Swedish tennis was the great protagonist in the 80s of the Conde de Godó Trophy. The impact on Swedish tennis that the great figure of Bjorn Borg had years ago, crystallized with the irruption of a generation of players who, under the tutelage of the Swedish federation and their coach Jon Anders Sjoengren, turned Sweden into the first power world.
With Mats Wilander as the undisputed leader of Swedish tennis on clay, and with Stefan Edberg as the greatest exponent on hard courts, Sweden’s dominance was indisputable on the world scene. Especially when these two figures were supported by players like Joakim Nystrom (world number 7), Anders Jarryd (number 5 in singles and number one in doubles), the brothers Hans and Steffan Simonsson, Jan Gunnarsson, Mikael Pernfors (number 10) and at Later players like Kent Carlsson or Magnus Gustaffsson joined.
The numbers of Swedish tennis during that decade of the Conde de Godó Trophy speak for themselves. In the individual event, Mats Wilander was crowned champion on the courts of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona in 1982, 1983 and 1984 and reached the finals in 1985 and 1987. Kent Carlsson prevailed in Barcelona in 1986 and 1988, and Joakim Nystrom was finalist in 1984.
In the doubles competition, the tandem of Anders Jarryd and Hans Simonsson won the tournament in 1981, 1982 and 1983 and the pairing of Jan Gunnarsson and Joakim Nystrom prevailed in 1986.
As a team, the great moment for Swedish tennis was the victory in the 1984 Davis Cup final played at the Scandinavium in Goteborg, when they defeated the United States team that fielded John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors for the first time under the captaincy by Arthur Ashe.
Among this great Swedish dominance in Barcelona, ​​the Frenchman Thierry Tulasen managed to scratch his moment of glory in the Conde de Godó Trophy in 1985, and the Argentinean trained in Barcelona, ​​MartÃn Jaite in 1987, both defeating Mats Wilander in the final. Also in 1985 and 1988, the couple formed by Emilio Sánchez Vicario and Sergio Casal added their two doubles titles in the competition.
In the organizational field, after addressing a decade ago all the problems of incorporating professional players into the world circuit, in the mid-1980s a profound remodeling of the spheres of power in tennis was in sight. The ATP, after the dissolution of the Mens International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC), became the exclusive leader of the circuit. The demands of the new times kept the Conde de Godó Trophy at the forefront thanks to the wise management of Sixte Cambra, the incorporation of IMG in marketing matters, and the capacity of the RCTB human team.
