Nickla's cult

Nickla's cult
Nation:	Sweden
Birthday:	April 22, 1971
Size:	190 cm
Weight:	88 kg
1st professional season:	1989
Resignation:	2001
Playing hand:	Right
Trainer:	Martin Bohm
Prize money:	$ 3,186,946
singles
Career record:	154: 182
Career title:	3
Highest ranking:	32 (May 3 1993)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	238: 145
Career title:	13
Highest ranking:	11 (September 29 1997)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Lars Johan Nicklas Kulti (born April 22, 1971 in Stockholm ) is a former Swedish tennis player .

Kulti, whose career began with success in singles, increasingly became a doubles specialist from 1994 onwards. He won a total of 13 double titles with Jonas Björkman , Magnus Larsson and Mikael Tillström . In singles, he had three tournament wins on the ATP Tour .

Career

singles

Kulti's career began in 1988 with a finals in singles at the US Junior Open . The following year he won the junior title at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and he came back to the final of the US Open. He finished the year as number 1 in the junior world rankings. At the Australian Open he already reached the third round of the men.

In 1990 he entered the final of an ATP tournament in Prague for the first time. At the Masters category tournament in Stockholm he reached the quarter-finals after beating Andre Agassi , who was number 4 in the world at the time , in a two -set win. He ended the year in 51st place in the top 100 of the world rankings for the first time .

The 1991 season began for Kulti in Adelaide with his first tournament victory on the men's tour. During the year he competed in numerous major tournaments, but he usually failed in the first round and fell out of the top 100 again in the first week of 1992. In September 1991 he made his debut in the Davis Cup with individual victories over the Philippines Felix Barrientos and Roland So successful for the Swedish team .

In 1992 he moved into the quarter-finals at the French Open with victories over John McEnroe and Michael Chang , in which Henri Leconte could only prevail after five sets. At ATP tournaments there were no major successes. In 1993 he won the tournament in Adelaide again in January. After a final in Copenhagen and a round of 16 at the Miami Masters in Key Biscayne , which was benefited by the withdrawal of Boris Becker in the third round, in May he reached position 32, the best world rankings of his career.

In the individual, the years 1994 and 1995 were very disappointing for Kulti. He finished the 1994 season in 99th place, in 1995 only 165th place in the world rankings. In 1996 Kulti won his third and final individual title in Halle ; he was able to finish the year in the top 100 again. In the Davis Cup final against France, he lost the decisive game against Arnaud Boetsch just 8:10 in the fifth set.

In the following years Kulti played mostly doubles, in 1999 he could not celebrate any more successes apart from reaching the final in Halle.

Double

In doubles, Kulti's first success was winning a Challenger tournament in Copenhagen in November 1989 at the side of Magnus Larsson . In 1990 he reached the semi-finals of the two tournaments of the ATP World Tour in Florence and San Marino . In 1991 he only took part in three tournaments in doubles and was eliminated twice in the first and once in the second round. In 1992 he won his first two double titles, at the ATP tournament in Copenhagen at the side of Magnus Larsson and in the second attempt after 1990 in San Marino with Mikael Tillström . In 1993 Kulti only appeared in four tournaments in doubles. His best result was reaching the semi-finals in Copenhagen.

In 1994 Kulti celebrated its first major successes in doubles. He won the Monte Carlo Masters with Magnus Larsson and reached the semi-finals of the French Open. With that he made a jump in the double world rankings; if he finished the 1993 season in 489th place, he finished in 1994 in 23rd place. In 1995 he won four Challenger tournaments with Mikael Tillström and failed with Magnus Larsson at the French Open only in the final against the Dutch Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis . He climbed to 17th place in the world rankings and ended the year in 20th place.

In 1996 Kulti mainly played alongside Jonas Björkman . They won the ATP tournament in New Delhi , reached the final in Monte Carlo and failed at the French Open and Wimbledon in the quarter-finals to the number 1 seed Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde . The two qualified for the ATP Tour World Doubles Championships , where they failed in the preliminary round. They also took part in the Olympic Games in Atlanta, but lost in the first round against Saša Hiršzon and Goran Ivanišević from Croatia . In the Davis Cup, the two played all four rounds, in the final against France they lost their doubles against Guy Forget and Guillaume Raoux in three straight sets.

In 1997 Kulti won two ATP tournaments and reached the final at the US Open with Björkman, with whom he was also involved in the overall Swedish Davis Cup victory. He finished the year in 16th place in the double world rankings. In 1998 Kulti won the Davis Cup again with Sweden and the ATP tournaments in Stockholm and Saint Petersburg . In 1999 Kulti did not win a tournament in doubles, so that he fell back a little in the world rankings. But he reached the final in Key Biscayne and the semi-finals at the French Open with Mikael Tillström and the final of the World Team Cup with Jonas Björkman .

In 2000 Kulti won four tournaments. He took part in the Olympic Games for the second time, but failed in doubles with Mikael Tillström in round one. In the opposing doubles was Max Mirny , with whom he was to win a Masters tournament for the second time in Paris a few weeks later . After the tournament he returned to the top 20 in the double world rankings.

