Thomas Johansson

Born on March 24, 1975, in Linköping, Sweden, Thomas Johansson is a Swedish tennis player who now resides in Monte Carlo. Johansson started playing tennis at the age of five. In 1989 he became the European 14s singles champion and by 1993 was on the top 10 in the world junior rankings. He joined the pro tour in the same year.

He won one of his first major titles in 1999 at the Canadian Masters after defeating Yevgeny Kafelnikov. This was followed a more significant win when he defeated Marat Safin for the 2002 Australian Open Grand Slam championship, making Johansson the first Swedish player to win the title since Stefan Edberg’s victory at the 1992 US Open title. He also became the first Swede to claim the Australian title since Mats Wilander’s win in 1988.

In June 2002, Johansson reached a career-high ranking of number 7 in the world. He capped the season with a career best of 14th at the ATP champions race. Unfortunately, an injured knee left the Swedish player out of commission for the remaining half of the 2002 season and all of 2003. Johansson was only able to return to the game in 2004.

Johansson made another record when he became the first Swede to make it to the 2005 semifinals at Wimbledon after Edberg in 1993. His performance for the next year, however left much to be desired and was partly attributed to an ill-timed eye injury which occurred early in the season.

Johansson currently has nine career titles, 8 in singles and 1 in doubles. His highest ranking in singles was at 7th place in 2002. He ranked at 51 in doubles as of July 17, 2006.