Stockholm: Where Tennis Royalty Has Found Regular Success
Alongside the Nordea Open in Båstad, the Stockholm Open is one of two Swedish ATP Tour events.
The ATP 250, first held in 1969, would have been played this week if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.
ATPTour.com looks at five things to know about the tournament.
1) Tennis Royalty In Stockholm: The Stockholm Open has welcomed the biggest stars in the sport to the Kungliga Tennishallen (Royal Tennis Hall) since its inaugural edition in 1969. Seven former World No. 1s have lifted the trophy at the two-time ATP 250 Tournament of the Year, including John McEnroe and Boris Becker.
McEnroe and Becker both triumphed on a record four occasions at the tournament. McEnroe won back-to-back trophies in 1978 and 1979 and repeated that feat with tournament victories in 1984 and 1985.
After winning his maiden trophy at the Kungliga Tennishallen in 1988, Becker claimed his remaining three trophies at the Ericsson Globe in 1990, 1991 and 1994. The tournament was held at that venue between 1989 and 1994, before returning north to the Kungliga Tennishallen in 1995.
2) Swedish Success: Swedish players have enjoyed consistent success in Stockholm. Home players have won 10 editions of the singles event and nine versions of the doubles tournament. Bjorn Borg (1980), Mats Wilander (1983), Stefan Edberg (1986-87), Thomas Enqvist (1995-96, ’99), Jonas Bjorkman (1997) and Thomas Johansson (2000, ’04) have all lifted the trophy in the Swedish capital.
Edberg (1987) and Bjorkman (2003, ’07-08) have also delighted home crowds with runs to the doubles trophy. The most recent home doubles champions were Elias Ymer and Mikael Ymer in 2016.
3) Borg, McEnroe Collide: Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe only met on 14 occasions throughout their careers, but two of those matches were held in Stockholm. They contested the first match of their ATP Head2Head rivalry in the 1978 semi-finals, with McEnroe earning a 6-3, 6-4 victory.
After contesting five-set finals at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1980, Borg and McEnroe met in their third final of the year in Stockholm. Borg gained revenge for his 1978 semi-final defeat, beating McEnroe by the same score to lift his only title at the event.
4) Federer’s 2010 Run: Ten years after making his tournament debut in 2000, Roger Federer returned to Sweden in 2010 to capture the Stockholm crown. The Swiss earned wins against Taylor Dent, Stan Wawrinka and future coach Ivan Ljubicic to reach the championship match. With a final victory against Florian Mayer, Federer equalled Pete Sampras’ mark of 64 tour-level titles.
5) Creating New Stars: The honour roll in Stockholm is packed with past legends of the game, but it also features two of the brightest talents on the ATP Tour. Stefanos Tsitsipas (2018) and Denis Shapovalov (2019) both claimed their maiden ATP Tour trophies at the event and have since cracked the Top 10 in the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time.
