The former tennis ace, Mats Wilander
The former world number one Swede tennis ace, Mats Wilander was born on 22nd August, 1964 in the city of Vaxjo. The right handed player captured a total of seven Grand Slam singles trophies from 1982 to 1988. He won a total of three titles at the French Open championship, three at Australian Open and one at the United States Open tournament apart from his one doubles title at the grass court Grand Slam tournament. He succeeded in three of the four majors in the season 1988 and ended the year listed as number one in the world.
Although, Wilander never managed to triumph in the singles competition at Wimbledon, however, he on two occasions succeeded in the Australian Open championship at a time when it was being contested on grass. This places Wilander along with four other men namely Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Jimmy Connors as well as Rafael Nadal to have triumphed in the Grand Slam singles championships on hard, grass as well as clay courts. Moreover, Mats is the only player in the rich history of the sports to have succeeded in at the least two Grand Slam championships on each of the three courts. The right handed player grabbed his fourth Grand Slam title when he was just twenty years of age thus became the youngest player to have accomplished that deed.
Born in Sweden, Wilander first came to the limelight, when he triumphed in the French Open junior championship for the very first time, the Orange Bowl, the European under sixteen as well as under eighteen tournaments along with under sixteen competition held in Miami.
The 1.82 meters tall Wilander made his debut on the professional tour at the clay court championship held in Bastad, Sweden back in the season 1980. The following year, he was fallen down in his only career clash versus Bjorn Borg 6–1, 6–1., in the round number one of the championship in held in Geneva in the month of September.
Wilander amazed the entire tennis fraternity a year later at the French Open championship. Being an unseeded contester, he knocked down the seeded second player, Ivan Lendl in the round number four, Vitas Gerulaitis, the fifth seeded player in the quarter final stage, Jose Luis Clerc, the fourth seeded player in the semi final encounter and lastly, GuillermoVilas the third seeded player in the final of the championship with a final match score as 1–6, 7–6(6), 6–0, 6–4 in a time period of two hundred and eighty two minutes. He became the youngest ever tennis player from the men’s side to have won a Grand Slam singles title at just seventeen years of age until Boris Becker as well as Micheal Chang surpassed it later. Wilander succeeded in a total of three additional championships back in 1982 and ended the season ranked world number seven by the ATP.
The next year, Wilander grabbed his second Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open Championship, contested on grass court at the Kooyong Stadium, where he knocked down McEnroe in the semi final stage and Lendl in the final clash. He triumphed in a total of eight other championships in the season 1983, including his very first hard court trophy, Cincinnati, and ended the season ranked number four in the world.
In 1984, Mats successfully managed to defend his Australian Open title by knocking down Kevin Curren in the final match. The right handed player triumphed in a total of three championships during that season and once again finished off the year as ranked number four in the world. The next year, mats won his second French Open title by falling down Lendl in the final match.
All through the years, Wilander kept in improving his game and as a result knocked down many important players such as Edberg, Henri Leconte, Lendl, Boris Becker, Todd Martin, Marc Rosset, Ferreira as well as Yevgeny kafelnikov.
The Swede tennis player, Mats Wilander announced his retirement from the professional tennis back in 1996. Wilander grabbed a total of thirty three singles trophies as well as seven doubles ones during his professional life. Moreover, Mats was also an impetus behind Sweden's run of a total of seven Davis cup final appearances in a row back in the 1980s.
In 2002, this living legend of the sports was included into the International Tennis Hall of Fame as a result of his contributions to the game of tennis.
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