During his career, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam doubles titles. Edberg is well known as one of the best serve and volley players of all time, for his superb volleying skills, and as a gentleman and ambassador for the sport.

Edberg first came to the tennis world's attention as a brilliant junior player. He won all four of the Grand Slam junior titles in 1983.

As a professional, Edberg won his first career doubles title in Basel in 1983, and his first top-level singles title at Milan in 1984.

Edberg's first two Grand Slam singles titles came at the Australian Open. In 1985, he defeated Mats Wilander in straight sets to claim his first major title. Two years later, in 1987 he beat Pat Cash in a memorable five-set final to win the last Australian Open to be held on grass courts. Edberg also won the Australian Open and US Open men's doubles titles in 1987 (partnering fellow-Swede Anders J�rryd).

In 1988, Edberg reached the first of three consecutive finals at Wimbledon. In all three finals he played against Boris Becker in what is remembered as one of Wimbledon's great rivalries. Edberg won their first encounter in a four-set match spread over three days because of rain delays. A year later, in 1989, Becker won in straight sets. The best of their matches came in the 1990 final, when Edberg won an epic five-set encounter.

Edberg claimed the World No. 1 ranking in August 1990 by winning the Cincinnati Masters. He held it for the rest of that year, and for much of 1991 and 1992.

Edberg's final two Grand Slam singles triumphs came at the US Open, with wins over Jim Courier in 1991 final, and Pete Sampras in the 1992 final. Arguably these were the biggest victories of his career, especially the defeat of Sampras, who had defeated Andre Agassi in the US Open final two years before, and was months away from being ranked No. 1 in the world. 1991 was the tournament made famous by great performances by Americans Jimmy Connors and Jim Courier, but Edberg was the last man standing in the end, solidfying his run as the world's No. 1 male player.

It is worth noting that Edberg's last Grand Slam singles final appearances were at the Australian Open, where he lost in four sets to Jim Courier in both 1992 and 1993. The match in 1993 has taken its place in Grand Slam legend, as it highlights Edberg's good sportsmanship in his final chance to win a major singles title. The temperature on the hard court in Melbourne was reportedly exceeding 130 degrees Fahrenheit. The players were asked if the retractable roof should be closed. Courier reportedly said that he would not play if the roof was closed. The Daily Telegraph in London quoted Courier as saying: "This is an outdoor tournament. It shouldn't be closed unless it's raining." After the match, Edberg told reporters: "It would be totally wrong to play a Grand Slam final indoors. It would be better to cancel the day ... but how do you cancel the day when it's sunny outside? All you can do is eat well, drink a lot of fluid before and take it that you're going to make more mistakes than normal."

In 1996, Edberg won his third Grand Slam doubles title at Australian Open with Petr Korda.

The only Grand Slam singles title Edberg never won was the French Open. He reached the French Open final in 1989, but lost in five sets to Michael Chang in a match best remembered for making the 17-year old Chang the youngest ever male winner of a Grand Slam singles title. Generally Edberg was most comfortable playing tennis on fast-playing surfaces. Of his six Grand Slam singles titles, four were won on grass courts at the Australian Open (1985 and 1987) and Wimbledon (1988, 1990), and two were won on hardcourts at the US Open (1991, 1992).

Edberg also played on four Swedish Davis Cup winning teams in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1994. He appeared in seven Davis Cup finals�a record for a Swedish player.

Edberg was also a member of the Swedish teams which won the World Team Cup in 1988, 1991 and 1995.

At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where tennis was a demonstration sport, Edberg won the men's singles Gold Medal. Four years later, at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, tennis became a full medal sport and Edberg won Bronze Medals in both the men's singles and the men's doubles for Sweden.

During his career, Edberg won a total 42 top-level singles titles and 18 doubles titles, and appeared in a record 54 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. He was ranked the World No. 1 for a total of 72 weeks. Edberg was also a five-time recipient of the ATP's Sportsmanship Award (1988-90, 92 and 95). In recognition of this achievement, the ATP renamed the award the "Edberg Sportsmanship Award" in 1996. In 2004, Edberg was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.