Tennis Nation of the Decade Ray Bowers Tennis people worldwide are united in their affection for the sport and, most often, in their shared traditions of sportsmanship.
Fans everywhere support the top players of their own countries.
The nearly universal desire to compete against other nations has thus strengthened the game in all lands. Fed Cup provides a comparable competition among the women. Also interesting but less widely noted are World Team Cup, a men's team event in Europe, and Hopman Cup, where male-female pairs compete annually in Australia. Meanwhile every four years tennis joins the Olympics, where the nations are represented by national teams and where the medal-winners are tabulated by nation. Four teams dominated competition among the nations during the early 1900's.