Swede serves notice of slam intentions
by Dan Oakes
10 January 2005

Joachim Johansson sent out a clear warning to his Australian Open rivals yesterday, when he clubbed American Taylor Dent into submission in the final of the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide.

The Swedish No.2 seed unleashed his booming serve and lethal forehand to full effect on his way to a 7-5, 6-3 win over Dent, who knocked Lleyton Hewitt out of the tournament in the quarter-finals and is no slouch himself in the power department.

Johansson, 22, is the rising star on the men's circuit, climbing 101 rankings places last year and making the semi-finals of the US Open, where he beat defending champion Andy Roddick in five sets before bowing out to Hewitt.

His performance at Flushing Meadows was part of a run in which he reached the quarter-finals or better of the last six tournaments he played in 2004.

This week's success in Adelaide extended that sequence to seven and brought him his second ATP title.

He won at Memphis last year without dropping one of his 55 service games.

It is this last characteristic of the towering Swede's game that prompted Dent to say there was no reason Johansson could not win the Australian Open.

"I don't see why not. I believe men's tennis is all about holding serve, and if he's playing like that that on his own serve, I don't see how guys are going to break him, so absolutely," Dent said.

Johansson himself would not be drawn into making predictions about how he will fare at Melbourne Park, saying only he hoped to win "a few matches", but said he was confident, in the long term, he could build on his meteoric rise through the ranks.

"I've heard everybody saying it's tougher to back (a successful year) up. You've probably got more eyes on you, people looking at how you're going to play, but I think that if you keep playing the way you should, you have a good chance to back it up or maybe even better," he said.

Johansson pounded 15 forehand winners to Dent's five yesterday, stifling the world No.32's serve-volley game and seemingly passing him at will.

"He was really serving well and not missing many forehands. I kept telling myself, 'Just make him play, make him play, he might give you a game', but he wasn't missing any balls," Dent said.

"He was taking big cuts at my serve and unfortunately my serve today wasn't as effective as it has been in previous matches . . . But all credit to him, he was returning really well and he was really making me come up with the goods time after time, and unfortunately I couldn't do it."

Johansson heads to Sydney today to contest the Sydney International, where he will face Greg Rusedski in his first match. Ominously, Johansson said he will use the opportunity to fine-tune his serve.