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Tennis
Johansson ruins Safin's birthday party
By Nirmal Shekar
MELBOURNE, JAN. 27. Thomas Johansson thought he had arrived late for the party. He had missed the bus, or car, to be precise, and had to take a taxi that was caught up in a traffic snarl near Melbourne Park.
But, as it turned out, the 26-year old Swede not only arrived at the right time and at the right place, but also did all the right things to bring up one of the most amazing and unexpected Grand Slam results in the men's singles final of the Australian Open at the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday afternoon.
At the start of the week, after Marat Safin had played attacking tennis like bingo with all the numbers in his pocket, producing winners almost beyond the realm of imagination against the great Pete Sampras, perhaps the last person left in the draw that you might have expected to spoil the Russian's birthday (22nd) party today was Johansson, a player who had never before got past the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam.
Yet, in a remarkable final reminiscent of the late Arthur Ashe's cut-here-nick-there demolition of Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final in 1975, Johansson, as much an underdog this year as Arnaud Clement was in last year's final against Andre Agassi, came up with a tour de force after a shaky start to stun the big Russian into submission for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory in two hours and 53 minutes.
Indeed, by modern tennis standards, Johansson is a late arrival, joining the big league less than two months before his 27th birthday. But, at a time when tennis is losing out in popularity in his country, the genial man's success will have come as a major boost for the sport in Sweden.
It's been ten years since a Swedish player won a Grand Slam title - the last was Stefan Edberg's 1992 U.S. Open victory, beating Sampras in the final - and today an unlikely hero joined an illustrious list of major league champions from the Scandinavian nation starting with the incomparable Bjorn Borg.
``I am really, really lucky to be here today,'' said Johansson, clutching the trophy. ``My coach forgot to call for a car (courtesy car) and we had to take a taxi and were struggling in the traffic. I almost didn't make it here.''
On court, of course, he did make it in style on a day when Safin appeared listless with his game as flat as water on a tin plate. For the most part, the Russian seemed a shorn Samson and never once did we sight the superman who annihilated Sampras.
``You cannot compare this with anything. You only dream about these things, watching on television,'' said Johansson. ``This is unbelievable. I was really nervous at the start but I fought well.''
Fought well? That was an under-statement. For, Johansson played the finest tennis of his career on the biggest occasion of his life as a tennis player. Every man who lifts a racquet for a living dreams of doing this. But only a handful manage to accomplish it.
The key to Johansson's domination of Safin was the quality of the Swede's service returns. Against a big, powerful man like Safin, when you blast his serve back into the court, you have actually scored more than just the point reflected on the scoreboard. It is a huge dent to the man's ego.
It's like a little-known boxer soaking up the most ferocious of Mike Tyson's punches and then using the jab to push the bully back to the ropes.
In the event, this was a day when Safin, one of the biggest servers in the sport, won just 67 per cent of his first serve points - normally it is in the high 80s - while the Swede, who out-aced the Russian 16-13, was successful 86 per cent of the time on his first serves.
``He was too good for me today. He served big and returned very well. I tried my best but it didn't work,'' said Safin.
Using his double-handed backhand as a weapon of kill, Johansson ran Safin from one end of the baseline to the other with pinpoint groundstrokes and was a touch unlucky to lose the first set itself after a shaky start that saw him drop his opening service game.
The Swede had six breakpoint opportunities on Safin's serve in the first set but even as the Russian came up with some big ones to ward off danger, a few bad line calls did not help Johansson's cause.
And even as a shy sun emerged from the clouds overhead, Johansson arrived as a champion in the making, breaking Safin's serve in the third game of the second set with the Russian sending down a double fault and then dumping a backhand in the net.
From there, until the time when he sighted victory and backed off a little, making a pair of nervous errors to lose serve in the fourth game of the fourth set - after being up a break - Johansson was the master of all he surveyed on the court.
Was he going to do a Martina Hingis, so to say, you wondered when Johansson let Safin back into the set and the match. But, then, to his credit, the Swede regrouped quickly and played a superb tiebreak in which he won the first five points, coming up with the shot of the match - a backhand crosscourt winner that literally floored his opponent - on the fourth point.
Once again, with victory a point away, Johansson, predictably, turned a touch jittery but Safin's lob sailed a fraction long on the fourth matchpoint and Johansson had finally arrived on the big stage.
``At 6-1 in the tiebreak, my legs started shaking a little,'' admitted Johansson after bringing up one of the most stunning Grand Slam final victories in recent times.
Earlier, in the mixed doubles final, Kevin Ullyett and Daniela Hantuchova, who had to dig really deep to get past Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva yesterday, were on cruise mode today in the final as they outplayed Gaston Etlis and Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-3, 6-2.
The results:
Men's singles final: 16-Thomas Johansson (Swe) bt 9-Marat Safin (Rus) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Mixed doubles final: Kevin Ullyett (Zim) and Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) bt Gaston Etlis and Paola Suarez (Arg) 6-3, 6-2.
Boys singles final: Clement Morel (Fr) bt Todd Reid (Aus) 6-4, 6-4.
Girls singles final: Barbora Strycova (Cze) bt Maria Sharapova (Rus) 6-0, 7-5.
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