Sven Davidson

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Sven Viktor Davidson (born July 13, 1928 in Boras) is a former Swedish tennis player. He won, as first Swede, the French Open in 1957. He had earlier reached the final, but lost against Tony Trabert and Lew Hoad. Therefore he was a finalist three consecutive years in Paris. He won a total of 26 Swedish Championships and played 86 games for the Davis Cup-team.

Davidson became Sweden's junior champion in 1947), 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.

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