Joachim Johansson: An Ode to the Lost Swede

Well Sweden has produced some of the greatest players of all time with the likes of Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Mats Wilander ruling the mid 1970s and the entire 1980s. It wasn’t surprising to see that between 1974 - 1992 there were just 3 years when the winners list at Majors did not involve a Swede. In 1977, only the Australian Open was played whereas in 1986 the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific wasn’t and given the Stefan Edberg won it in 1985 and 1987, anything could have happened! 1989 was probably the only year where permutations and combinations won’t work with Ivan Lendl, Michael Chang and Boris Becker lifting the silverware (Ironically in 1988 all 4 Majors were won by Swedes!).

With serve and volley being the dominating style of play back in those Golden Days, it was probably the evolution of the sport that led to the game styles changing. Playing from the baseline became the need of the hour with players like Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin and Carlos Moya breaking down the big servers. Amongst those was another Swede named Thomas Johansson, who shocked the world by winning the Australian Open in 2002, defeating Safin in what was termed as one of his worst performances.

Coming back to what my article is all about – 1999 hinted the emergence of another Big Serving Swede – Joachim Johansson, also called “Pim-Pim”  as Elder brother Niclas couldn't say Joachim as a young boy and used to call his brother Pim-Pim...The name stuck and Joachim became Pim-Pim, which is also a well known hard candy in Sweden.

No wonder the Girls loved him!

Wrapping 2000 as the No.3 Junior in the World behind Andy Roddick Todor Enev, big things were expected out of Joachim, who was one of the good looking guys on tour. Not many people remember that his game style was a breath of fresh air – big hitting, boom serving and a swift mover, probably like Roddick. Playing with his Yonex racquet, the Swede was an instant hit on the tour and amongst girls too! He dated Lleyton Hewitt’s sister Jaslyn for a good 5 years before calling it quits in 2005. I remember watching a match between Hewitt and Johansson at that time with the camera focus only on Jaslyn and her dilemma of who to support!

A really quick service action, the Swede did not need a high toss for net clearance as his 6’6” frame compensated for it! A slingy service action that I would say was in fashion those days was a bit risky to execute but was really effective (look at Roddick, Nicolas Massu, Janko Tipsarevic and Robby Ginepri – all Top-15 Juniors in 2000).

With Roddick winning the 2003 US Open, more and more pressure was surrounding Pim-Pim as to can he too make a successful transition from Juniors to Men’s and 2004 proved just that! With his victory over defending champion Roddick at the 2004 US Open in 5 sets 6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 2–6, 6–4, Johansson officially announced his arrival to the big stage. A peculiar aspect of the match was that Roddick won 24 points more than Johansson but was defeated nonetheless. Pim-Pim was also awarded the Most Improved Player that year as he jumped more than 80 places from No.95 to No.12 on the ATP Charts.

At the 2005 Australian Open he for me played the best match of his career when he lost a 4 set match to Andre Agassi. He held the record for most aces served in one match as he blasted 51 aces past the American in the 4th round. In the post-match press conference, Johansson said he felt he could have served better. Interestingly, people do not remember his 3rd Round victory over Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, with whom he was involved in a 4 hour battle which he won 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6(2), 13-11. He smashed 38 aces in that match and won just 1 point more than his Spanish counterpart (200-199).

With a shoulder injury hampering his progress (nothing unexpected the way he played) in 2005, the Swede only played for half th season and was still ranked in the Top-50. Trying to make a comeback in 2006, he was again injured in the initial season and made his comeback again later that year at the Stockholm Open. Facing Top Seed and in-form Rafael Nadal in the Second Round, Johansson fired 17 aces en route to his straight sets victory over the Spaniard and announced his return to the top of the game, calling it his “greatest win ever.”

Retiring from a persistent shoulder injury, Johansson is engaged to Johanna Westerberg, a Swedish professional golfer on the Ladies European Tour since April 2009. He caddied at several tournaments for her which earned him Rookie Caddie of the Year award. Well Johansson did not do justice to the talent he possessed but surely gave us glimpses of what he could do!

To a former Top-10 player – Joachim, Cheers!