Sturen made it to the NAIA National Singles Semifinals in 1983 and teamed with fellow Stockholm native Thomas Linne (’84) as a formidable doubles tandem. The dynamic Swedish duo earned All-America honors twice by virtue of their play in the NAIA Championships in Kansas City, Mo., losing in the National Semifinals in 1982 and 1983.

Both men played all four years at AC and earned their degrees as excellent student-athletes. They starred for Eddie Gwaltney (’69) during the first part of their careers and finished under the tutelage of head coach Tom Parham (’63), who was inducted into the Barton Hall in 1986 and is now a member of eight Hall of Fames. Linne and Sturen are now successful businessmen in the Stockholm area.

Sturen, now the Key Account Manager for Kwintet Corporate Wear, comes from tennis royalty back home, where his father, Hans-Ake, co-founded the Stockholm Open.

“It was a lot of fun coaching when you had guys like that on your team,” Gwaltney said. “They made my job a lot easier. They were good students and good people.”

“Those two guys were brilliant,” Parham said, “and they beat a lot of great players from great teams.”

Sturen won conference singles championships his freshman, sophomore and senior seasons while playing in

the 1-2-3 spots. He never lost a doubles match in conference tournament play. Playing with Linne, they won district doubles titles his final two seasons in 1982 and ’83. Sturen was also a district singles finalist those same two seasons, losing to Linne in the finals his junior year and to teammate Johan Samuelsson his senior season. Sturen was named team MVP his freshman and sophomore seasons at AC. He said folks in Sweden don’t understand the significance of being inducted into a Hall of Fame, but he does.

“It was very important that I went to AC,” he said. “It changed my view of America to a great extent. We thought America was like what we saw on “Kojak” and “Dallas” on TV, but the people here were so much different – and nicer.”