Joachim "Pim Pim" Johansson

Tonight, the defending U.S. Open Tennis Champion, America's Andy Roddick (No. 2 in the world), was broken by Sweden's Joachim Johansson in the fifth set; two firsts for Johansson.

Johansson grew up with Bjorn Borg. (His father Lief was Borg's teammate on Sweden's 1974 Davis Cup team.) However, Johansson had never played a five-set match before today. Nor has the No. 28th player ever gotten close to reaching the semifinals at the U.S. Open, let alone beating his old juniors doubles partner, Roddick.

Earlier, tennis' No. 1 player, Roger Federer beat legend Andre Agassi 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 when they met for a berth in the semifinals at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament.

Thursday, September 9th, 2004 will go down as a defining moment for the 6'6" 22-year-old Swede fondly known as "Pim Pim." Johansson's career took a huge leap forward when he beat Roddick 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-4.

At the beginning of the year, Johansson was ranked 113th. On Saturday, he will play Australia's Lleyton Hewitt (No. 4) while Switzerland's Federer (No. 1) plays England's Tim Henman (No. 5) in the semifinals. Sunday, the winners of these two matches will play each other in the final.

It's the first time since 1986 that no American man reached the Open semifinals.

After the match, U.S. Network announcer Michael Barkann said to Johansson, "Your girlfriend happens to be related to your opponent. Jaslyn Hewitt and Lleyton Hewitt. Brother and sister. Now you've got to go against Lleyton. How will that be?"

Johansson responded confidently, "You can pick the boyfriend but you can't pick your brother, so she's going to go for me, for sure."

The Swedish contingent here in America will certainly be supporting Johansson.

Grattis och lycka till pa lordag.

The men's semifinal will be broadcast on CBS between noon and 6pm (EDT) on Saturday. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 4pm (EDT).

For further details go to: USOpen.org

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