Sven Viktor Davidson (13 July 1928 – 28 May 2008) was a
Swedish tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player who became the first Swede to win a
Grand Slam title when he won the
French Championships in
1957
Events January
* January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany.
* January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
* January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...
, beating
Ashley Cooper and
Herbert Flam.
Career
Davidson also reached the French championships final in the two previous years. In 1955 he beat
Budge Patty before losing to
Tony Trabert.
In 1956 he beat Flam and Cooper before losing to
Lew Hoad.
He also reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 1957 (beating Seixas before losing to
Lew Hoad).
At the 1957 U. S. Championships, Davidson lost in five sets in the semifinals to
Mal Anderson. In 1958 Davidson partnered with
Ulf Schmidt to win the doubles title at the
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...
defeating the Australian pair
Ashley Cooper and
Neale Fraser in three straight sets. He played his last Grand Slam event at Wimbledon in 1959.
Davidson reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 2.
He played for the Swedish
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
team between 1950 and 1960.
Davidson was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. It honors both players and other contributors to the sport of tennis. The complex, the former Newport Casino, includes a museum, 13 grass tennis courts, an ...
in 2007.
Personal life
Davidson lived in
Arcadia, California
Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of t ...
since the 1970s. In 1981, at age 52, he suffered a heart attack while playing a tennis match in Los Angeles. He died in Arcadia on 28 May 2008 as a result of pneumonia.
Grand Slam finals
Singles (1 title, 2 runners-up)
Doubles (1 title)
Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
Singles
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Sven
1928 births
2008 deaths
Sportspeople from Borås
French Championships (tennis) champions
Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States
Swedish male tennis players
International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Wimbledon champions (pre-Open Era)
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles
20th-century Swedish sportsmen