Torsten Johansson (11 April 1920 – 14 May 2004) was a Swedish

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

player who was active during the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Tennis career

Johansson set a record by shutting out two opponents at the 1947 Wimbledon, when he beat Brian Royds and Pierre Geeland De Merxem, 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 in the first and second rounds respectively. Johansson played for the Royal Tennis Club of Stockholm in the early 1940s and won more than 100 national titles for the club, a record that still stands. Johansson also won 32 Swedish National titles, being 7 titles in singles (4 indoor and 3 outdoor), 10 in doubles (3 indoor and 7 outdoor) as well as 15 mixed doubles titles (5 indoor and 10 outdoor). During the period 1946 to 1960 he played 72

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the orga ...

matches for Sweden of which 51 were victorious. His last match was the 1960 Europe Zone semifinal victory against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. He and

Lennart Bergelin Sven Lennart Bergelin (10 June 1925 – 4 November 2008) was a Swedish tennis player and coach. As a player, for AIK, Bergelin won nine Swedish championship singles titles between 1945 and 1955, and the French Open doubles title in 1948. Bergeli ...

, coach of

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at W ...

, turned Sweden into a tennis power after World War II. Johansson won 14 international tournaments in his career, including the Swedish Open in 1947, the Copenhagen Indoor Amateur in 1949 and 1950, the Dusseldorf International (beating

Jaroslav Drobny Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that originally the two elements of the nam ...

in the semifinals) and the German International Covered Court Championship 1956. In 1956, he was also a finalist to Ian Vermaak at the South African Championships. After retiring, Johansson became a world-wide distributor of Tretorn Shoes from Sweden and established an outlet in the United States with Bancroft Sporting Goods. He was a World Class Player in Senior Tournaments until his death in 2004. In 2005, he was posthumously inducted into the Swedish Tennis Hall of Fame.

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External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johansson, Torsten 1920 births 2004 deaths Swedish male tennis players People from Karlsborg Municipality Sportspeople from Västra Götaland County

Tennis career

See also

References

External links