Mats Wilander
Mats burst onto the world tennis scene at the 1982 French Open, just a year after turning professional. As an unseeded player, he upset second, fifth and fourth seeds en route to a final with third-seeded Guillermo Vilas. Winning that match in five sets, he became the youngest-ever male Grand Slam singles champion at 17 years, 9 months.
Wilander won his second and third Grand Slam titles at the 1983 and 1984 Australian Opens, played on grass at Kooyong. Major number four came at Roland Garros in 1985.
Mats rose to the World No.1 ranking in 1988, a year in which he won three of the four Grand Slam titles - the Australian, French and US Opens. He reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.
Mats was a member of no fewer than three Swedish Davis Cup winning teams. In the 1984 final, he won a critical singles rubber against Jimmy Connors to help Sweden to victory over the USA. Then, in 1985 Mats again played a crucial role in helping Sweden to defend their crown, winning both a singles and doubles rubber in the final against West Germany. In 1987, Mats lifted the Davis Cup with Sweden for the final time, this time winning a clean sweep of two singles and one doubles rubber to wipe out India in the final. He is the current Swedish Davis Cup captain.
