Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/193236
Radwanska fared somewhat better, making it to the US Open last 16 before falling to Russian Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets. After the elation of the "Polish Wimbledon", this was a hefty return to earth. "Polish men's tennis is somewhere between the heaven of Wimbledon and the hell of the US Open," says Artur Rolak, a journalist for the Warsaw-based magazine Tenisklub. "You shouldn't always expect bright days. Black Tuesday, as Polish media called the day when Janowicz, Kubot and Przysiezny were eliminated from US Open, will happen from time to time." Summer may have come to a close some distance from heaven with Janowicz still injured and a 4-1 Davis Cup World Group play-off defeat to Australia in Warsaw in September, but despite the disappointments of August and September, plenty of reasons for optimism remain. The men may not have won their tie, but by virtue of getting to a World Group play-off, accomplished something no other Polish Davis Cup team had before. The Fed Cup by BNP Paribas team, meanwhile, fought their way back to World Group II for the first time since 2010 with a strong 4-1 victory in Belgium in April. Unsurprisingly, given the highs Polish tennis has hit in recent times, interest in the sport has never been greater. "Last year was great for Polish tennis," says Magdalena Rejniak-Romer, the General Secretary of the Polish Tennis Federation and the woman responsible for the development of youth and amateur tennis in the country. "Agnieszka in Wimbledon, when she got to the final, all the news, television, everybody, they were just talking about tennis." But that was nothing compared to the hype surrounding Janowicz's final against David Ferrer at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris in 2012, she says, when an estimated 1.4 million Poles tuned in to watch the match. "It was unbelievable." Before the emergence of Radwanska, who won the junior Wimbledon title in 2005, Janowicz, and the rest of the current crop of Polish talent, you have to go back to Fibak's run of three Grand Slam quarterfinals in 1980 for the last time the sport generated anything like the interest in Poland it does now. Previous to Fibak, the only other Polish player of real significance was Jadwiga Jedrzejowska, who reached three Grand Slam finals in the 1930s. Wojtek Andrzejewski, Director of Sport at the Federation, says the contemporary success of Polish tennis can be traced back to 2003. It was then that Ryszard Krauze, a wealthy local entrepreneur and tennis www.itftennis.com enthusiast, who had been involved with the Federation since 1999, decided to invest further in young talent. Over the next few years, the Federation, aided by Krauze, signed approximately 40 agreements with players, including with Kubot, Radwanska and her younger sister Urszula, and Janowicz. "We spent for this programme about 18 million zlotys (US$5.75 million). I think it's not such a big budget, but you see the results," says Andrzejewski. "Our juniors (Blazej Koniusz and Grzegorz Panfil) won the Australian Open doubles, Agnieszka won Wimbledon, Urszula won Wimbledon, Janowicz was in the US Open final, so many good results which were not before." Three years ago, however, Krauze decided to withdraw his support for business reasons, says Andrzejewski. Since that time, Polish tennis has had to face a number of financial challenges. Janowicz famously couldn't afford new shoes at the US Open in 2011 and was unable to compete in Australian Open qualifying the next year because he couldn't afford the trip. The Federation itself currently receives around 3.5m zlotys (US$1.1m) a year from the Ministry of Sport and Tourism (MSiT). By way of comparison, Great Britain's Lawn Tennis Association received approximately ten times that amount from Sport England this year. "If you have the ranking of sports in Poland in budget terms, tennis is outside of the top ten," says Andrzejewski. "It's because of the history. The priority during communism was Olympic medals. Olympic medals meant you were the best in the world. In Poland for many years tennis was [ranked] about 35 or 40." Communism in Poland ended in 1989, one year after tennis returned to the Olympics as a full medal sport in Seoul. Another hangover from the country's communist past is the way sport continues to be perceived by many of its citizens. "Tennis was always seen as a very elite sport, only for a small group who can afford it," says Rejniak-Romer. In order to alter these perceptions, the Federation is working with MSiT and local governments to provide nets and equipment for multipurpose sports fields in 2,000 locations throughout the country. "That's what we do to show people that you can play tennis everywhere, that you don't need a tennis court, that it's fun, that it's not expensive," says Rejniak-Romer. "And we can really see the changing [of perceptions], step by step." To further encourage children and amateur players to join the quarter of a million Poles that already play the sport, the Federation is also working with local governments to implement the ITF Play & Stay programme's Tennis10s in schools, and with clubs to run Tennis10s and the ITF's initiative Tennis Xpress. Getting parents involved in tennis through programmes such as Tennis Xpress is important for the development of the sport in Poland as well, says Rejniak-Romer. "We want to target the parents coming with the kids to the tennis programmes, so then after six weeks of workshops they can play together." It was watching his father, a former professional volleyball player, playing amateur tennis, Janowicz says, that first piqued his interest in the sport as a youngster. Unsurprisingly, given the highs Polish tennis has hit in recent times, interest in the sport has never been greater. Wojtek Fibak reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open in 1980, and before that at Roland Garros in 1977 ITFWORLD AUTUMN 2013 13