Rolf Norberg (born 31 January 1952) 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.

Career

Norberg partnered

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 ...

to win 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 ...

doubles title in Helsinki in 1973 and won the singles at the Swedish Championships in 1975. On the Grand Prix circuit, one of his best wins as a singles player came in the 1976 Swedish Open when he eliminated second seed

Wojtek Fibak Wojciech Fibak (; popularly Wojtek Fibak ; born 30 August 1952) is a former professional tennis player and Polish entrepreneur and art collector. Fibak is best known for his doubles success with Dutch pro Tom Okker and Australian Kim Warwick, a ...

. His only Grand Prix final was in doubles, at the

Aix-en-Provence Open The Aix-en-Provence Open was a combined men's and women's clay court tennis tournament founded in 1955 as the Trophée Raquette d'Or or Golden Racket Trophy or Aix-en-Provence Golden Racket Trophy and originally staged at the Tennis Club Aixoism, ...

in 1977, with local player Patrice Dominguez. They were defeated in the final by Ilie Năstase and Ion Țiriac.

Grand Slam

He made main draw appearances at both the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

and US Open. Most notably he reached the third round of the

1977 French Open The 1977 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament ran from 23 May until 5 June. It was the 81st staging of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam ...

, opening the tournament with a win over Czechoslovakian qualifier

Pavel Složil Pavel Složil (born 29 December 1955) is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia. Složil enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won 32 doubles titles and finished runner-up an additiona ...

, then causing an upset by defeating fourth seed

Eddie Dibbs Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American tennis player also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times. Dibbs holds t ...

Davis Cup

Throughout the 1970s he also played a total of six

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 ...

ties for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and featured in the country's 1975 campaign when they won their first title. He played his first tie in 1973, against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in Båstad, called up to partner

Ove Bengtson Ove Nils Bengtson (born 5 April 1945) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won five doubles titles. Bengtson was a member of the Swedish Davis Cup t ...

for the doubles rubber. They won that match and it was Bengtson again that Norberg partnered when he returned to the side in 1975 for Sweden's Europe Zone B quarter-final against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. On this occasion Norberg and his partner lost, but Sweden went on to win the tie. He wasn't required for the rest of the tournament, which Sweden won over Czechoslovakia in the final. He next played in 1976 against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in Rome. With Borg making himself unavailable for selection, Norberg had the opportunity to play two singles matches, both of which he lost, in addition to the doubles rubber. His other three ties all came in the

1977 Davis Cup The 1977 Davis Cup was the 66th edition of the Davis Cup, the most important tournament between national teams in men's tennis. 59 teams would enter the competition, 33 in the Europe Zone, 14 in the Americas Zone, and 12 in the Eastern Zone. Alger ...

Personal life

Norberg is married to arts journalist Madeleine Grive, the daughter of famed Swedish sports commentator Bengt Grive. He works as a commentator himself for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norberg, Rolf 1952 births Living people Swedish male tennis players People from Borgholm Municipality Sportspeople from Kalmar County