Germany has won the European Tennis Trophy for overall performance following an outstanding season in which the nation showed progress in all four contributing categories – junior, professional, senior and wheelchair tennis. It marks the first time in almost 20 years that Germany has received the accolade, which acknowledges the achievements of players and teams representing Europe’s national tennis federations during 2014.
A string of German successes throughout the season contributed to the Overall Performance title, with the national women’s team reaching the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final for the first time since 1992, and the national boys’ 14 & Under team sweeping the Tennis Europe Winter Cups by HEAD and European Summer Cups titles for the first time since 1996. Team members Rudolf Molleker and Nicola Kuhn also went on to win the European Junior Championships and Tennis Europe Junior Masters titles respectively. In addition, the nation comfortably won the Senior Tennis trophy for an incredible 24th consecutive year.
German Tennis Federation President Ulrich Klaus said, “We are very happy and proud of this award. It shows the successful work and commitment of our players and coaches as well as the effort of the entire organization. This shows that the DTB is on the right track and encourages us to work even harder in 2015 and beyond.”
Last year’s overall winner Russia slipped to third, but retained its Junior Tennis title. A repeat of the record-breaking performances in 2013 was always going to be a difficult task, but Russian players once again dominated the year-end rankings, having claimed 2 of the Tennis Europe Junior Tour’s team titles, 9 European Junior Championships medals and a Junior Masters title to end the season with a healthy 1,100-point margin over second-placed France.
Fed Cup champion the Czech Republic retained the Professional Tennis Trophy for a third consecutive year, once again fending off a strong challenge from Spain. Davis Cup finalists France nosed past Germany to claim third place by just four points, while Switzerland’s Davis Cup title sees the nation finish sixth, its highest ever position in this category.
Germany’s perennial success in the Senior Tennis Trophy was evident once more, though Austria’s achievement in maintaining second place for over a decade was also impressive. The nation earned more than twice the points of third-placed Spain, with the Spanish recording their best-ever finish in the Senior Tennis category.
The Wheelchair Tennis Trophy will be awarded to the Netherlands for a fourteenth consecutive year. Great Britain came closer than ever to ending the Dutch reign, with 892 points being the strongest ever score by a runner-up nation. Last year’s runner-up France, Russia and Germany round off the Top 5 nations.
Six of the 49 nations posted improvements on their 2013 performance by five positions or more, led by Estonia (up 8 spots to #23) and closely followed by Hungary and Bosnia & Herzegovina (up 7 to #11 and #27 respectively). Ukraine, Macedonia and Montenegro all leapt five places, finishing at #14, #31 and #36.
Tennis Europe President Jacques Dupré commented, “I would like to congratulate the national federations of all of the winning nations, and especially Germany for their overall achievements. Each of these titles reflects the efforts and successes of thousands of athletes and coaches, and illustrates the role of national federations in planning, developing and maintaining our sport. Tennis Europe aims to support our member nations with these challenges, and looks forward to another year of cooperation and success in 2015.”
Established in 1991 to recognise and reward the annual achievements of Tennis Europe’s member nations, the European Tennis Trophy takes into account the performances of players and teams representing national tennis federations across four disciplines of the sport throughout the season. The awards will be presented at a special ceremony during the Annual General Meeting of Tennis Europe in Lausanne on March 28th, 2015.
For full results, and a detailed explanation of how the points are calculated, please click here.
2014 Final Standings
Results by Position 1-49 | By Country A-Z | By Category
Top Ten by Category
