Douglas Boson Palm (born 6 May 1951) is a former professional
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 ...
player from Sweden.
Early life
Douglas Boson Palm was born on May 6th 1951 in Flen, Sweden.
He grew up in Malmköping.
He is the third son of Bo Palm (who died 1973 of ALS) and his wife Ingrid Palm who died (aged 102) in 2021.
His brothers are Kjell Palm (died 2020) and Björn-Ulf Palm.
Biography
Douglas Palm was a quarter-finalist at the
Copenhagen Open
The Copenhagen Open was a men's tennis tournament on the World Championship Tennis (WCT) circuit and ATP Tour held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was first held in February 1973 as part of the WCT tour and featured renowned players such as Ken Rosewal ...
in 1976. Later in the year he upset
Mark Edmondson
Mark Edmondson (born 28 June 1954 in Gosford, New South Wales) is a retired Australian professional tennis player.
Edmondson won the 1976 Australian Open while ranked 212th in the world, and remains the lowest-ranked winner of a Grand Slam t ...
in the
1976 Swedish Open, then in the
1976 Stockholm Open held a match point in the second round against
Mark Cox, who went on to win the tournament.
A
Swedish Davis Cup representative, Palm was picked to play for his country in a tie against
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
in Uppsala in April, 1977. He featured in the doubles rubber with
Jan Norbäck, which they won over
Bernard Balleret and Louis Borfiga, to secure the tie.
Palm made his first singles appearance in the main draw of a
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournament at the
1977 Wimbledon Championships
The 1977 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament ran from 20 June until 2 July. It was the 91 ...
. He beat West German player
Frank Gebert
Frank Gebert (born 6 November 1952) is a former professional tennis player from Germany.
Biography
Gebert lost to Byron Bertram in the boys' singles final at the 1970 Wimbledon Championships.
During the 1970s, he competed professionally and he a ...
in the opening round, then lost a five set second round match to
Paul Kronk
Paul Kronk (born 22 September 1954) is a former tennis player from Australia.
Kronk won seven doubles titles during his professional career. The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP ranking on 25 April 1976, when he was No. 78 in the w ...
.
After making a
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
quarter-final, at
Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
, Palm ended the 1977 season by competing in the
December edition of the Australian Open (there had also been a tournament in January). On this occasion he was unable to get past the first round and lasted only one set against
Alvin Gardiner
Alvin Gardiner (born 11 February 1951) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.
Career
Gardiner was a quarter-finalist in the men's doubles at the 1968 Australian Open with Ross Case.
He continued to compete in every Australian ...
before he had to retire hurt.
Palm returned to Wimbledon
in 1978 and lost to
Buster Mottram
Christopher "Buster" Mottram (born 25 April 1955 in Kingston upon Thames) is an English former tennis player and UK number 1 who achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15 in February 1983.
Mottram represented Great Britain in the D ...
in opening round. The match was played before a large police presence due to demonstrators who had turned up to protest against Mottram's support of the National Front Party.
He also competed in men's doubles at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open during his career, all with Jan Norbäck.
His best performance in a Grand Prix tournament came at
Linz
Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846.
In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...
in 1979, when he had wins over
Patrice Dominguez
Patrice Dominguez (12 January 1950 – 12 April 2015) was a French tennis player born in Algeria. He reached a career high ranking of 36 in 1973. He represented France in the Davis Cup between 1971 and 1979.
Dominguez was runner–up at the 197 ...
,
Markus Günthardt and
Louk Sanders
Louk Sanders (born 9 May 1950) is a retired professional tennis player from the Netherlands
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of ...
to make the semi-finals. That year he also won the men's doubles title with
Tenny Svensson at the
Scandinavian Indoor Championships
The Scandinavian Indoor Championships also known as the Scandinavian Covered Court Championships and the Scandinavian Indoor Open was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament held from 1936 through 1979.
History
The tournament was created ...
, a tournament not part of the circuit.
Personal life
Palm lived in Germany near the city of Stuttgart for several decades.
After his career he was a highly passionate and well known tennis coach at the WTB (Württembergischer Tennisbund) and coached several young players on their way to a professional career.
He was married to a German woman and has two children.
After his divorce in 2002 he lived with his longtime girlfriend in Nürtingen and Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart / Germany.
In his 50s and 60s he was part of the „Herren 50“ tennis team in Nürtingen‘s tennis club ETV Nürtingen where he played against several other clubs in Baden-Württemberg.
Since 2007 Palm is back living in Sweden.
See also
*
List of Sweden Davis Cup team representatives
References
External links
*
*
*
ETV Nürtingen Tennisclub
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palm, Douglas
1951 births
Living people
Swedish male tennis players
20th-century Swedish people