Henrik Sundstrom

Henrik Sundstrom is a former professional male tennis player from Sweden. He started his professional career in 1981 and in 1982 he made it to the final of the Swedish Open in Bastad, losing to countryman and reigning French Open champion Mats Wilander. He is nicknamed Henke and was at his best on clay where he achieved his strongest results. In 1983, he won his first ATP title in Nice over Manuel Orants and made the final in Madrid, losing to Yannick Noah who later went on to win the French Open that year. Meanwhile the next year, in 1984, Sundstrom went on to reach the quarterfinals of the French Open, which was his best performance at Grand Slam, and achieved a career high singles ranking of World No. 6. He made his Davis Cup debut against New Zealand in the quarterfinals played at Eastbourne, although he lost both his match, Sweden still won the tie and reached the final that year against Australia.

Sundstrom’s biggest strength was his solid and heavy topspin groundstrokes from the baseline. 1984 was the best year of Sundstrom’s career as he won 14 games out of 15 he played in between three weeks from 2 April to 22 April, winning titles in Bari over Pedro Rebolledo without losing a set, and then made it to the final in Nice, that too without conceding a set before losing to Andres Gomez. And then he won the biggest tournament of his career, Monte Carlo Open, against Mats Wilander. After that, he made the final of the German Open Hamburg, once again beating Mats Wilander before losing a five-setter against Juan Aquilera. He then defeated Alvaro Fillol, Joakim Nystrom, Hans Gildemeister and Francesco Cancellotti en route to the quarterfinals of the French Open.

After the Roland Garros, Sundstrom won the title in Bastad and made the final of Geneva, losing to Aaron Krickstein. The same year he made it to the Swedish Davis Cup team but lost the debut match. However, the Swedish team went on to win the championship. In the semi-final against Czechoslovakia, Sundstrom turned around a 0-3 deficit in the third set and won the match in five sets. The thrilling victory gave Sweden the edge in the tie and they booked a meeting with the mighty Americans for the title decider.

The US team consisted of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Peter Fleming. Mats Wilander defeated Jimmy Connors in the first match before Sundstrom faced McEnroe in the second. The Swede defeated McEnroe in straight sets, 13-11, 6-4, 6-3 and turned the final in Sweden’s favor and they eventually won the Davis Cup by taking the doubles as well.

Sundstrom never reached the same heights again after 1984 and he played the Davis Cup only once more. His last title came in Athens in 1986 when he defeated Franscisco Maciel. Later, back problems troubled him and he retired in 1989.

Grand Slam Singles results:

Australian Open: 2R (1982, 1983, 1985)

French Open: QF (1983)

Wimbledon: 3R (1983)

US Open: 4R ( 1984)