Johansson: Philippoussis better comparison than Borg, Edberg
By TERESA M. WALKER, AP Sports Writer
February 23, 2004
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Joachim Johansson is being compared by some to former Swedish stars Bjorn Borg and Stefan Edberg after winning his first ATP title in his first final.
The 21-year-old Swede thinks there's someone else who makes a better comparison -- a hard-hitting Australian.
``I would identify myself with (Mark) Philippoussis at the moment,'' Johansson said of the Wimbledon runner-up.
It's an apt comparison considering how Johansson harnessed a serve that hit 141 mph while not being broken once in winning the Kroger St. Jude tournament. He faced only one break point and converted 89 percent of his first serves in beating Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (5), 6-3 on Sunday in the finals.
Credit his father for the big serve.
Leif Johansson had his own professional career and was a member of Sweden's 1974 Davis Cup team. He started teaching his son to play tennis at the age of 5.
``Actually a lot of people say, (he's) got a bigger serve than me. ... Hopefully, I can come back to Sweden this year and show them,'' Joachim said.
He had played only 25 ATP matches in his career since 2000, and that includes his previous four matches this week. His previous best performance was reaching the quarterfinals at Stockholm last year, when he lost to Davide Sanguinetti.
But Johansson has been working with coach Mikal Stripple since the end of last year on his fitness level and strengthening his abdomen to better help his serve. He began seeing results last week at the Siebel Open in San Jose, and it carried into Memphis.
Johansson hasn't been broken in 63 straight games, counting 55 in Memphis. Andy Roddick was the last person to break Johansson's serve in his second service game of a fourth-round match in San Jose.
The Swede routinely hit 137 mph on his serves, and even 130 on a second serve. He matched that with almost equally strong forehand winners.
``I've done it in Futures and Challengers, but nothing at this kind of level, and I'm very pleased with the way I've been serving especially this week. I've been playing pretty well from the baseline,'' Johansson said.
The 26-year-old Kiefer had experience on his side, trying to win his seventh title and first since Hong Kong. He had lost six straight matches dating to October when he arrived in Memphis, including a three-set loss to Johansson in San Jose.
He played almost as well Johansson with his serve but had six double faults, all at the most inopportune times.
``Every time, he came out with those big shots. ... Unfortunately, it didn't go this way today, and he deserved to win,'' Kiefer said.
Johansson faced his only break point Sunday in the 10th game, trailing 30-40 when he served up a 126 mph ace, one of 79 in the tournament, to pull back to deuce. Kiefer then hit a backhand wide before Johansson tied the set at 5-all with a forehand winner.
In the tiebreaker, Johansson led 5-4 when he double-faulted, then won the set as Kiefer hit a forehand wide.
In the second set, Kiefer held serve in the second game only after holding off three break-points. Johansson broke him in the eighth to go up 5-3 and served out for his title after Kiefer was given a verbal abuse warning for arguing about a serve he thought was out at 40-15. Johansson served again, and he won with a drop shot.
``I started to think it probably would've been better if they would've called that serve out,'' Johansson said. ``It looked close. If they'd called it out, I wouldn't have said anything.''
Instead, he won Sweden's first ATP title since June 2002 when Jonas Bjorkman won at Nottingham. Johansson learned that he could be the first by reading the Internet on Saturday night, and he knows what this means.
``Everybody's happy back home, especially my friends and family,'' he said.
Updated on Monday, Feb 23, 2004 3:24 am EST
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