Tennis great Stefan Edberg dominated the ATP Tour in the 1980s and 1990s, attaining the World No.1 ranking in the process. However, the Swede appears to be most proud of a separate achievement of his. that likely won't be equaled anytime soon.
Edberg won his first Grand Slam title at the 1985 Australian Open, and would win five more Majors over the next seven years. Furthermore, he held the number one ranking for an impressive 72 weeks, finishing 1990 and 1991 as the year-end number one, ahead of Boris Becker and Jim Courier.
In an interview on the ATP Tour's YouTube channel, Edberg reflected on his illustrious career. During his time on tour, Edberg held the number-one ranking in both singles and doubles, a feat that has only been accomplished by one other player in the Open Era, American tennis legend John McEnroe. The retired Swedish star believes this milestone will likely not be repeated.
"I’m really proud of getting to number one in singles and doubles,” said the 59-year old. “It’s highly unlikely, almost impossible, that it’s going to happen [again] for at least 10, 20 years.
"I was lucky enough to play singles and doubles during the beginning of my career, it was very helpful for my game playing a lot of matches, I always said the more matches I play the less I have to practice.
"It was useful, but at some stage it got very, very hard to combine singles and doubles. So I actually stopped playing doubles when I was 21, even if I did wish that I would continue, but it was impossible, so after that all the focus went on playing singles and focusing on the number one spot."