Sven Davidson

Infobox Person
name = Sven Davidson


caption =
birth_date = July 13 1928
birth_place = Borås, Sweden
death_date = May 28 2008
death_place =
other_names =
known_for = Tennis player
occupation =
nationality = Swedish

Sven Davidson (July 13 1928 - May 28 2008) was a Swedish tennis player. In Ye|1957|sports, he was the first Swede to win the French championships (which became the French Open) with a victory over Herbie Flam in the finals. In 1955, he was runner-up to Tony Trabert, and in the 1956 tournament he lost to Lew Hoad. He won a total of 26 Swedish championships and played 86 matches for the Davis Cup-team.

Born in Borås, Davidson became Sweden's junior champion in Ye|1947|sports), and the first Swede to win a Grand Slam championship (France, 1957). Davidson was the prominent Swedish singles champion from 1950 through 1960, prior to the reign of Björn Borg. Davidson was ranked in the World's Top Ten for six years in a row (1953-58), earning the world No. 3 ranking in 1957. He also captured the Wimbledon Doubles Championships in 1958 (with partner Ulf Schmidt).

Davidson was a member of Sweden's Davis Cup team from 1950-61 with a win-loss record of 62-23 (39-14 in singles; 23-9 in doubles). He still holds Sweden's record for most Davis Cup doubles match wins. After his playing career, Davidson went on to cover tennis for Swedish TV (1960-64). He was instrumental in the creation of the Stockholm Open in 1969, the first tournament in Northern Europe with official prize money. He chaired the tournament's Committee on Management from 1969-1972. Davidson is also the one initiating the first general meeting of the International Tennis Federation (Paris, 1968), where the advent of "open" tennis was discussed and where 47 countries agreed in principle to the idea.

Davidson was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007, along with Pete Sampras (United States), Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (Spain) and Russ Adams (United States). He died at age 79 in California.