Mats Wilander bridged the gap between between the eras of two other great Swedish players who tended to capture more headlines than him, namely Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg.

An outstanding junior, he sprang to prominence in incredible style at the 1982 French Open when, at the age of just 17, he beat four of the top five seeds, including Ivan Lendl, on the way to the title.

That was to be the first of seven Grand Slam singles crowns for the man born on August 22nd 1964, who triumphed again at Roland Garros in 1985 after landing the Australian Open in 1983 and 1984.

However, it was 1988 that proved to be Mats Wilander's most momentous year, when he won three of the four Grand Slams, the only one that proved elusive being Wimbledon as it did during the rest of his career.

He only got as far as the last eight at Wimbledon, doing so on three occasions, and despite dominating the 'majors' for that one calendar year he never lifted another Grand Slam trophy.

The only apparent explanation for Mats Wilander's subsequent decline was lack of motivation. He played a full schedule in 1989 but simply could not match his previous exploits and dropped down the rankings as a result.

For the remainder of his career it was a similar story, the previous heights never being reached again, but those seven Grand Slams mark him down as one of the greats.

Since his retirement Mats Wilander has worked in various areas of tennis including Davis Cup captaincy, broadcasting and coaching.