The Open Era
Sweden · born Skellefteå, 1963 · right-handed · world No. 7 in 1986 and Wimbledon doubles champion 1986 with Mats Wilander
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1986
Wimbledon doubles title with Mats Wilander, seeded seventh
6
Match points saved in the 1986 Wimbledon doubles quarter-final
1983
First career title, on grass in Sydney
No. 7
World singles ranking, March 1986
No. 4
World doubles ranking, November 1986
Joakim Nyström was born in Skellefteå, in the north of Sweden, on 20 February 1963. He was one of the wave of Swedes who followed Björn Borg onto the tour in the early 1980s, a two-handed baseliner who was more at home on clay and hard courts than on grass.
His first title came on grass all the same, at Sydney in December 1983. He went on to win 13 singles titles, reached the quarter-finals of the French Open in 1985 and the US Open in 1985 and 1986, played the Masters three times and rose to No. 7 in March 1986. He was in the Swedish teams that won the Davis Cup in 1984, 1985 and 1987.
In doubles he won eight titles, the biggest at Wimbledon in 1986 with his friend and former room-mate Mats Wilander, and reached No. 4. After playing he became a coach, working with Jarkko Nieminen, Jürgen Melzer, Jack Sock, Dominic Thiem and Kamil Majchrzak, and captained Sweden in the Fed Cup.
| Wimbledon doubles 1986 final | With Mats Wilander, seeded seven, beat the 12th seeds Gary Donnelly and Peter Fleming 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 in 98 minutes on Centre Court |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles 1986 quarter-final | Beat Ken Flach and Robert Seguso 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, 11-9 after saving six match points, four in the third set and two at 4-5 in the fifth |
| Sydney 1983 | First career title, at White City: beat Pat Cash in the quarter-finals, Robert Seguso in the semi-finals and Mike Bauer 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the final |
| Wimbledon singles | Third round in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Men's doubles | with Mats Wilander |
| New South Wales Championships | ||
| 1983 | Men's singles New South Wales Open | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. † single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I was a little bit shocked to win my first title on grass because I was more comfortable on clay or hardcourt"
The person behind the player.
Sydney, 1983
"I was absolutely not favourite to win the tournament," he said of Sydney. "I had hardly won any matches on grass before." He put the win down mostly to his returning, and remembered the White City court as a little harder than Wimbledon's, so the ball bounced higher.
Source: Craig Gabriel, We Are Tennis (BNP Paribas), February 2022On tour, 1980s
He remembered the Swedish group of the 1980s as a travelling family: "There was no time for massage or stretching or running, there was no times in the gyms; back then we were playing cards and enjoying ourselves."
Source: Craig Gabriel, We Are Tennis (BNP Paribas), February 2022Paris, 1982
When Mats Wilander won the French Open at 17, Nyström was beating him in practice, and decided he should not be ranked 40th: "If Mats can win French Open, I gotta be closer to him." The two roomed together for the first two or three years on tour.
Source: Craig Gabriel, We Are Tennis (BNP Paribas), February 2022Wimbledon, 1986
In the doubles quarter-final he and Wilander were two sets down to the Americans Ken Flach and Robert Seguso, faced four match points in the third set and two more at 4-5 in the fifth, and won 11-9. In the final they beat Gary Donnelly and Peter Fleming in straight sets.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025 (AELTC)Free membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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