Thomas Johansson (born March 24, 1975, in Linköping, Sweden) is a professional tennis player. He joined the pro tour for the first time in 1993 and has won 9 top-level singles titles and 1 doubles title, including the 1999 Canada Masters (def. 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. Thomas Johansson would later reach his career high ranking of World No. 7 in June of 2002 and finish the season with a career best year-end ranking of 14th in the ATP Champions Race, a feat he would later repeat 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.
As of October 15th, 2007, he has an 15-13 career Davis Cup record (14-10 in singles) in 14 ties and an 342-273 career overall. He is currently 39th in the ATP rankings. He is sponsored by Dunlop Sport for tennis racquets and apparel and adidas for shoes. On June 9th, 2008, aged 33 years and 2 months, he became the oldest player ranked in the ATP Top 100 after Jonas Björkman fell to World No. 102. Junior career Thomas Johansson began playing tennis at age five with his father, Krister. In 1989, became European 14s singles champion and won doubles title (w/Magnus Norman). Injured his right elbow while playing Orange Bowl 16s in 1991, but still reached final, losing to Spain’s Gonzalo Corrales. Finished No. 10 in 1993 world junior rankings.
His idol whilst 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. Thomas Johansson married Gisella on December 3, 2005. Trivia * He has no relation to Joachim Johansson, another Swedish tennis player.
Source of this article: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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