Jonas Lars Björkman (; born 23 March 1972) is a Swedish former professional
tennis player
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...
. He is a former world No. 1 in doubles, and also a former world No. 4 in singles. Björkman retired from professional tennis after competing at the
2008 Tennis Masters Cup
The 2008 Tennis Masters Cup was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 34th edition of the year-end doubles championships, and part of the 2008 ATP Tour. It too ...
doubles championships. As of 2019, he is ranked in the top 40 on the all-time ATP prize money list with over $14.5 million.
Björkman has had long-term successful doubles partnerships with
Jan Apell
Jan Apell (born 4 November 1969) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who in 1994 won the ATP Tour World Championship in doubles and Davis Cup. The left-hander has retired from tennis unbeaten in Davis Cup after five matches, and played most ...
,
Jacco Eltingh,
Nicklas Kulti
Nicklas Kulti (born 22 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He was born in Stockholm.
Tennis career
Juniors
Kulti was ranked No. 1 in the junior world singles rankings in 1989 after winning the Australian Open and W ...
,
Max Mirnyi
Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi ( be, Максім Мікалаевіч Мірны, ; russian: Максим Николаевич Мирный, ; born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player.
Mirnyi became a doubles speci ...
,
Pat Rafter
Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking on 26 July 1999. His career highlights include consecutive US Open ...
,
Kevin Ullyett
Kevin Ullyett (born 23 May 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Zimbabwe. His primary success on the tour was in men's doubles.
Ullyett won 34 doubles titles during his career, including two Grand Slams at the 2001 US Open and t ...
, and
Todd Woodbridge
Todd Andrew Woodbridge, OAM (born 2 April 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster with the Nine Network.
Woodbridge is best known for his successful Doubles partnerships with Mark Woodforde (n ...
. He has won the
career Grand Slam in men's doubles, holding a total of nine major championships.
In March 2015, he joined
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
's coaching team. He has also coached the Swedish men's
padel
Padel ( es, Pádel) is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Scoring is the same as normal tennis, and the balls used are similar but with a little less pressure. The main ...
team.
Biography
The son of tennis coach and mailman Lars Björkman, Jonas began playing tennis at the age of six.
At 18, he won the Swedish Junior Championship
and was among the top-5 Swede junior players.
He married Petra on 2 December 2000 in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, and they have a son, Max (born 15 January 2003).
He plays right-handed and has a particularly good record against left-handed players. He claims it's because his father plays left-handed.
Career
He turned professional in 1991. In 1993, he won three Challenger singles titles. In 1994, he won seven titles in doubles including the
1994 ATP Tour World Championships
The 1994 ATP Tour World Championships (also known for the singles event as the '' IBM-ATP Tour World Championship'' for sponsorship reasons) were tennis tournaments played on indoor carpet courts. It was the 25th edition of the year-end singles ...
in Jakarta. In 1995, he reached his first career ATP singles final in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. In 1997, he became the ninth ever Swedish tennis player to finish in ATP top 10 at No. 4. He advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal at the
US Open, defeating
Francisco Clavet
Francisco Javier Clavet González de Castejón (; born 24 October 1968), known as Pato Clavet (), is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He won eight singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 1992 Indian Wells Masters and the 1 ...
,
Todd Martin
Todd Martin (born July 8, 1970) is an American retired tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the 1994 Australian Open and the 1999 US Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4.
Playing career
Martin was bor ...
,
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the French Open singles title three times ( 1997, 2000, and 2001), and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000. During his career he ...
,
Scott Draper
Scott Dennis Draper (born 5 June 1974) is an Australian former tennis player and golfer. He won the Australian Open Mixed Doubles with Samantha Stosur in 2005. Draper also reached the fourth round of the 1995 and 1996 French Opens, and the four ...
and
Petr Korda
Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He won the 1998 Australian Open and was runner-up at the 1992 French Open, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in February 1998. Korda tested positive for dopin ...
before losing to
Greg Rusedski
Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...
. At the 1998 Australian Open, he won his first career doubles Grand Slam title. 2000 saw him finishing in the singles top 50 for the fifth time in seven years.
In his ATP career, he won six singles titles and 54 titles in doubles, including nine
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
titles in doubles.
He made his
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
debut in 1994 and was a regular for
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
throughout his career. He compiled a 21–14 record in doubles and a 14–9 record in live singles rubbers. He was a member of Sweden's Davis Cup championship teams in 1994, 1997, and 1998.
In 2002, Björkman won the
Nottingham Open
The Nottingham Open was originally known as the Nottingham Championships or Nottingham Lawn Tennis Tournament (1887-1967), is a tennis tournament for men and women held in Nottingham, United Kingdom, played on outdoor grass courts at the Nottingh ...
by defeating
Wayne Arthurs in the final, however, at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, he found himself drawn against top seed
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...
in the first round. Björkman was defeated in straight sets, as Hewitt went on to win the tournament.
