Jesper Svensson (bowler)

Jesper Svensson (born 15 February 1995) is a Swedish professional bowler. He has been a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) since 2014, and also competes on the European Bowling Tour (EBT). He has won ten PBA Tour titles overall, including a major title at the 2016 PBA Tournament of Champions. He also owns six EBT titles and one PBA Regional title. He is known for using the two-handed shovel style delivery with a dominant left hand. He uses non-reactive urethane bowling balls almost exclusively. Svensson is a member of the Storm[1] and Vise Grips pro staffs.[2]

Jesper Svensson
Svensson in 2019
Personal information
Nickname(s)Iceman
Born (1995-02-15) 15 February 1995
Vimmerby, Sweden
Years active2014–present
Height1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Sport
CountrySweden
SportTen-pin bowling
LeaguePBA, EBT
Turned pro2014
Achievements and titles
World finals6 European Bowling Tour
4 PBA Tour (international)
National finals10 PBA Tour (1 major)

2015 PBA Rookie of the Year
2016 PBA George Young High Average Award

During the 2017 PBA season, ESPN and CBS Sports Network bowling analyst Randy Pedersen gave Svensson the nickname "Iceman" for the Swede's cool, calm demeanor under pressure.

Amateur accomplishments

Before turning pro, Svensson was the 2014 World Youth Masters champion, and won numerous other medals in World Youth competition.[2]

PBA career

2015 season

Svensson won his first career PBA Tour title at the 2015 PBA-WBT Kingdom of Bahrain Open on March 7. He followed that up with a win at the PBA Chameleon Championship on December 18. Svensson was honored as the 2015 PBA Rookie of the Year.

2016 season

Having qualified for his very first PBA Tournament of Champions, Svensson won the event held in Shawnee, Oklahoma on February 7, 2016. In doing so at age 20, he became the youngest-ever winner in this PBA major tournament, which dates back to 1962.[3] Marshall Holman had previously held this distinction when he won the 1976 Tournament of Champions at age 21. Svensson won two more PBA titles in 2016, at the Brunswick Euro Challenge (Munich) and the World Bowling Tour Thailand event (Bangkok), giving him five PBA titles overall.

2017 season

Svensson's sixth PBA title came on April 16, 2017 in the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship, where he teamed with right-handed two-hander Kyle Troup for the title.[4] As one of the top eight money leaders from the start of the 2015 season through the 2017 USBC Masters, Svensson was invited to participate in the inaugural Main Event PBA Tour Finals in May, 2017. Jesper placed third in the event.[5] On November 19, Svensson won his seventh PBA Tour title in the PBA Cheetah Championship, part of the World Series of Bowling in Reno, NV.[6]

2018

Svensson qualified as the #1 seed in the 2018 PBA Tournament of Champions, but finished runner-up after losing the title match to Matt O'Grady.[7] He was a member of the Go Bowling! Silver Lake Atom Splitters team, which won the PBA League event on April 22, 2018.

2019

Svensson won his eighth PBA Tour title at the PBA-WBT Thailand Open. After qualifying as the top seed, Jesper defeated American Sean Rash in the final match.[8]

2020

On February 29, Svensson won his ninth PBA Tour title at the 2020 Roth-Holman Doubles Championship held in Indianapolis with doubles partner Kyle Troup. This was the second doubles title for the Svensson-Troup duo, who previously won the event in 2017. Later that day, Svensson won the 2020 PBA Indianapolis Open. As the #1 seed for the stepladder finals, he defeated Shawn Maldonado in the championship match 245–226 to claim his tenth PBA Tour title, which now makes him title-eligible for the PBA Hall of Hame.

PBA Tour titles

Major tournament wins are in bold text.

