Jan Leschly believes that Kurt Nielsen and Caroline Wozniacki have been the highlights of 100 years of Danish tennis.
On a scale from 1 to 10 deserves the Danish tennis historically, the grade 7-8 pieces seen in an international perspective. Particularly in the light of Kurt Nielsen and Caroline She farms.
It takes tennislegenden Jan Leschly in the occasion of the French Tennis Federation on Friday’s 100th year.
the federation has because of coronakrisen had to cancel the planned celebration, but in a telephone connection from California see the 79-year-old Jan Leschly pleasantly back at the years that went in the Danish tennis.
His total number of DM-titles in the particular 1960s could be made up of several dozen, and after completing the career he has in the last 50 years followed the Danish tennis “from a distance, but close”.
One senses the pride in his voice, when he puts predicates as “fantastic” and “outstanding” on Caroline Wozniacki and call her a kind of star, which we may never get to see again in Denmark.
But for Jan Leschly took the fascination for the sport to already 67 years ago.
When I was 13 years old, was Kurt Nielsen and Torben Ulrich big role models. Kurt was in the Wimbledon final in 1953 and again two years later, when I was 15 years old. At the same time I played the exhibition match against Torben. It was the first time that I felt like a real tennis player.
– Jørgen Ulrich also came forward at the time, so it was a heyday for French tennis with four players in the world elite, says Jan Leschly.
He reached up as number ten in the world and can look back on a US Open semi-final as his best grand slam result in 1967, but it was a whole other way to be the top player at the time.
– I trained maybe a half hour a day, but worked and also studied occasionally. In the day coach Holger Rune and Clara Tauson two-three hours during the morning and afternoon, and then comes the physical training on top, and they travel the world as a 15-year-olds.
– Then we had only a indendørsbane in Aarhus, and it was also used for badminton, so in the winter I had maybe only an hour a week. So, I played handball at the door and came in ynglingelandsholdet and also got 64 divisionskampe.
– How I could be number ten in the world on the way, you must not ask me about, laughing Leschly.
In his fall, he had to experience the beginning of the professionalism, which would later come to characterise the sport.
Leschly was scandinavian champion in 1972, but when he next stood in the finals, he lost to a 16-year-old by the name of Björn Borg.
– I met up with my six rackets, Borg had 40, so he could switch in each set. He also had the manager and coach. I had never had, but always arranged everything himself.
Then it was time to stop, I thought, and it was one of my last matches. Borg went on and won the French Open a short time after, remember Jan Leschly.
He was annoyed to note that Denmark is not ago has produced herrespillere to the absolute world.
– The kind of comes in waves. Sweden got its heyday, which began with the Castle, then came the germans with Boris Becker, and later the UNITED states had the best players.
Leschly, who for decades has made itself as a successful businessperson in the pharmaceutical industry, is doing its to help set a new Danish golden age.
At the beginning of 2019, he established, among others, a son, Mark, a fund Leschly Tennis Foundation, 20 million crowns, which should help players in their development.
– English tennis has given me so much, so I would like to give something back. We are working intensely to help the skilled players to be even better, but also working, to even begin to play tennis, after there has been a drastic decline in membership.
We have great talents like Holger Rune and Clara Tauson, so the future looks bright, says Leschly.
/ritzau/
