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Virginia Men's Tennis Signs Carl Sderlund
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June 3, 2016
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s tennis team announced Friday (June 3) that Carl Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden) has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the three-time national champions as a freshman in the fall of 2016.
“We are thrilled for Carl to join the Virginia tennis family,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “Carl is one of the most accomplished tennis players to ever join our program. He has already won two professional Futures events, which makes him undoubtedly one of the best juniors in the world. More importantly, Carl is a person with high character, a reflection of his family, and I believe he will enhance our culture on and off the court. Carl is also serious about his academics as he comes from a family where academics are highly valued. It is safe to say that Carl will be an excellent fit and will strengthen the culture that we try to foster at Virginia. We are excited to see him wear the orange and blue and watch him continue to develop his own skills while making everyone around him better.”
Söderlund, a two-time ITF Pro Circuit Singles champion, is currently ranked No. 620 in the world ATP singles rankings while training out of Good to Great Tennis Academy in Järfälla, Sweden under the tutelage of Joakim Nystrom. He won his first professional tournament earlier this year, the Collector Norwegian Open, a $10,000 Futures event in Oslo, Norway. He won his second ITF Pro Circuit event earlier this month (May 8) at the Rising Star Tour Futures Tournament in Karlskrona, Sweden. Söderlund has just played back-to-back Futures events in Bastad, Sweden, making it to the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinals of doubles. The 18-year-old has competed in 19 ITF Professional events dating back to 2014, with five trips to the semifinals or better. In his two professional title runs, he beat three top-500 ATP players highlighted by his defeat of Kaichi Uchida (No. 370) 6-1, 6-2 in the finals of Karlskrona. In juniors, Söderlund won a pair of Swedish National tournaments in 2014, which led to him being selected to represent Sweden in the European Championships.
“I’m very excited to come over to the U.S. and play for UVA,” Söderlund said. “I want to compete with the best in order to get better and I feel that playing at Virginia is where I can really accomplish that. The coaches are great. They have a really good mindset with how they think about tennis and the way they develop different skills really impressed me. With all the resources and knowledge they have, I can’t think of anywhere better to go to develop not just only on the tennis court but as a person.”