Jonas Svensson

For an ace player, to become an ace player, it takes years and years of hard work. But to create a legacy in just a decade after becoming pro is a feat not many have achieved in their lifetime. Jonas Svensson is one of them. He turned pro in 1985 and over the course of his few years of tennis, steadily improved his rating. So much so that in just four years his ratings improved from 741 in 1984 to world ranking 22 in 1988. 

For an ace player, to become an ace player, it takes years and years of hard work. But to create a legacy in just a decade after becoming pro is a feat not many have achieved in their lifetime. Jonas Svensson is one of them. He turned pro in 1985 and over the course of his few years of tennis, steadily improved his rating. So much so that in just four years his ratings improved from 741 in 1984 to world ranking 22 in 1988. 

Before he turned pro, he won the Swedish Junior singles championship in 1978 at the Boys 12 category. That was just the beginning of it. He also reached the 1983 Wimbledon Juniors semifinals.

As far as records set by him are concerned, over a decade-long career, he had maintained an outstanding 8-1 five-set record in Grand Slams. During his many ups and downs, he enjoyed his best success at the 1988 French Open where he upset two-time defending champ Ivan Lendl in the quarterfinals to reach the semi finals.

Svensson has been a French Open semi-finalist twice in his time. Once in 1988 and the other time was 1990. He took part in the Open both times as an unseeded player. In the 1988 French Open he achieved one of his biggest upsets when he defeated Ivan Lendl in the quarters. However, when he reached the semi finals, he lost to Henri Leconte. This was his first tryst with destiny at the French Open. The second time he made it to the French Open was in the 1990 French Open. During his second time, he defeated Sergi Bruguera in 5 sets in the 2nd round, who had earlier defeated Stefan Edberg, the top seed in the 1st round. To his misfortune, he lost to Andre Agassi in the semis. In the 1989 Australian Open he defeated Boris Becker in the 4th round.

1988 could be considered one of the best years of his playing career. In that one year itself, he was able to compile a 39-21 match record and earned a career-high $287,001 while ranking No. 22 on the ATP computer in 1988.

Svensson had height on his side, and took great advantage of that. His play style was largely driven by his right hand shots and double-handed was extremely strong as well. 

Moreover, he has time and again attributed his success to his coach, Tim Klien who had also coached Magnus Gustafsson, Christian Bergstrom, David Engel, and Lars Jonsson. Svensson retired from international pro tennis in 1995, with a singles high world ranking of 10, and a doubles highest ranking of 49 in his elaborate career. In his lifetime, he had won a total of 5 titles, and was a runner up at Stuttgart, Wembley. He was also a Semifinalist at Munich, Vienna; Quarterfinalist at Toronto Indoor, Paris Indoor.

Grand Slam records

Australian Open QF (1989)

French Open SF (1988, 1990)

Wimbledon 3R (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990)

US Open 4R (1987)