to the ordered closings. In order to relieve the centers at least a little, Swiss Tennis waived the court fees for the entire year 2021 and supported the establishment of a center association that campaigns for the concerns of the tennis centers.

From now on, every Swiss Tennis member who celebrates a new anniversary – starting with the 25th anniversary and then in steps of 25 years – receives a small financial contribution that is used for the club or the center and its members.

In the junior division, Swiss Tennis has been able to look forward to strong athletes in recent months who are among the best in the respective world and European rankings. In order to be present in world tennis in the future, the development of the players is central. This also includes the provision of playing opportunities that allow on the one hand to compete internationally against the top and on the other hand to collect important points for the world rankings.

Swiss Tennis is investing six-figure additional funds from 2021ff in order to provide suitable platforms for the young professionals. For the first time since 2014, a Challenger tournament took place in Switzerland – and it was won by the wildcard recipient Dominic Stricker. A second will take place in Biel in September.

There are also four tournaments of the ITF World Tennis Tour (W60, 2x M25, M15) as well as several tournaments of the ITF Junior Tour and the Tennis Europe Tour. They all allow our young athletes to compete in important tournaments without extensive travel and, thanks to the allocation of wildcards, they can also compete directly in a main field.

The 125th meeting of Swiss Tennis delegates, which should have taken place in June 2021, had to be postponed to autumn. It will now take place in Bern on September 4th, after which the delegates present will be invited to a joint anniversary dinner. Federal President Guy Parmelin has already confirmed his participation in the final part of the Assembly of Delegates.

Both Martina Hingis and Roger Federer, who together led the top of their respective world rankings for 609 weeks and are the biggest figureheads for Swiss tennis worldwide, took time to reminisce. In the video interview, they tell us what significance Swiss tennis had and still has for them.

The construction of the first tennis courts in Switzerland – even before the association was founded – from 1877, or the fact that Switzerland co-founded the International Tennis Association ITF, the first yearbook from 1914, the reaching of 50 clubs in 1936, various moves and Restructuring, the fact that only 10 presidents have led the association in 125 years or that Swiss Tennis has so far won 17 Junior Grand Slam titles – these and many other facts and figures from the 125-year history of the Association has been presented on all channels in a series of entertaining infographics every week since spring.