It was a night of celebration at the Royal Tennis Club of Stockholm on Friday 11 December as a trio of Davis Cup greats were presented with their Commitment Awards.
Bjorn Borg, Lennart Bergelin (accepted by Rose-Marie Bergelin) and Sven Davidson (accepted by Johan Sturen) were honoured at a special dinner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sweden’s first Davis Cup victory.
All three were presented with their awards by Fed Cup Committee member Ingrid Lofdahl Bentzer and Swedish Tennis Association President Thomas Wallen.
Borg, who still holds the Davis Cup record for the longest winning streak in singles (he won 33 Davis Cup singles matches between May 1973 and June 1980) is one of tennis’ all-time greats.
He only lost three of the 40 singles matches throughout his Davis Cup career and in total contested 21 ties for Sweden, including helping his country to win the title in 1975.
Sven Davidson, who died in 2008, holds the record for the most Davis Cup doubles wins by any Swedish player. Over his 11 year career, he played 36 ties and won 62 matches.
And finally, Lennart Bergelin, whose wife picked up his posthumous award, made 36 appearances for Sweden between the years of 1946 and 1965. He amassed 62 victories in singles and doubles over his glittering Davis Cup career.
There have also been presentations for Sergei Likhachev, who competed in 33 ties for USSR between 1962 and 1973, and Sweden’s Torsten Johansson – whose award was given posthumously to his son, Toto.
The Davis Cup Commitment Award is given to Davis Cup players past and present who have shown longstanding dedication to playing for their country. Each player has played at least 20 Davis Cup ties.
