Johansson body blows teach lesson
By Leo Schlink
29 Dec 2006

ALMOST two years have passed since Joachim Johansson stood on the cusp of tennis stardom.

Ranked No.9 in the world, the Swede had just captured his second singles title with victory in Adelaide before launching 51 aces past Andre Agassi at the Australian Open in a bruising fourth-round match.

By any measure, Johansson had emerged as a genuine contender at the majors.

Armed with a monstrous serve, crashing forehand and fearless approach, Johansson displayed his explosive talent with wins against world No.2 Andy Roddick and No.6 Rainer Schuettler.

He was also in a relationship with Lleyton Hewitt's sister Jaslyn, and tournament directors were queuing to secure his services.

Nothing, seemingly, stood between Johansson becoming the next Swedish world-beater. Until injury intervened.

Almost 24 months on, Johansson has undergone two bouts of surgery and seen his world ranking plummet to 1171.

Far from wondering if he is jinxed, Johansson is back in Adelaide determined to make up for lost time.

More importantly, he has learned to understand that elite athletes ignore at their peril the signal when the body aches.

"My first thing is that I want my body to be healthy," the 24-year-old said of his 2007 aspirations.

"I want to always listen to the body and do less instead of too much if I'm just on the edge and tired and want to push myself. Which is what I used to do, over-practise a little too much.

"I want to listen to my body and respect it and take that afternoon off and I can practise the day after, instead of practising that afternoon and then I've got to take a week off. In the long term that is better."

If Johansson was guilty of anything, it was over-training in 2004 with Hewitt and another South Australian, Shannon Nettle.

"If I hadn't served as big in training as much as I did in Australia in 2004, then maybe I wouldn't have played as well as I did in the start of that year (2005)," he said.

"I did the shoulder in July and I did the elbow in December. But then also I played for half the year when I had pain.

"I practised before the tournament started and then I lost first round and then I had to take five to six days off from serving. I did that for almost half a year, from February until I stopped.

"It's not fun if you can't practise. I was No. 10 to 11 in the world and you put your expectations a bit higher and then you're not even close to doing what you want to do."

Injuries cost Johansson the chance to defend crowns in Memphis, Adelaide and Marseille. And operations to his elbow and shoulder have led to a slight modification of an impressive service action.

However based on late-season wins against Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko, Johansson does not appear to have lost much punch from his premier weapon.

Other than to stay healthy, his goals are simple.

"I want to get back to where I was before," he said.

"I don't know if I can do it in 2007, really improve my ranking, but I saw in Stockholm in matches I could beat Nadal and Davydenko.

"To get back to where I was and even higher, you've got to do that week after week."