1.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
2.
Stefan Edberg
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Stefan Bengt Edberg is a Swedish former world no.1 professional tennis player. A major proponent of the style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles. He also won the Masters Grand Prix and was a part of the Swedish Davis Cup-winning-team four times, Edberg began coaching Roger Federer in January 2014, with this partnership ending in December 2015. Edberg first came to the worlds attention as a junior player. He won all four Grand Slam junior titles in 1983 to become the first player to achieve the Junior Grand Slam in the open era, later that year as a professional, Edberg won his first career doubles title in Basel. Edberg accidentally caused the death of linesman Dick Wertheim with an errant serve during the 1983 US Open, in 1984, Edberg won his first top-level singles title in Milan. Edberg also won the tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics when the sport was an exhibition event. Edberg also reached the French Open doubles final with Järryd in 1986, U. S. fans first took notice of Edbergs professional career when he won the U. S. Indoor in Memphis in February 1985, Edbergs first two Grand Slam singles titles came at the Australian Open. In December 1985, he defeated Mats Wilander in straight sets to claim his first major title, in January 1987, he defended his title by defeating local favourite Pat Cash in five sets to win the last Australian Open held on grass courts. Edberg also won the Australian Open and US Open mens doubles titles in 1987, in all three of his consecutive Wimbledon finals, he played German Boris Becker in what became one of Wimbledons greatest rivalries. Edberg won their first encounter in a match spread over two days because of rain delays. A year later, Becker won in straight sets, the closest of their matches came in the 1990 final, when Edberg won in five sets after being down a break in the fifth set. Edberg reached the French Open final in 1989 but lost in five sets to 17-year-old Michael Chang and this was the only Grand Slam singles title that Edberg never won, denying him the completion of a career Grand Slam at the senior level, to match his junior Grand Slam. In 1990, a muscle injury forced Edberg to retire from the Australian Open final while trailing Ivan Lendl 5–2 in the third set. Edberg nevertheless took the World No.1 ranking from Lendl on 13 August 1990 by winning the Super 9 tournament in Cincinnati and he held it for the rest of that year and for much of 1991 and 1992. Edberg spent a total of 72 weeks as World No.1, in 1991 Edberg again reached the Semi Finals of Wimbledon but lost to Michael Stich in a close match, 4–6, 7–6, 7–6, 7–6. Edberg reached the Finals of Australian Open again in 1992 and 1993 and he was one of the few players who reached the finals for Australian Open 5 times
3.
West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
4.
Boris Becker
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Boris Franz Becker is a German former world No.1 professional tennis player. He is a major singles champion, including, having been the youngest Wimbledon mens champion when he was 17. He has won 3 Wimbledon titles and he also won 13 Masters Series titles, five elite indoor titles. He is the player to have won all 3 Open era season end finals ATP Tour Finals, WCT Finals. Becker also won Olympic gold medal in doubles, Tennis magazine ranked Becker the 11th best male player of the period 1965–2005. He also coached Novak Djokovic for three years beginning in 2013, Boris Becker was born in Leimen, Germany, the only son of Elvira and Karl-Heinz Becker. His mother was Catholic, and they raised him as a Catholic and his father Karl-Heinz, an architect, founded a tennis centre in Leimen, where Becker learned the game. Becker turned professional in 1984, under the guidance of Romanian-born coach Günther Bosch and Romanian manager Ion Ţiriac, and won his first professional doubles title that year in Munich. As a German teenager, Becker won the Tennis World Young Masters at the NEC in Birmingham in 1985, two weeks later, on 7 July, he became the first unseeded player and the first German to win the Wimbledon singles title, defeating Kevin Curren in four sets. Becker was at that time ranked 20th in ATP ranking, and was unseeded and he was the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion at 17 years,227 days. Two months after his triumph, Becker became the youngest winner of the Cincinnati Open, Becker has since said that The plan from my parents for me was to finish school, go to university, get a proper degree and learn something respectful. The last thing on everyones mind was me becoming a tennis professional, in 1986, Becker successfully defended his Wimbledon title, defeating world no.1 Ivan Lendl in straight sets in the final. In 1987 Becker, then ranked world no,2, was upset in the second round of Wimbledon by the world no.70 player, Peter Doohan. In the Davis Cup that year, Becker and John McEnroe played one of the longest matches in tennis history, Becker won 4–6, 15–13, 8–10, 6–2, 6–2. The match lasted 6 hours and 22 minutes, Becker was back in the Wimbledon final in 1988, where he lost in four sets to Stefan Edberg in a match that marked the start of one of Wimbledons great rivalries. Becker also helped West Germany win its first Davis Cup in 1988 and he won the year-end Masters title in New York City, defeating five-time champion Lendl in the final. The same year he won season ending WCT Finals for the rival World Championship Tennis tour. In 1989, Becker won two Grand Slam singles titles, the year he won more than one
Stefan Edberg
Boris Becker
Ivan Lendl (Semifinals)
Mats Wilander (Quarterfinals)
Pat Cash (Quarterfinals)
Jimmy Connors (Fourth round)
Boris Becker (Final)
Henri Leconte (Fourth round)
Emilio Sánchez (Second round)
Andrei Chesnokov (First round)
Amos Mansdorf (Second round)
Slobodan Živojinović (Fourth round)
Ivan Lendl
Tim Mayotte
Pat Cash
D Felgate
G Muller
M Schapers
A Antonitsch
G Connell
R Krishnan
D Nargiso
G Ivanišević
A Mansdorf
H Leconte
S Casal
J Frana
A Olhovskiy
P Arraya
N Odizor
Y Doumbia
J Hlasek
R Acuña
A Moreno
K Evernden
E Masso