Joakim Nystrom

Legends are made up of nerves and the ability to control them in tough situations. Joak Nystrom was just short of that when he lost to Boris Becker at the 1985 Wimbledon. Just inches away from victory, Nystrom is still a legend because of what he has achieved throughout his tennis career. He is the former top ten ranked tennis player from Sweden. In his career, he has won a total of 13 singles titles. The right-hander reached his highest singles ranking on the ATP Tour on 31 March 1986, and reached his all-time best rank of world No. 7. world No. In the same year, he fared better in the doubles and had a ranking of 4.

Nystrom turned pro in 1980 and in a short career of 9 years, he was a singles quarter finalist at both the French Open (1985) and US Open (1985, 1986) tournaments, the 1986 Wimbledon doubles champion with Mats Wilander, and a member of the winning 1985 and 1987 Davis Cup teams from Sweden. During his career, he also qualified for The Masters year-end singles tournament in 1984, 1985, and 1986.

Nystrom is a prominent figure in the world of Swedish tennis because he is a part of the 1980s and early 1990s generation that was class apart. This generation also included the likes of Anders Järryd, Jonas Svensson, Mikael Pernfors, Kent Carlsson, Stefan Edberg, Henrik Sundström, and Mats Wilander.

Since retiring from tennis, Nyström has served as Fed Cup captain for Sweden and as an assistant coach to Wilander with the Swedish Davis Cup team. Outside of these commitments, he also coaches both Finn Jarkko Nieminen and Austrian Jürgen Melzer. Jack Sock has also hired him as his coach.

One of the most memorable matches he played was at the 1985 Wimbledon where he almost defeated the then winner, Borris Becker. Had it not been for the tight slip for Becker, Nystrom could have gone on to win that Wimbledon.

The Wimbledon of 1985 was Nystrom's fourth appearance in The Championships, and rallied from two sets to one down against Becker to serve for the match at 5-4 in the fifth.

Becker crushed a cross-court backhand return winner and won his serve back, but Nystrom again stole a chance to serve out the match at 6-5. Becker just missed in the first point of the game, but he showed great resilience to win the next four points to walk right away from elimination.

“There are a lot of good guys who could win this tournament,” Becker said. “Maybe I am one of them. I don’t know.”

“He won’t win Wimbledon, not this year,” Nystrom said.

After a steep defeat from the teenager, Nystrom accepted his defeat and said "At Wimbledon, I played the best grass court match of my life,” Nystrom said. “He still beat me.”

Over the course of his career, he had won 13 singles titles and 8 doubles titles. It was owing to his height and the kind of play style he had. His powerful right hand strokes were more than enough to scare any opponent. His double handed right backhand was also a force to be reckoned with.

Grand slam records doubles

Australian Open: F (1984)

French Open: SF (1985)

Wimbledon: W (1986)

US Open: F (1986)