Full name Douglas Palm Plays Right-handed Career titles 0 Highest ranking 159 | Career record 19–45 Australian Open 1R (1977) | |
Born 6 May 1951 (age 65) ( 1951-05-06 ) | ||
Douglas Palm (born 6 May 1951) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden.
Biography
Palm was a quarter-finalist at the Copenhagen Open in 1976. Later in the year he upset Mark Edmondson in the 1976 Swedish Open, then in the 1976 Stockholm Open held a match point in the second round against Mark Cox, who went on to win the tournament.
A Swedish Davis Cup representative, Palm was picked to play for his country in a tie against Monaco in Uppsala in April, 1977. He featured in the doubles rubber with Jan Norbäck, which they won over Bernard Balleret and Louis Borfiga, to secure the tie.
Palm made his first singles appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the 1977 Wimbledon Championships. He beat West German player Frank Gebert in the opening round, then lost a five set second round match to Paul Kronk.
After making a Grand Prix quarter-final, at Maui, Palm ended the 1977 season by competing in the December edition of the Australian Open (there had also been a tournament in January). On this occasion he was unable to get past the first round and lasted only one set against Alvin Gardiner before he had to retire hurt.
Palm returned to Wimbledon in 1978 and lost to Buster Mottram in opening round. The match was played before a large police presence due to demonstrators who had turned up to protest against Mottram's support of the National Front Party. He also competed in men's doubles at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open during his career, all with Jan Norbäck.
His best performance in a Grand Prix tournament came at Linz in 1979, when he had wins over Patrice Dominguez, Markus Günthardt and Louk Sanders to make the semi-finals. That year he also won the men's doubles title with Tenny Svensson at the Scandinavian Indoor Championships, a tournament not part of the circuit.