Per Stefan Mikael Simonsson, is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing singles. During his career he won 2 doubles titles. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 49 in 1983 and a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 88 in 1984. He is a brother of fellow tennis playerHans Simonsson. After his career, he coached two top 10 players on the ATP ranking, Magnus Gustafsson and Magnus Larsson.
Career
1976–1978: Junior career
Simonsson won the Swedish Junior Indoor champion in 1976 as a sixteen year old and in 1977 and 1978 the Swedish Junior Outdoor Champion. He played in his first Junior Grand Slam event at Wimbledon in 1977 and also made his debut in a senior tournament at the Swedish Open, losing to Paul Kronk in the first round.
Junior Slam results – Singles
French Open: SF
Wimbledon: QF
US Open: F
1979–1981
In 1979, Simonsson reached the quarter-finals at the challenger event in Biarritz and he reached the same stage in Brussels and Taipei on the Grand Prix circuit. His best result in 1979 was making the semi-finals in Tel Aviv, where he lost to Tom Okker. In doubles and with partner Per Hjertquist, he reached the semi-finals in Brussels. Simonsson also made his Davis Cup debut for Sweden during July 1979 in the Europe Zone B, semi-final against Romania. He played the first rubber against Ilie Nastase and lost in five sets, after leading two sets to none. He lost his second singles match to Dumitru Haradau. Simonsson started the 1980 season by competing on the challenger circuit and in May, he reached the final at the Galatina Challenger. On the Grand Prix tour he made the quarter-finals at Florence and the semi-finals in Munich. In doubles, he reached two semi-finals, with Hjertquist at Bordeaux and with his brother, Hans in Madrid, where they lost to the eventual champions, Hans Gildemeister and Andrés Gómez. Simonsson also represented Sweden during the 1980 Davis Cup campaign, playing in both the singles and doubles. In August 1981, Simonsson won his first titles on the challenger circuit when he captured both titles at the Le Touquet Challenger. In the singles he defeated Georges Goven in the final and in the doubles, he teamed up with compatriot Anders Järryd to win the title. Earlier in the year he also played in the singles final at the Torino challenger and with Järryd, in the doubles final at the Royan challenger.
1982–1983
During May 1982, Simonsson made his first final on the Grand Prix tennis circuit, at the tournament in Florence, where he lost in three sets to the worldnumber 9, Vitas Gerulaitis. His other notable achievements of 1982 were two quarter-final, in Guaruja and in Toulouse. Simonsson ended 1982 ranked joined 94th in the world on the ATP Rankings. In February 1983, Simonsson reached the semi-finals in Caracas and later the same month he reached the quarter-finals at the Cairo Challenger. During the first three weeks of May, he made three semi-finals, first at the Parioli Challenger, thereafter at Florence and finally at the Italian Open in Rome. After his performance during May he broke into the top 50 in the world rankingsfor the first time. Simonsson played in two further quarter-finals in 1983, at Båstad and Bordeaux. At the Bordeaux Open he was also successful in the doubles and won his first Grand Prix title with fellow Swede, Magnus Tideman. In November and alongside Stanislav Birner, he played in his second doubles final at Ferrara and the following week, he and Jan Gunnarsson, reached the semi-finals in Toulouse. Simonsson finished 1983 with a singles ranking of number 61 in the world.
1984–1986
The 1984 season was less successful, with only one quarter-final at Florence during May and a round of 16 appearance at the Australian Open, where he lost to Mats Wilander in 5 sets. In doubles he made three semi-finals, in Metz and Cologne, with Hjertquist and in Palermo with Ronnie Bathman. His singles ranking dropped to 119 at the end of 1984. In July 1985, Simonsson teamed up with his brother and reached the semi-finals at Båstad and they followed it up, by winning the doubles title in Hilversum, his second Grand Prix doubles title. Simonsson had one further doubles semi-final at Florence with Mike De Palmer. In singles he made only one quarter-final, at Båstad and his singles ranking further declined to number 162 in the world at the end of the year. In 1986 Simonsson only reached one quarter-final, on the Challenger Tour at Marrakesh and he played his last singles match on tour at Kitzbühel, losing in the first round. He ended the year with a win-loss ratio of 0–4 and a world ranking of number 354.
