Thomas Johansson

Submitted by editor on Tue, 02/08/2011 - 02:13

Thomas Johansson

Thomas Johansson

Thomas Johansson and Simon Aspelin
Country  Sweden
Residence Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born 24 March 1975 (1975-03-24) (age 36)
Linköping, Sweden
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro 1993
Retired June 12, 2009
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money $7,168,029
Singles
Career record 357–296
Career titles 9
Highest ranking No. 7 (10 May 2002)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open W (2002)
French Open 2R (1996, 2000, 2002, 2005)
Wimbledon SF (2005)
US Open QF (1998, 2000)
Doubles
Career record 76–98
Career titles 1
Highest ranking No. 51 (17 July 2006)
Last updated on: June 21, 2009.
Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Sweden
Men's Tennis
Silver 2008 Beijing Doubles

Karl Thomas Conny Johansson (born 24 March 1975), commonly known as Thomas Johansson, is a former Swedish professional tennis player. He is a former Australian Open singles champion and Olympic silver medalist in doubles.

Contents

Career

Junior career

Johansson began to play tennis at age five with his father, Krister. In 1989, became European 14s singles champion and won doubles title (with Magnus Norman). Even when he injured his right elbow while playing Orange Bowl 16s in 1991, he reached the final, losing to Spain's Gonzalo Corrales. He finished No. 10 in the 1993 world junior rankings.

Senior career

That same year he joined the pro tour for the first time. He has managed to win 9 top-level singles titles and 1 doubles title, including the 1999 Canada Masters (df. Yevgeny Kafelnikov) and the 2002 Australian Open Grand Slam championship, which he unexpectedly won (on his 25th attempt at winning a Grand Slam title) after defeating his heavily favored opponent, Marat Safin, in four sets, 3–6 6–4 6–4 7–6. Johansson became the first Swedish player to win a Slam since Stefan Edberg won the 1992 U.S. Open title, and the first Swede to claim the Australian since Mats Wilander in 1988.

Johansson later reached his career-high ranking of World No. 7 in June 2002 and finished the season with a career-best year-end ranking of 14th in the ATP Champions Race, a feat he later repeated in 2005.

A knee injury robbed Johansson of the latter half of the 2002 season and all of 2003, and Johansson was therefore unable to compete on the tour full-time until 2004. In 2005, he became the first Swedish player to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon since Stefan Edberg in 1993, losing to Andy Roddick in a tightly contested four set match, 7–6, 2–6, 6–7, 6–7. At the end of the season, Johansson won his 9th, and until now, last ATP tournament in St. Petersburg, defeating Nicolas Kiefer 6–4, 6–2.

In 2006, the Swede struggled through the season after suffering an eye injury early in the season. The highlights of the season were a 4th round at the Australian Open (where he lost to Ivan Ljubičić), his first doubles title in Bastaad, Sweden with countryman Jonas Björkman, and a final in St. Petersburg (lost to Mario Ančić), where he was the defending champion.

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics he reached the doubles final with Simon Aspelin, where he lost against the Swiss team of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.

As of 6 March 2009, he has an 18–15 career Davis Cup record (17–12 in singles) in 17 ties, and an 356–292 career overall. He is sponsored by Dunlop Sport for racquets and apparel, and adidas for shoes. He uses a heavily modified Dunlop Pro Revelation racquet 'paintjobbed' to look like the current Dunlop 4D Aerogel 500 racquet.

He announced his retirement in June 2009 after a 16 year career.

Personal

His idol while growing up was Mats Wilander, who is captain of Swedish Davis Cup team. He is a fan of popular culture, reading books by Swedish author Henning Mankell, National Geographic magazine and watching TV show Friends (he owns almost every episode on DVD). His favorite actors are Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Johansson is a fan of U2, Depeche Mode and Swedish band Kent, and is a keen player of golf and floorball. Johansson is a fan of ice hockey, frequently watching Linköpings HC and Djurgårdens IF. He scored two goals and assisted on another in 6–5 win by ATP Stars over NHL Players in annual street hockey challenge in Montreal in 2001. Johansson married Gisella Kaltencher on December 3, 2005.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Wins (1)
Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
2002 Australian Open Hard Russia Marat Safin 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 7–6

ATP Masters Series finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Wins (1)
Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
1999 Montréal Hard Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 1–6, 6–3, 6–3

Career finals

Singles: 14 (9–5)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (1–0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (1–0)
ATP Tour (7–5)
Titles by surface
Hard (4–2)
Grass (2–1)
Clay (0–0)
Carpet (3–2)
Outcome No. Date Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Winner 1. 10 March 1997 Copenhagen, Denmark Carpet (i) Czech Republic Martin Damm 6–4, 3–6, 6–2
Winner 2. 17 March 1997 St. Petersburg, Russia Carpet (i) Italy Renzo Furlan 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up 1. 2 March 1998 Rotterdam, Netherlands Carpet (i) Netherlands Jan Siemerink 6–7(2–7), 2–6
Runner-up 2. 9 November 1998 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) United States Todd Martin 3–6, 4–6, 4–6
Winner 3. 2 August 1999 Montreal, Canada Hard Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 1–6, 6–3, 6–3
Winner 4. 20 November 2000 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) Russia Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6–2, 6–4, 6–4
Winner 5. 11 June 2001 Halle, Germany Grass France Fabrice Santoro 6–3, 6–7(5–7), 6–2
Winner 6. 18 June 2001 Nottingham, UK Grass Israel Harel Levy 7–5, 6–3
Winner 7. 14 January 2002 Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia Hard Russia Marat Safin 3–6, 6–4, 6–4, 7–6(7–4)
Runner-up 3. 14 June 2004 Nottingham, UK Grass Thailand Paradorn Srichaphan 6–1, 6–7(4–7), 3–6
Winner 8. 25 October 2004 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) United States Andre Agassi 3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Winner 9. 24 October 2005 St. Petersburg, Russia Carpet (i) Germany Nicolas Kiefer 6–4, 6–2
Runner-up 4. 23 October 2006 St. Petersburg, Russia Carpet (i) Croatia Mario Ančić 5–7, 6–7(2–7)
Runner-up 5. 8 October 2007 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) Croatia Ivo Karlović 3–6, 6–3, 1–6

