Joakim Nyström

Born: February 20, 1963 in Skellefteå (Västerbotten)
Height: 1.86 m
Plays: Right-handed (two-handed backhand)

As a coach, he helped Jürgen Melzer reach the 2010 French Open semifinal. As a player, however, he had a better career than his Austrian pupil overall but fell short in all three of his Grand Slam quarterfinal attempts.
Hailing from the northernmost European city to have produced an ATP player, Nyström had his best shot at a major semifinal in his first attempt. At Roland Garros ’85, he led John McEnroe 3:1* in the deciding set, on his favored clay surface, against an opponent who was not known for making comebacks in fifth sets. However, McEnroe’s supreme confidence at the time carried him through, and after 3 hours and 42 minutes, he emerged victorious, never being closer than six points from defeat. “I felt that when I got the break to go up 3:1 in the last set, I had a good chance to win the match,” Nyström later reflected. “But then he came to the net and put a lot of pressure on me.” Ironically, just a month earlier in Dallas (very prestigious 12-player event), Nyström had stunned McEnroe 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in BigMac’s opening round on carpet, saving four set points in the second set and snapping McEnroe’s 23-match winning streak. When they met in the US Open ’85 quarterfinal, McEnroe astonishingly almost humiliated the Swede.
Only weeks after his heartbreak in Paris, Nyström suffered another gut-wrenching five-set loss. Facing a teenage Boris Becker in the third round at Wimbledon, he served twice for the match in the fifth set but ultimately lost 7-9. The young German went on to complete one of the sport’s most shocking triumphs, becoming the youngest Grand Slam champion in history. One can only wonder how Becker’s career trajectory might have changed had Nyström closed him out that day…
Throughout the mid-80s, Nyström was firmly entrenched in the tennis elite, nearly three years being inside the Top 10 or slightly outside it, ending the seasons ranked 11th-11th-7th in the years 1984-1986, respectively. During this consistent period – when he collected 11 of his 13 career titles – he showed versatility reminiscent of his doubles partner, Mats Wilander. He was an accomplished baseliner on clay but also attacked the net quite frequently behind his first serve on faster surfaces. Among the stars of Sweden’s golden generation, Nyström was perhaps the one who most resembled the great Björn Borg, both in playing style and demeanour. Emotionless on court, he never displayed reactions – whether under scoreboard pressure or when confronted with an opponent’s antics.
His biggest career title came at Monte Carlo ’86, where he outlasted back-to-back Top 10ers in Stefan Edberg and Yannick Noah, enduring rain delays throughout the event. “I knew he was tired,” Nyström said of Noah after the final. “I didn’t have to go so close to the lines with my passing shots.” Unfortunately, knee injuries forced Nyström to retire in 1989 at just 26 (more or less at the same time knee problems caused Kent Carlsson’s retirement too; five years younger Swede seemed to be even a stronger candidate to conquer the French Open at least once as he became a Hamburg ’88 champion). He had been battling those injuries for two years after winning his final title in Båstad ’87 – featured by the strongest draw in the event’s history, where he defeated the three top Swedish players in succession, making himself like an unofficial Scandinavian champion outdoors.
His backhand meant his trademark shot, he was among the rare few who could strike it standing close to the center mark instead of trying to dictate the pace with his forehand. Nyström remains somewhat underrated in the history books. He had the potential to be remembered as the third-greatest Swede of the 1980s, but his tennis destiny had other plans.
Him and countrymen: Nyström was never beaten by Sweden’s best player born in the 1960s – Edberg. They played three times (once indoors, twice on clay), each match going the distance, with Nyström winning twice by the same scoreline (4-6, 6-0, 6-3). His Head-to-Head record against Wilander, however, was a different story – ‘Jocke’ lost their first 12 encounters (six times in deciding sets) before finally breaking through on the 13th attempt. The two shared a close friendship on tour and initially trained under the same coach, Jon-Anders Sjögren, alongside Anders Järryd and a forgotten Hans Simonsson.
Nyström’s crowning achievement in doubles came at Wimbledon in 1986 when he and Wilander pulled off an incredible title run. In the quarterfinals, they survived one of the most dramatic matches in Grand Slam doubles history, rallying from a *2:5 deficit in the third set, saving three match points in the 10th game, another in the tie-break, and two more on return at 4:5 in the decider to edge Ken Flach and Robert Seguso 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4, 11-9! ‘Jocke’ is a double Davis Cup champion thanks to partnering Wilander. The Davis Cup captain Hans Olsson twice (1985 and 1987) decided to appoint the Nyström/Wilander combo in the finals instead of Edberg/Järryd, and in both cases, it worked out perfectly.
After retiring, Nyström transitioned into coaching, serving as Sweden’s Fed Cup captain and later assisting Wilander with the Swedish Davis Cup team. In recent years, he worked with Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak, though he was unable to help him break into the ATP’s upper echelon.
Trivia: Nyström is a co-author of the longest game played in the Open Era (Roland Garros ’87, fourth round). In the third set against Ivan Lendl (6-2, 1-6, 7-5, 0-6, 2-6), he survived a 15-deuce game (at 3:5*) that lasted 30 minutes. The Swede fended off nine set points as a receiver in that game and another two in the following game (the last one after a 48-stroke rally!), setting a record for the most set points saved in a set – a record that stood until 2013.

Career record: 265–142 [ 148 events ]
Career titles: 13
Highest ranking: No. 7
Best GS results:
Roland Garros (quarterfinal 1985)
US Open (quarterfinal 1985-86)
Davis Cup champion 1985 and 1987