Annika Andborn Hedlund, who lives in Ockero, Sweden, with her husband, Hakan, and their two daughters, had a phenomenal tennis career at Barton. She was 105-13 in singles, ranked as high as No. 4 nationally and earned honorable mention All-America honors.
Hedlund was an outstanding player in Sweden before coming to the United States, and she says she really enjoyed “being a member of a tennis team. In Sweden, it was all individual. That’s why it meant so much to me to be a member of the Atlantic Christian team.”
Hedlund’s forte was baseline play (something she learned while honing her skills on the clay courts of Sweden), but she quickly adjusted her game to the hard courts here. She also enjoyed playing for Barbara Smith (three years) and Jerry Cooper (her senior year).
Sweeping all four District 26 singles titles, Hedlund was also a three-time district doubles champ, was the school’s tennis MVP in 1984 and 1985, won the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award at the NAIA Nationals and copped the Kiwanis Award as Barton’s Most Valuable Female Athlete in 1985. She was a two-time Carolinas Conference champ and the league MVP in 1985.
Hedlund also excelled in the classroom, achieving a 3.54 GPA and earning NAIA Academic All-America honors. She was a dean’s list student all eight semesters on her way to B.S. degrees in business administration and Spanish.
Currently an accountant in her homeland, Hedlund and her husband started a tennis business called “Hedlund & Hedlund in West” that primarily organizes tennis camps.
