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Wednesday September 30, 2009

Tennis: Wildcard Johansson knocks out former World No. 1 Hewitt

By LIM TEIK HUAT

KUALA LUMPUR: Wildcard player Joachim Johansson marked his return to the ATP World Tour in style by knocking out former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt from the Proton Malaysian Open tennis championships at the Putra Stadium in Bulit Jalil last night.

The Australian, currently ranked 26th in the world and a Grand Slam winner at the US Open and Wimbledon, was expected to make light work of the Swede in the first-round match. But it was Johansson, currently ranked 441st, who played a wonderful power game to take out Hewitt 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.

Playing in his first ATP World Tour match since October last year, the Swede fired 13 aces against Hewitt’s 11 and won 81% of points behind his first serve.

Johansson, who was given a rapturous applause for his impressive hard volleys, was delighted to have knocked out one of the tournament’s big draws but added he was not really surprised over it.

“I have beaten the top players before I came down with a series of injuries,” said the 27-year-old Swede, who had reached a career high of ninth in the world rankings before he came down with a shoulder injury two years ago.

Giant killer: Sweden’s Joachim Johansson in action against Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt yesterday. — GLENN GUAN / The Star

“I played aggressively from the first point. In the second set, I was a bit tired but after going up 4-2, I was confident of controlling the game.”

Johansson is likely to take on Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the second round tomorrow and is looking forward to continue his good form. “I feel I have a good chance to go far ... we’ll see,” he said.

Hewitt said that losing the tie-break proved to be the turning point.

“I had my chances in the tie-break but it did not turn out for me. But after not playing for three weeks, I was just getting into the match routine,” said the Australian.

World No. 52 Mikhail Youzhny also served a notable upset by taking out seventh seed David Ferrer of Spain 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 to book his place in the second round against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

The Russian countered losing his own serve twice by converting four of 10 break-point chances on world No. 19 Ferrer’s serve to prevail after one hour and 44 minutes.

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