Johansson Boys Put Mercedes-Benz G-Class to the Test
from the official ATP Tennis website
2 June 2005

It seems that Joachim Johansson drives in a similar manner to the way he serves – fast and furious. Well, at least when he’s negotiating the ‘lunar landscape’ of the open cut brown coalfield, Garzweiler 1, in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Johansson relished taking control of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class 400 CDI during a day off at the recent ARAG World Team Cup. Kudos to Pim Pim for the hang time on this smash! Yes, that's really him behind the wheel (see photo, left).

After a drive in an open-top Mercedes-Benz SLK 200 Compressor over the motorway from the Rhine-Ruhr Mercedes-Benz dealership to Jackerath, Johansson and fellow Swede Thomas Johansson switched to G-Class vehicles in order to master wild, challenging terrain. “It was an incredible experience, like a rally," said 22-year-old Joachim Johansson, who drove a G-Class 400 CDI (KW/HP 184/250) through the difficult territory with sand dunes and steep descents. The current No. 13 on the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking took almost one-and-a-half hours to try new tracks again and again in the coalfield.

His more reserved namesake, Thomas Johansson, opted to allow Mercedes experts drive him in a G 270 CDI (KW/HP 115/156): “It was great fun,” enthused the former Australian Open champion, who has just returned to the Top 20 in the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking.

The two Swedes also made an informative visit to one of the world's largest bucket-wheel excavators in the 66 square kilometer mining field. The gigantic apparatus – as heavy as the bridge over the Rhine – mines up to 200,000 cubic metres of brown coal daily in several shifts. The size of the excavator - 212m long, 74m high and a bucket-wheel radius of 21.6m - impressed the players. But Joachim Johansson admitted: “However, I’d rather do a few more laps in the G-Class than in that slow giant.”