The end of his career was a quarter-finals at the French Open with the French Michaël Llodra .

successes

Legend Grand Slam Tennis Masters Cup Championship Series, Single Week (2) Mercedes-Benz Super 9 Tennis Masters Series ATP Championship Series ATP International Series Gold (2) ATP World Series ATP International Series (12)

Title after covering Hard Court (4) Sand (6) Grass (2) Carpet (4)

singles

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	January 6, 1991	Adelaide (1)	Hard court	Michael Stich	6: 3, 1: 6, 6: 2
2.	January 10, 1993	Adelaide (2)	Hard court	Christian Bergström	3: 6, 7: 5, 6: 4
3.	June 23, 1996	Hall	race	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6: 7 5 , 6: 3, 6: 4

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	August 12, 1990	Prague	sand	Jordi Arrese	6: 7, 6: 7
2.	March 7, 1993	Copenhagen	Carpet (i)	Andrei Olchowski	5: 7, 6: 3, 2: 6
3.	May 5, 1996	Atlanta	sand	Karim Alami	3: 6, 4: 6
4th	June 13, 1999	Hall	race	Nicolas Kiefer	3: 6, 2: 6

Double

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 8, 1992	Copenhagen	Carpet (i)	Magnus Larsson	Hendrik Jan Davids Libor Pimek	6: 3, 6: 4
2.	2nd August 1992	San Marino	sand	Mikael Tillström	Cristian Brandi Federico Mordegan	6: 2, 6: 2
3.	April 24, 1994	Monte Carlo	sand	Magnus Larsson	Yevgeny Kafelnikow Daniel Vacek	3: 6, 7: 6, 6: 4
4th	February 25, 1996	Antwerp	Carpet (i)	Jonas Björkman	Yevgeny Kafelnikow Menno Oosting	6: 4, 6: 4
5.	April 14, 1996	New Delhi	Hard court	Jonas Björkman	Byron Black Sandon Stolle	4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 4
6th	May 4, 1997	Atlanta	sand	Jonas Björkman	Scott Davis Kelly Jones	6: 2, 7: 6
7th	July 13, 1997	Båstad (1)	sand	Mikael Tillström	Magnus Gustafsson Magnus Larsson	6: 0, 6: 3
8th.	February 15, 1998	St. Petersburg	Carpet (i)	Mikael Tillström	Marius Barnard Brent Haygarth	3: 6, 6: 3, 7: 6
9.	November 15, 1998	Stockholm	Hard court (i)	Mikael Tillström	Chris Haggard Peter Nyborg	7: 5, 3: 6, 7: 5
10.	April 30, 2000	Barcelona	sand	Mikael Tillström	Paul Haarhuis Sandon Stolle	6: 2, 6: 7, 7: 6
11.	June 18, 2000	Hall	race	Mikael Tillström	Mahesh Bhupathi David Prinosil	7: 6, 7: 6
12.	July 16, 2000	Båstad (2)	sand	Mikael Tillström	Andrea Gaudenzi Diego Nargiso	4: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3
13.	November 20, 2000	Paris	Carpet (i)	Mikael Tillström	Paul Haarhuis Daniel Nestor	6: 4, 7: 5

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 10, 1994	Båstad	sand	Mikael Tillström	Jan Apell Jonas Björkman	2: 6, 3: 6
2.	October 2, 1994	Kuala Lumpur	sand	Lars-Anders Wahlgren	Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis	0: 6, 5: 7
3.	June 11, 1995	French Open	sand	Magnus Larsson	Jacco Eltingh Paul Haarhuis	7: 6, 4: 6, 1: 6
4th	March 24, 1996	St. Petersburg	Carpet (i)	Peter Nyborg	Yevgeny Kafelnikow Andrei Olchowski	6: 7, 4: 6
5.	April 28, 1996	Monte Carlo	sand	Jonas Björkman	Ellis Ferreira Jan Siemerink	6: 2, 3: 6, 2: 6
6th	4th August 1996	los Angeles	Hard court	Jonas Björkman	Marius Barnard Piet Norval	5: 7, 2: 6
7th	August 18, 1996	New Haven	sand	Jonas Björkman	Byron Black Grant Connell	4: 6, 6: 4, 6: 7
8th.	17th August 1997	Indianapolis	Hard court	Jonas Björkman	Michael Tebbutt Mikael Tillström	3: 6, 2: 6
9.	September 7, 1997	US Open	Hard court	Jonas Björkman	Yevgeny Kafelnikow Daniel Vacek	6: 7, 3: 6
10.	May 3, 1998	Prague	sand	Fredrik Bergh	Wayene Arthurs Andrew Kratzmann	1: 6, 1: 6
11.	July 16, 1999	Båstad	sand	Mikael Tillström	David Adams Jeff Tarango	6: 7, 4: 6
12.	September 19, 1999	Bournemouth	sand	Michael Kohlmann	David Adams Jeff Tarango	3: 6, 7: 6, 6: 7

Web links

• ATP profile of Nicklas Kulti (English)
• ITF profile of Nicklas Kulti (English)
• Davis Cup statistics by Nicklas Kulti (English)
• Nicklas Kulti in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )