Sven Lennart Bergelin (10 June 1925 – 4 November 2008) was a Swedish

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 and coach. As a player, for

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

, Bergelin won nine Swedish championship singles titles between 1945 and 1955, and the French Open doubles title in 1948. Bergelin is best known for his work with

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimb ...

, whom he trained between 1971 and 1983, helping him to win 11 Grand Slam tournaments. Bergelin also captained Sweden to its first Davis Cup title.Lennart Bergelin, Bjorn Borg's coach, dies at 83
''International Herald Tribune'', 4 November 2008.

Tennis career

During a ten-year period, between 1946 and 1955, Bergelin was ranked among the top 10 amateur players in the world, reaching World No. 9 in

John Olliff John Sheldon Olliff (1 December 1908 – 29 June 1951) was an English tennis player, author and sportsjournalist. Life Olliff took part in the Wimbledon Championships from 1928. In singles, he advanced to the fourth round several times until ...

's 1948 amateur rankings. He won 20 national championships (9 singles and 11 doubles) and became the first Swedish player ever to win a grand slam, as he and

Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný (; 12 October 1921 – 13 September 2001) was a World No. 1 amateur tennis and ice hockey champion. He left Czechoslovakia in 1949 and travelled as an Egyptian citizen before becoming a citizen of the United Kingdom in 1959, w ...

won the French doubles championship in 1948. Bergelin played 89

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

matches representing Sweden and won 63 of these. He played the last DC game, at the age of 40, together with Jan-Erik Lundqvist. Between 1971 and 1976, Bergelin captained the Swedish DC team and in 1975 he led them to victory as they defeated

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in the finals. Bergelin was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1950.

Coaching career

Between 1974 and 1981, he and Björn Borg won 11 Grand Slam titles (6 French Open and 5 Wimbledon) of 16 Grand Slam finals became the first player-coach combination who won more than 10 major titles in the Open-era. During this period helped Borg become the first player in the Open Era to win three majors without dropping a set. Borg remains the only male player to win the Channel-Slam (French Open, Wimbledon back-to-back wins) in the same year for 3 consecutive years. Furthermore, as of today, his protege still holds a number of

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

; winning 41 consecutive sets at French Open (1979-1981) and being undefeated for 41 consecutive matches in Wimbledon (1976-1981).

Death

Bergelin died in 2008. According to Peter Bengtsson, a spokesman for the Swedish Tennis Association, he died from

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

at a Stockholm hospital.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1 title)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergelin, Lennart 1925 births 2008 deaths Swedish male tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles French Championships junior (tennis) champions French Championships (tennis) champions Swedish tennis coaches People from Alingsås