Background
Stefan was born on January 19, 1966, in Västervik, Sweden, to Bengt Edberg and his wife Barbro Edberg.
Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd winning the Men’s Doubles Championship at the US Open in 1987.
Los Angeles, California, Unted States
Seoul, South Korea
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Open
Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom
Los Angeles, California, Unted States
Seoul, South Korea
Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd winning the Men’s Doubles Championship at the US Open in 1987.
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Open
Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom
London, England, United Kingdom
Stefan Edberg and wife Annette arrive at the World Premiere of 'Goal' at the Odeon Leicester Square on September 15, 2005.
Roger Federer. Photo by Uniqlo.
Stefan was born on January 19, 1966, in Västervik, Sweden, to Bengt Edberg and his wife Barbro Edberg.
When Stefan was a six, his mother happened to notice an advertisement published in a local newspaper regarding a mini-tennis facility. The otherwise enthusiast of soccer and ice hockey was sent to the tennis facility on the very next day by his parents. He used to receive training once a week through a year. Although initially he was not much interested in the game and thought of quitting it, he continued with it upon insistence of parents and gradually developed a knack for tennis.
By the time Stefan was eight, he regularly started visiting the small tennis club that consisted of an indoor court and a couple of clay courts, where he was allowed to play free of charge. As he was quite young at that time, he mostly played with players in the club who were older than him. He took part in many summer tournaments.
In the early 1980s he met famous trainer Percy Rosberg and soon began training under him by travelling to Stockholm once every week. After school he devoted more time in training. Later Tony Pickard became his coach.
In 1983, Stefan became the first and only player to win a junior singles Grand Slam. At the Australian and US Opens, he defeated Australian Simon Youl for two legs of the four major titles he earned as a junior. As a professional he won 41 singles and 18 doubles titles. He won 801 singles matches, seventh best in history, and ranks fifth all-time in winning percentage at the Australian Open (85 percent). In major tournament play, Edberg won 178 matches, eighth best all-time.
Edberg joined the pro tour in 1983 and it took him less than two years to win his first ATP tournament. It came on March 25, 1984 in Milan, Italy over fellow Swede Mats Wilander, 6-4, 6-2. He won Olympic honors before winning a major championship, defeating Mexico’s Francisco Maciel, 6-1, 7-6 at the 1984 Games that were conducted as a demonstration sport in Los Angeles. He won Bronze Medals at the 1988 Games played in Seoul, South Korea in both singles and doubles. Until Edberg won in Memphis in late January 1985, he hadn’t yet made a complete mark on the men’s game. But that championship included a 6-4, 6-2 win over Brad Gilbert in the quarterfinals, a 6-1, 6-4 thrashing of Jimmy Connors in the semifinals, and a 6-1, 6-0 blitz over Yannick Noah in the finals. That string of wins caught everyone’s attention.
Fast surfaces were tailored made for Edberg’s game – he won all of his major singles and doubles titles on hard courts. He never won the French Open, though he did advance to the 1989 final, falling to 17-year-old Michael Chang, who became the youngest male major champion in history, on the slow red clay at Roland Garros, 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Statistically at least, the Australian Open was his favored venue. He played in five finals from 1985-93, tied with Roger Federer for the second most in history. On the way to winning the 1985 and 1987 titles and advancing to three additional finals, Edberg compiled a 56-10 record (85 percent winning mark) in Melbourne. As the No. 5 seed in 1985, Edberg played a dazzling five-set match in defeating Lendl in the semifinals (6-7, 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 9-7). Fellow Swede Wilander was unable to counterattack Edberg’s masterful serve-and-volley game in the final, losing 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. Edberg’s 1987 championship had an easier semifinal win (6-2, 6-4, 7-6 over Aussie Wally Masur), but the championship match was an arduous back-and-forth tussle against Pat Cash that Edberg captured in five sets, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3. He lost to Lendl in 1990 and to Jim Courier in both the 1992 and 1993 finals that saw the ecstatic Courier jump in the muddy Yarra River.
