Stefan Edberg continued Sweden’s dominance in men’s tennis with his excellence during the 1980s and 1990s.
Inspired by the successes of Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander, Edberg burst onto the scene in the early 1980s, winning his first Major at the 1985 Australian Open.
Over the next seven years, five more Grand Slam titles followed, as Edberg became one of the ATP Tour’s most dangerous players.
The Swede held the number one ranking for an impressive 72 weeks, finishing 1990, and 1991 as the year-end number one, ahead of Boris Becker and Jim Courier.
When he retired from tennis in 1996, he did so as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, as he now looks back upon one of his ‘proudest’ achievements.
Stefan Edberg says it will be ‘almost impossible’ for anyone to reach number one in singles and doubles
The 59-year-old is one of just two players in ATP history to have held the number-one ranking in both singles and doubles, alongside American legend John McEnroe.
Speaking on the ATP Tour’s YouTube channel, Edberg gave his thoughts on whether the achievement will be replicated in the modern game.
“I’m really proud of getting to number one in singles and doubles,” he said.
“It’s highly unlikely, almost impossible, that it’s going to happen [again] for at least 10, 20 years.”
Edberg looked back on the beginning of his tennis career, reflecting on the sacrifices he made in search of singles’ success.
“I was lucky enough to play singles and doubles during the beginning of my career, it was very helpful for my game playing a lot of matches, I always said the more matches I play the less I have to practice,” he said.
“It was useful, but at some stage it got very, very hard to combine singles and doubles.
“So I actually stopped playing doubles when I was 21, even if I did wish that I would continue, but it was impossible, so after that all the focus went on playing singles and focusing on the number one spot.”
Edberg finally reached world number one in August 1990, after winning the Cincinnati Open, holding the ranking for the next 24 weeks.
The six-time Major champion explained how difficult it was to remain at number one, after finally reaching the top spot 35 years ago.
“I managed in the end, at 24 years of age [to reach number one], it requires a certain mentality, you need to you know go your own way, you need to be quite selfish, you need to have a lot of good people around you,” said Edberg.
“It’s one thing getting there, that’s hard enough, but I would say it’s almost harder to stay at the top.
“It’s like being on top of the mountain, it’s very windy up there and you have to be extremely focused to stay up there because there’s a lot of competition so you need to keep working hard because they’re going to challenge you all the way.”
Stefan Edberg names the three biggest rivals from his tennis career
Edberg faced competition from some of tennis’ greatest players during his career, as he now reveals who he rates as his ‘biggest rival.’
“My biggest rivalry was with Boris [Becker], we were obviously playing three Wimbledon finals,” he said.
“That’s what people remember the most.”
Edberg won two of his three Wimbledon finals with the German star, as the pair faced off in three consecutive finals between 1988, and 1990.
- 1988 Wimbledon F – Stefan Edberg beat Boris Becker, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-2
- 1989 Wimbledon F – Boris Becker beat Stefan Edberg, 6-0, 7-6, 6-4
- 1990 Wimbledon F – Stefan Edberg beat Boris Becker, 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6, 6-4
Edberg also mentioned two other rivalries that he looks back upon fondly.
“It was a little rivalry with Mats Wilander being from the same country pushing each other,” he said.
“There was a little sort of rivalry with [Jim] Courier at one stage as well.
“It is quite an achievement actually to finish the year number one and to do it two years in a row even better, but I was very very close to making it three years in a row.
“I was quite disappointed towards the end there because I really wanted that spot but I think Courier got ahead of me for that year [1992].”
Courier took the world number one ranking from Edberg in October 1992, and the Swede never returned to the top spot.
He retired four years later, having spent 72 weeks as number one, winning six Majors, carving out a legacy very few can match.
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