Jonas Lars Björkman (; born 23 March 1972) is a Swedish former professional
tennis player
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
. 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 doubles championships. As of 2019, he was ranked in the top 40 on the all-time ATP prize money list with over $14.5 million. As of July 2024 he is still in the top 50 of the all-time ATP prize money list.
Björkman has had long-term successful doubles partnerships with
Jan Apell,
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 Wi ...
,
Max Mirnyi
Maksim Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player.
Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...
,
Pat Rafter
Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and world No. 6 in doubles. Rafter won eleven ...
,
Kevin Ullyett, and
Todd Woodbridge. 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 former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...
's coaching team. He has also coached the Swedish men's
padel 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, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, 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 in Jakarta. In 1995, he reached his first career ATP singles final in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. 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 Newsweek Champions Cup – Singl ...
,
Todd Martin
Todd Martin (born July 8, 1970) is an American retired tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players ea ...
,
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the list of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals f ...
,
Scott Draper and
Petr Korda
Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 2 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in February 1998. Korda won ten singles titles, including the 1998 Austr ...
before losing to
Greg Rusedski. 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 titles in doubles.
He made his
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
debut in 1994 and was a regular for
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
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 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
* W ...
, he found himself drawn against top seed
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fo ...
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
* W ...
, 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 professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...
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 Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player.
Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...
and another Swede,
Thomas Johansson, and
Lukáš Dlouhý and
Daniele Bracciali 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 as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...
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 ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
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 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 made it to the final, being defeated by second seeds
Daniel Nestor
Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; ; born Danijel Nestorović, September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 108 weeks ( fifth-most ...
and
Nenad Zimonjić, 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.
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.
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 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. 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 expatriate sportspeople in Monaco
Swedish male tennis players
Olympic tennis players for 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