Edberg’s fiercest rival – outside of the Courier defeats in Australia – was German Boris Becker, who Edberg defeated to win the 1988 and 1990 Wimbledon Gentlemen Singles Championships. Both matches were massive serving and volleying efforts by both players, Edberg winning 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 in 1988 and 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4 in 1990. Becker convincingly defeated Edberg at Wimbledon in 1989, 6-0, 7-6, 6-4. The pair played 35 times, with Becker holding a 25-10 advantage. At the 1987 Wimbledon Championships, Edberg advanced to the semifinals before being defeated by Lendl in four sets, but in his opening round match against Stefan Eriksson, he defeated his fellow Swede 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, becoming one of only six players in history to earn a triple bagel victory.
In ten meetings versus Edberg, Courier won six, but one of Edberg’s four victories came on a sweltering 90-plus degree day at the 1991 US Open, 6-2, 6-4, 6-0, and those the odds weren’t in his favor. Edberg seemed destined to follow the same unfortunate snake-bitten path as Borg, who failed to win the US Open in ten attempts. Going into the 1991 final against Courier, Edberg had been stymied in eight previous trips to New York. But he was crisp throughout the tournament, winning five of his seven matches that year in straight sets and dispensed Lendl, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals. “I remember walking off the court knowing there was no way I could have beaten him on that day,” Courier told the media afterwards. “He played a nearly flawless match.” Edberg confirmed he was in the zone that afternoon at Flushing Meadows. “Lifting the trophy after beating Courier was the best match of my life.”
The Swede successfully defended his US Open title in 1992 with a neat 3-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 win over Pete Sampras, a player he lost to in eight of 14 tournaments, but never in a major event (he defeated Sampras in the semifinals of the 1993 Australian). Throughout his career, Edberg held his own and then some against the world’s best, facing nine players who were current- or former-No. 1 players nine times. “I was lucky to play in the era of great players,” Edberg told.
Edberg’s singles proficiency spilled nicely into his doubles game where he joined John McEnroe as the only players in history to be ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles since the ATP computer rankings began, a feat he achieved in the 1986-87 season. He was ranked No. 1 in singles a total of 72 non-consecutive weeks during his career and No. 1 in doubles 11 weeks (June 9, 1986 to August 24, 1986). Edberg was ranked in world Top 10 in year-end rankings ten straight years (1985-1994), finishing in the Top 5 from 1985-1993. In major doubles competition, he and Swedish partner Anders Jarryd won the Australian and US Opens in 1987, and in 1996 Edberg teamed with Czech Petr Korda to win a second Australian doubles title.
Edberg represented Sweden in Davis Cup competition from 1984 to 1996, leading the team to championships in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1994.
In December 2013, Edberg began coaching Roger Federer.
He is famous as a Swedish former world No. 1 professional tennis player (in both singles and doubles). A major proponent of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles between 1985 and 1996. He also won the Masters Grand Prix and was a part of the Swedish Davis Cup-winning-team four times. In addition he won four Masters Series titles, four Championship Series titles and the unofficial Olympic tournament 1984, was ranked in the singles top 10 for ten successive years, 9 years in the top 5, and is considered one of the greatest players of his era.
Quotations:
"I'd won the Australian Open twice, but winning Wimbledon takes something special."
"I'm really trying to focus myself on playing tennis, and I think that's really important."
"I've been here playing against Connors and it can be very, very loud. It makes it exciting at the same time."
"For me, and most of the other players, too, if you had to pick one of the four Grand Slams, you would pick Wimbledon. It's got tradition, it's got atmosphere, and it's got mystique."
"I had one good racket, a Wilson Javelin. It was my favorite racket, and I made the mistake of putting it next to the heater. It just got so hot that it melted."
"Once you succeed in tennis, financially you become quite well off."
"I'm always being realistic."
Physical Characteristics: his height is 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in).
Edberg married Annette Hjort Olsen. Prior to her marriage with Edberg, at some point of time Annette had a romantic association with Mats Wilander. The couple has two children, Christopher and Emilie.
