UVA’s Söderlund named to Sweden’s Davis Cup Team

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Photo: UVA Athletics

Virginia men’s tennis senior Carl Söderlund has been named to the five-player squad that will represent Sweden in Davis Cup qualifiers against Chile, as announced today by team captain Robin Söderling.

Söderlund (Stockholm, Sweden), who is making his Davis Cup debut, joins a squad that includes Mikael Ymer, Elias Ymer, Markus Eriksson and Robert Lindstedt.

The tie will be held March 6-7 in Stockholm, Sweden. The winner of each Qualifiers tie will progress through to the Madrid Finals in November with a chance of clinching the top prize. The losing nations from each tie will contest World Group I ties, to be played in September, against the winning nations from the World Group I Playoffs.

“There was a bunch of players with Jonathan Mridha, Karl Friberg, Filip Bergevi and Gustav Hansson to name a few, but Calle [Söderlund] has done really well in the US where he is one of the best players in college,” Söderling said.” He wins a lot of matches and is a player that I think can handle difficult situations if he is faced with them. He is a player who always struggles with the workouts and a good player to join the team. It was the gut feeling that had to decide the choice of the fifth player. ”

Söderlund, a 2019 All-American, reached a No. 1 ITA singles ranking in the 2019-20 preseason. Söderlund was both the 2019 ACC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year and the ACC Men’s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year as well as being named the top male scholar athlete of the Virginia Athletics Department at last year’s Hoos Choice awards.

He is a three-time All-ACC honoree and has been lauded by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as the Atlantic Region player to watch in 2019 after being named the region’s rookie of the year during his freshman campaign. He currently has an ATP ranking of 812 and has won three Futures-level singles titles, including the $15K Koksijde Men’s Trophy ITF World Tennis Tour tournament in Belgium in August.