Torben Ulrich
1928–2023 · Danish tennis player, writer, musician and painter
Torben Ulrich (Frederiksberg, 4 October 1928 – 20 December 2023) was a Danish tennis player, writer and musician who, late in life, also became known as a painter. He is best known for his sporting and cultural activity, and is also remembered as the father of Lars Ulrich, drummer and founder member of Metallica.
In tennis his best singles ranking was world number 96, in October 1973. He reached the fourth round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 1959, and at the US Championships in 1953, 1956, 1964 and 1968. He won the Antwerp International title in 1951 and 1956, and the Stuttgart Open on red clay in 1953. He turned professional around the end of the 1960s, at about forty, and in 1976 was the top-ranked senior player in the world. He played more than one hundred Davis Cup matches for Denmark.
For decades he wrote on music, film and culture for Danish newspapers such as Information, Politiken and BT, and co-edited the literary magazine Bazar. He also published poetry-like columns and recorded with jazz and improvised music groups, including Clinch and Instead Of, and with pianist Søren Kjærgaard.
He began painting in 1971, when the Lions Club of Copenhagen asked a range of public figures to make a blue elephant for a charity exhibition. Instead, he explored the mark a tennis ball leaves. Using played tennis balls, skipping ropes and the frame and grip of a racquet, he created series such as "Imprints of Practice" and "Exsamplings of Play", mostly on rice paper. The works were shown in Copenhagen, Paris, Dublin, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle, among other places.
He also worked in film: he appeared in two films by Jørgen Leth and co-directed The Ball and The Wall (1988). His legacy lies in joining sport, art and music, with a painted body of work that turns a sporting gesture into a visual language.