"The Paradox That is Thomas Enqvist" ~ Tennis Match May/June 1996

by James Martin; Photos by Simon Bruty/Allsport

Under the hot lights of an arcade in Memphis, Thomas Enqvist is locked in a heated battle with his older brother Toby over who's the best basketball free throw shooter. Toby sinks his last shot - "Nothing but net," he recalls - making it four for five. Now it's Thomas' turn, and he's totally pumped up, electrified at the prospect of victory. He sinks five straight baskets to win the game, and in a burst of exuberance, begins teasing his vanquished brother.

This is Thomas Enqvist: affable and animated, excitable and effervescent.

A few days later under the hot lights of the Philadelphia Spectrum, Enqvist is locked in another battle, this time against fellow Swede Stefan Edberg. The match is deadlocked at a set a piece, and could go either way. But you wouldn't know that by looking at Enqvist, who's sauntering casually around the deep-blue carpeted court, banging forehands and booming serves without so much as a hint of excitement. He wins the final set 7-5 and walks quietly off the court.

This is Thomas Enqvist: calm and quiet, shy and seemingly unflappable.

That's the Enqvist paradox - he can look apathetic on the court, as if he's not giving 100%, when he is in fact competitive, ambitious and impatient. Yet most people assume the world's No.9 ranked player is just another well-mannered, well-behaved, well-groomed and, well, boring Swedish personality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"People who don't know me think I'm pretty quiet, but I'm not," the 22-year-old says from his hotel room in downtown Philadelphia the day before his match against Edberg. "I like to hang out with my friends and go to sporting events. I really get pumpted up for the Bulls and the Flyers." He brushes back his blond hair and glances at the TV. Which is broadcasting a soccer match. "I get really nervous before a match. It's a good nervousness because I want to win really bad."

"Thomas is shy in big crowds and when he meets people for the first time," adds Toby, an MBA student at SMU whose Swedish name is Torbjorn. "But behind the scenes, he's really hyper and funny. It's like two different people. When he's in a room with friends, it's hard to get a word in because he's so talkative. He also likes to play practical jokes and rag on his friends. He's pretty bad on that."

The son of Folke and Birgitta, Thomas grew up on the outskirts of Stockholm, the cultural and economic hub of Sweden. But outside of the occasional movie or dance, he assumed a disinterested attitude toward all that the city had to offer. That's because he spent all his time playing soccer, tennis, basketball, ice hockey and bandy (a floor-hockey type game).

Thomas was a natural jock who, says his current coach and former top tenner Joakim Nystrom, "can do it in any sport." At first, Thomas competed in sports to fit in and be one of the guys. "My brother did all the sports with my dad and, of course, I wanted to do the same things because I wanted to hang out with Toby," he says. A healthy sibling rivalry developed between the two. Soon, though, athletics became an end in itself for Thomas and tennis his best sport.

By his early teens, Thomas decided to pursue tennis full-time. He left school after graduating from junior high and earned a spot on the national team, which helps players make the transition from the juniors to the pros. "The national team was a great opportunity because there were players on the team like Nicklas Kulti and Magnus Larsson, who were already pros," says Enqvist. "Practicing with them really heaped my game. It was also an opportunity to get coached by Martin Bohm and to see if I could be a professional tennis player. It was a chance I had to take."

That Thomas quit school at such a young age is at odds with his family's strong academic tradition. His father is a civil engineer, his mother is an economic advisor, his sister recently graduated college and his brother is in business school. "I really didn't like school," says Thomas, who goes all shy and mumbly when asked about his academic interests. "I liked going to school for the sports but not the classes."

"We were a little scared about his decision," confesses Toby, "because there's so many people who have been very successful in the juniors and never really bloomed as pros. But it was an obvious choice for him because he couldn't go to school and play tennis at the same time. And he could have always gone back to school if things didn't work out."

But there's been no looking back for Enqvist. Armed with a wicked western forehand and a colossal serve, Thomas captured the 1991 Australian Open and Wimbledon junior crowns and finished the year the No.1 junior. Since turning professional that same year, he's made a steady climb to the top. In 1995 he captured a career-high five titles, including the Stockholm Open, "which was a dream for me to win," he says. So far this year, he has reached the quarter-finals of the Australian, his best Slam to date, and has risen to as high as No.6 in the world.

Not surprisingly, all that success has inspired endless comparisons to the great Swedes of the 1970s and '80s, players like Edberg, Mats Wilander and, of course, Bjorn Borg. And they're comparisons Thomas would gladly do without. "I don't like the comparisons of myself to those players. I always say that it's like comparing a young basketball player to Michael Jordan. It's too far away." He stretches his long, 6'3" frame on the hotel couch, glances at the soccer match again, and continues. "Right now, I don't think about living up to those guys or about rankings. I try to improve all the time, that’s the main thing. My goal this year is to do better in the Grand Slams, because except for Australia I haven't done well in them."

There's the public side of Enqvist again, the one that's shy and modest to a fault. But behind that stoic façade lies a killer instinct that's second to none. "Thomas is the worst loser of all time," chortles Toby. "He will be mad even if he loses a game of cards. That's how bad he wants to win." Care to shoot some hoops, Toby?

About the only thing that Enqvist hates more than losing is travelling. "I want to be doing something all the time and I don't have the patience for just sitting in terminals and planes doing nothing," he says. His brother is even more direct. "Thomas is probably the worst travelling partner you can have because he's so impatient. He'll bring a basketball with him on trips, and throw it around the airport to keep busy. Totally nuts."

That impatience sometimes spells trouble on the court. Enqvist's game is nothing like the traditional Swedish paradigm of patience and consistency perfected by Borg and Wilander. Instead, Enqvist uses hard groundstrokes and bullet-like serves to blow opponents off the court. "In the beginning, Thomas wanted to hit winners all over the court, and he made a lot of errors," says Nystrom, "Joaky" to his friends. "Now that he's learning to be patient and pick his spots to go for winners. But he's got to stay aggressive because that's his game."

Considering his aggressive nature, Enqvist has found a comrade-in-arms in good friend Mikael Renberg, the Swede who plays right wing for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team. The two love to watch each other perform and talk hockey and tennis into the night. Indeed, Thomas is one of the biggest sports junkies on tour. He never misses his daily fix of ESPN's SportsCenter when he's in the states, and he rarely goes out on the town without his Flyers' cap firmly in place.

"Thomas pretty much calls me every day, no matter where he is in the world," says Toby, "and the first things he asks are: 'How're the Flyers doing? How're the Bulls doing?' And when he goes to a game, he goes nuts. It's worth the price of admission just to see him screaming in the stands."

This is Thomas Enqvist: a paradox suspended between youth and maturity who's got the talent and tenacity to go all the way.