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Wins (1)
Legend (Doubles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (1)
Titles by surface
Hard (0)
Grass (0)
Clay (3)
Carpet (0)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in final Score in final
1. 16 July 2006 Båstad, Sweden Clay Sweden Jonas Björkman Germany Christopher Kas
Austria Oliver Marach		 6–3, 4–6, [10–4]
Runner-ups (1)
Legend (Doubles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
Olympics Silver (1)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Titles by surface
Hard (2)
Grass (0)
Clay (0)
Carpet (0)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in final Score in final
1. 17 August 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, China Hard Sweden Simon Aspelin Switzerland Roger Federer
Switzerland Stanislas Wawrinka		 3–6, 4–6, 7–6(4), 3–6

Singles performance timeline

As of 14 October 2007. To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is only updated once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. Davis Cup matches are included in the statistics.

Tournament Career 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993
Australian Open 1 A 1R 2R 4R 4R 1R A W 3R 2R 1R 1R 2R 2R A 1R A
French Open 0 A 1R 1R 1R 2R A A 2R 1R 2R A 1R 1R 2R 1R A A
Wimbledon 0 A 2R 1R 1R SF 3R A 1R 2R 4R 2R 3R 2R 4R A A A
US Open 0 A 1R 3R 1R 2r 3R A A 4R QF A QF 1R 2R A A A
Grand Slam win–loss 59–45 0–0 1–4 3–4 3–4 10–4 4–3 0–0 8–2 6–4 9–4 1–2 6–4 2–4 6–4 0–1 0–1 0–0
Tennis Masters Cup 0 A A A A A A A RR A A A A A A A A A
Finals reached 14 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 1 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0
ATP Tournaments Won 9 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0
Hardcourt win–loss 207–157 0–0 10–11 19–14 9–8 19–14 19–13 0–0 17–12 26–16 17–17 16–13 27–14 15–13 13–10 0–1 0–1 0–0
Clay win–loss 37–68 0–0 3–6 4–5 1–6 8–6 1–2 0–0 7–7 4–5 1–5 1–7 2–6 1–6 4–5 0–1 0–1 0–0
Grass win–loss 47–30 0–0 3–3 0–3 0–3 12–3 6–3 0–0 2–2 11–1 3–3 1–1 4–3 1–3 4–2 0–0 0–0 0–0
Carpet win–loss 68–39 1–1 0–0 4–2 1–1 9–2 3–3 0–0 3–3 5–3 1–1 4–4 12–8 15–5 7–4 1–1 0–0 2–1
Overall win–loss 357–296 1–1 16–20 27–24 11–18 48–25 29–21 0–0 29–24 46–25 22–26 22–25 45–31 32–27 28–21 1–3 0–2 2–1
Year-end ranking N/A 136 62 71 14 30 N/A 14 18 39 43 17 39 60 117 486 422

Green background for wins. Yellow background from quarter finals up to finals.

See also

  • List of Grand Slam Men's Singles champions
Australian Open men's singles champions

(1969) Rod Laver · (1970) Arthur Ashe · (1971) Ken Rosewall · (1972) Ken Rosewall · (1973) John Newcombe · (1974) Jimmy Connors · (1975) John Newcombe · (1976) Mark Edmondson · (1977 (Jan)) Roscoe Tanner · (1977 (Dec)) Vitas Gerulaitis · (1978) Guillermo Vilas · (1979) Guillermo Vilas · (1980) Brian Teacher · (1981) Johan Kriek · (1982) Johan Kriek · (1983) Mats Wilander · (1984) Mats Wilander · (1985) Stefan Edberg · (1986) Not Held · (1987) Stefan Edberg · (1988) Mats Wilander · (1989) Ivan Lendl · (1990) Ivan Lendl · (1991) Boris Becker · (1992) Jim Courier · (1993) Jim Courier · (1994) Pete Sampras · (1995) Andre Agassi · (1996) Boris Becker · (1997) Pete Sampras · (1998) Petr Korda · (1999) Yevgeny Kafelnikov · (2000) Andre Agassi · (2001) Andre Agassi · (2002) Thomas Johansson · (2003) Andre Agassi · (2004) Roger Federer · (2005) Marat Safin · (2006) Roger Federer · (2007) Roger Federer · (2008) Novak Djokovic · (2009) Rafael Nadal  · (2010) Roger Federer  · (2011) Novak Djokovic
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