In the 2006
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, he unexpectedly made it into the singles semifinals at the age of 34, making him the oldest player to get there since
Jimmy Connors
James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...
in 1987. He had only made it into the singles quarterfinals once in 2003. He was unseeded, but defeated 14th-seeded
Radek Štěpánek
Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...
in a match which included saving a match point. He had previously ousted his doubles partner
Max Mirnyi
Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi ( be, Максім Мікалаевіч Мірны, ; russian: Максим Николаевич Мирный, ; born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player.
Mirnyi became a doubles speci ...
and another Swede,
Thomas Johansson
Karl Thomas Conny Johansson (; born 24 March 1975) is a Swedish retired professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 7 singles ranking on 10 May 2002. His career highlights i ...
, and
Lukáš Dlouhý and
Daniele Bracciali
Daniele Bracciali (; born 10 January 1978) is an Italian former tennis player, best ranked world no. 21 in doubles. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world no. 49, achieved in May 2006. In doubles, he reached the semifinals of the 2012 Fren ...
to make the quarterfinals. In the semifinal he found world No. 1 and defending champion
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
too good and was overpowered in straight sets, 6–2, 6–0, 6–2.
When
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...
announced his official return to the ATP Pro Tour in 2006, he teamed up with Björkman to win the doubles title at the
SAP Open
The Pacific Coast Championships was an annual men's tennis tournament. It was the second-oldest ongoing tennis tournament in the United States and ran from 1889 until 2013. Its final edition, known by its sponsored name SAP Open, was an ATP World ...
in San Jose.
During Wimbledon in 2008, he announced that he would be playing in his final Wimbledon as he was planning on retiring at the end of the season. Although being knocked out in the first round of singles, Björkman and
Kevin Ullyett
Kevin Ullyett (born 23 May 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Zimbabwe. His primary success on the tour was in men's doubles.
Ullyett won 34 doubles titles during his career, including two Grand Slams at the 2001 US Open and t ...
made it to the final, being defeated by second seeds
Daniel Nestor
Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player.
Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal
...
and
Nenad Zimonjić
Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles.
He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2008 and 2009 Wimbledon Cham ...
, though receiving a hero's farewell to his extensive career at Wimbledon.
Björkman retired from professional tennis, after the Swede and his partner Ullyett failed to qualify for the doubles semifinal at the
2008 Tennis Masters Cup
The 2008 Tennis Masters Cup was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 34th edition of the year-end doubles championships, and part of the 2008 ATP Tour. It too ...
.
On 2 October 2013, he announced a comeback on tour in
If Stockholm Open doubles draw, receiving a wild card in pair with fellow countryman
Robert Lindstedt
Robert Lindstedt (born 19 March 1977) is a Swedish former professional tennis player who specialized in doubles. He turned professional in 1998, and reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 in May 2013. Lindstedt won his first Grand ...
.
He competed as a celebrity dancer in
Let's Dance 2015.
Coaching
Andy Murray added Björkman to his coaching staff in March 2015, initially on a five-week trial to help out in periods when
Amélie Mauresmo
Amélie Simone Mauresmo (; born 5 July 1979) is a French former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player and tournament director. Mauresmo won two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major singles titles at the ...
was unavailable as she only agreed to travel with him for 25 weeks of the tennis year when she first became Murray's coach in June 2014. However, at the end of the 2015 Australian Open, Mauresmo had informed Murray that she was pregnant and expecting in August. Murray then announced in late April 2015 that Björkman would be his main coach for all of the North American hard-court swing, while Mauresmo would be on maternity leave after 2015 Wimbledon until late in the year. Jonas Björkman joined Murray's team in April 2015, helping Murray win the BMW Open in Munich; his first clay-court title. This was followed by Murray winning his first Masters 1000 title on clay in Madrid. In June 2015, Björkman was with Andy Murray through Queen's where Murray ended up winning his fourth Queen's Club title at the
Aegon Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
. and Björkman was Murray's main coach when Murray won the 2015 Canadian Open in Montreal, which was Murray's third Canadian Open title. In the middle of December 2015, Murray decided not to renew Bjorkman's contract. The Swede, who joined the world No. 2's entourage earlier in 2015, took charge of his coaching for the last four months of the season in the absence of Amélie Mauresmo but was not part of the team afterwards.
Major finals
Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 15 (9–6)
Mixed doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
Masters Series finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Career finals
Singles: 11 (6–5)
Doubles: 97 (54–43)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Top 10 wins
References
External links
jonasbjorkman.com– official website
*
*
*
Bjorkman World Ranking history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bjorkman, Jonas
Swedish expatriates in Monaco
Swedish male tennis players
Olympic tennis players of Sweden
Swedish tennis coaches
Australian Open (tennis) champions
French Open champions
Hopman Cup competitors
Wimbledon champions
US Open (tennis) champions
Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
1972 births
Living people
People from Alvesta Municipality
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles
ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players
ITF World Champions
Sportspeople from Kronoberg County
Padel coaches