In January of this year, the Faroe Islands became the 51st member of the European Tennis Federation. Led by President Ingi Højsted, a former international footballer and chess player, the national tennis federation has made great strides in the almost-decade since it was formed. We sat down with Mr. Højsted, to find out more about the plans for Faroese tennis…
Welcome to the Tennis Europe family! How long have you been thinking about the Faroe Islands becoming part of the international tennis community?
Well, not very long, actually. The Tennis Federation was only established in 2017, and in the first few years we were not thinking that far ahead. We were trying to build infrastructure, to organise tournaments and mainly establish the local community. Then three years ago, we could see that we had a lot of players, especially young players, who were doing well and dreamt of playing tennis. We could see that it was important that we give them opportunities to be a part of the international scene to get international challenges. So that's when we started to think about this idea of joining the international community.
What did those first steps look like?
We had a good collaboration with the Danish Tennis Federation, so we first contacted them to ask how we could go about this and if they could also support us in this process. And at the time, we were very fortunate that Henrik Thorsøe Pedersen [now President of Tennis Europe] was the President of the DTF. And they were very helpful and supportive of our ambitions and explained how these things work and that to become a part of the ITF, we should first apply to Tennis Europe… so they really helped us a lot in this process.
Just from an outsider's point of view, one might think that Faroe Islands would come under the Danish jurisdiction. Can you help readers understand how that works?
Yes, and this is, of course, a complicated matter because the Faroe Islands is a self-governing country, but for now still within the Kingdom of Denmark. So, we are still a part but that's more on a political level, you could say. We have our own distinct language, culture, flag, and are very much our own people. And when it comes to sports, it's quite different. We have a lot of international recognition in sports, and we have 19 other sports federations who have membership of their respective international federations. So, we're widely recognised as our own country in sports. For example, we are a member of UEFA and FIFA in football, and the same goes for handball. And it’s important to mention that Denmark completely supports us in gaining membership of these international federations in all sports, so that's why the Danish Tennis Federation has been very supportive of our cause in joining Tennis Europe.
The application to join Tennis Europe was accepted unanimously at last year’s Annual General Meeting. Were you surprised by such international support?
I won't say that I was surprised, but of course, we were not completely sure how it would go. As Faroe Islands is a small country, we imagine many people don't know too much about us. They can be perhaps a bit hesitant, but what happened was we received a lot of support, both from the Danish Tennis Federation, but also from all other actors in Tennis Europe.
So, from our perspective, we've only seen a lot of support coming our way. And I think maybe because people understand that we are also part of FIFA, UEFA, they didn’t see our application to join Tennis Europe as something unusual.
How did you feel that joining Tennis Europe, and subsequently the ITF, would be beneficial for tennis in Faroe Islands?
As I mentioned, it was mainly the sporting aspirations of our players, and we were especially thinking of our younger players, because we have many juniors who play tennis and who enjoy it. But they also play football and they play handball, which are very, very popular sports in the Faroe Islands. And in handball and in football, there is a sort of pathway for them. There's a national team, they go to competitions and they can join the national youth teams if they are good enough. They can have dreams and finally make the national team and maybe go abroad to become professional football players or handball players.
This path was not available in tennis, or at least it was not so obvious how to reach those goals. So, one of our main ambitions is to give them access to compete with and against their peers on an international stage.
Speaking of international events, we've just held the Winter Cups by Dunlop. Can we say with confidence that your girls’ 12&U team were the first players ever to represent Faroe Islands in an international competition (pictured, top of page)?
(Smiles) That is completely correct, yes! That was a big step and a big moment for us to join this tournament and to see the Faroese flag be raised at the tournament. So that was huge - we feel like we put our flagpole on the moon and on the Tennis Europe map. And we're very happy about that.
We didn't exactly know what we were signing up to, and this tournament is one of the strongest team tournaments for this age group, because it's the best players of each country that go. The skill level made it very difficult for our players to compete. But it was a very good learning experience. And even though they got completely outplayed on the court, they learned a lot and I'm really happy. It is, for us, a very clear signal that joining Tennis Europe was the correct step.
What was the feedback from players or coaches about the event?
The players and the coaches were very positive about it. We've discussed the next steps, and there are other tournaments that might be more suitable for us to win some matches, such as the Small States Championships - so we should look also at other tournaments. But as mentioned, we've put ourselves on the map and we're very happy about that.
Can we also expect to see players representing Faroe Islands soon at other European Championships, such as the Masters Tennis and Beach Tennis?
This sounds interesting! Beach tennis, we have never tried beach tennis! (Laughs) And we don't really have beaches on the Faroe Islands!
There are some countries that aren't traditionally thought of as “beach-going” nations but they do really well, so you just never know!
Yes! Maybe in the future… this is really interesting. Okay, so we'll definitely look into this!
Looking at the big picture, what do you think is the potential for tennis in Faroe Islands in the coming years?
I think there's huge potential as we are quite a sporting nation. I mean, all our kids play sports, and we usually ‘overachieve’ in the sports that we participate in, which means these sports have become popular. So, for example, in football, when you consider our size, we get some really good results. I mean, they beat Greece some years ago, which was a top team then, and last year, I think they won 5 matches, including against Czechia. But also in Handball, which is now the most popular sport, I would say, we are really overachieving, considering our size. And we have some of the best handball players in the world coming from this small country. So, tennis has traditionally been a very small sport in the Faroe Islands. It's only in the last 10 years or so that it's really gained traction. And we've started organising it better with competitions and now we've got a local community organised. It's starting to grow a lot and I think tennis is really a sport that is, you could say, is tried and tested, and I see no reason why the Faroe Islanders should not embrace it like the rest of the world does. I hope in a few years that we will have some players who can participate and do well on the Tennis Europe tour. That's at least what we're dreaming of. And we must try to dream big and then we will see how far we can get!
To wrap up, are there any bigger plans for the coming years, beyond the short-term?
I mentioned about infrastructure and building a tennis hall. This is one of our main things. We have the ambition to become a ‘B member’ of the ITF, because we want to also participate in Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. These are some of our important goals.
And then we really want to get maybe a tennis star, you know, I think that's probably very important for any sport. We see it in countries like Norway where they have Casper Ruud or Denmark with Holger Rune and Caroline Wozniacki. In Denmark, tennis is extremely popular. I mean, compared to how small the country is, they have a lot of good players. And so, we hope also that we can go on a similar path.
That would be fantastic. But of course, you never know if that will happen, but we will try to build, grow and make that a possibility!