  1. 2015 PBA-WBT Kingdom of Bahrain Open (Bahrain)
  2. 2015 PBA Chameleon Championship (Reno, NV)
  3. 2016 PBA Tournament of Champions (Shawnee, OK)
  4. 2016 Brunswick Euro Challenge (Munich, Germany)
  5. 2016 World Bowling Tour Thailand (Bangkok)
  6. 2017 Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship w/Kyle Troup (Portland, ME)
  7. 2017 PBA Cheetah Championship (Reno, NV)
  8. 2019 PBA-WBT Thailand Open (Bangkok)
  9. 2020 Mark Roth-Marshall Holman PBA Doubles Championship w/Kyle Troup (Indianapolis, IN)
  10. 2020 PBA Indianapolis Open (Indianapolis, IN)

Professional accomplishments and records
  • 2015 PBA Rookie of the Year
  • Youngest-ever winner in the PBA Tournament of Champions (20 years, 357 days)
  • First player to have five PBA Tour titles by age 21[9] (joined by Anthony Simonsen in 2018)[10]
  • Named Sweden's 2016 Rookie Sportsman of the Year[11]
  • 2016 PBA George Young High Average Award winner (226.07 average over 324 PBA Tour games)[12]

World Series of Bowling

Wins (2)
YearChampionshipFinal scoreRunner-upEarnings ($)
2015 Chameleon Championship 267-193 Pascal Winternheimer 20,100
2017 Cheetah Championship 245-194 Thomas Larsen 20,000

Results timeline

Results not in chronological order.

Tournament2014201520162017
Cheetah Championship 24 18 43 1
Viper Championship 41 114 NH NH
Chameleon Championship 63 1 11 5
Scorpion Championship 69 118 3 24
Shark Championship NH NH 129 7
  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

"T" = Tied for a place

PBA career statistics

Statistics are through the last complete PBA season.

SeasonEventsCashesMatch PlayCRA+PBA TitlesAverageEarnings ($US)
201452000218.173,150
201596222225.8157,870
20161811853226.07138,380
20171612952226.88128,816
2018158420212.9560,323
2019238641213.2376,058

+CRA = Championship Round Appearances

Personal

In addition to bowling, Svensson enjoys soccer and ice hockey.[2]

References
  1. "Storm Bowling - Athletes". stormbowling.com. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  2. "PBA Profile, Jesper Svensson". PBA.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  3. "Jesper Svensson Becomes Youngest Tournament of Champions Winner". bowling.about.com. February 28, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  4. "Kyle Troup, Jesper Svensson Make History in Winning Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship". pba.com. April 16, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
  5. Vint, Bill (June 27, 2017). "Indiana's EJ Tackett Wins Inaugural Main Event PBA Tour Finals for Third 2017 Title". Retrieved July 5, 2017.
  6. Vint, Bill (December 24, 2017). "Jesper Svensson, EJ Tackett Keep Youth Movement in Motion with PBA Cheetah, Scorpion Championship Wins". Retrieved December 25, 2017.
  7. Schneider, Jerry (February 11, 2018). "Matt O'Grady Defeats Jesper Svensson to Win 53rd PBA Tournament of Champions". PBA.com. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  8. Vint, Bill (September 28, 2019). "Jesper Svensson Ends Two-Year Title Drought, Defeats Sean Rash to Win PBA-WBT Thailand Open". PBA.com. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  9. Vint, Bill (August 23, 2016). "PBA Fall Swing Returns to Detroit's Historic Thunderbowl Lanes September 4-11". PBA.com. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  10. Schneider, Jerry (October 16, 2018). "Anthony Simonsen Wins FloBowling PBA Wolf Open for Second Go Bowling! PBA Tour Title of the Season". Retrieved October 17, 2018.
  11. Vint, Bill (January 20, 2017). "PBA Spare Shots: Jesper Svensson Named Sweden's "Rookie Sportsman of the Year"". PBA.com. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
  12. Vint, Bill (January 26, 2017). "PBA Spare Shots: Sweden's Jesper Svensson Wins 2016 George Young PBA High Average Honors". PBA.com. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
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