American Steve Johnson rounds into form by continuing his impressive fall campaign yesterday, beating Guillermo Garcoa-Lopez of Spain in the quarterfinals of Valencia in convincing fashion. After reaching his first ATP World Tour final last week in Vienna, Johnson now finds himself in his 4th semifinal of the year. This late fall surge has propelled Johnson to an all time career high ranking of 33rd in the world after leaping 14 spots up the ladder last week.
A much lauded and heralded collegiate player, Johnson has shown promise for the hungry American fan base over the past 3 seasons. After some early season struggles and a disappointing loss at the US Open to Fabio Fognini in the first round, Johnson has rounded into form. The indoor season has seemed to awaken his confidence as he has continually fought out of tight games, and tiebreak situations by using a big forehand and tight to the baseline play.
Another notable weapon during this season of good play has been his serve. Not noted as being a huge server, Johnson does have a big serve that has seemed to benefit from the indoor environment. Johnson fired 75 aces last week alone in Vienna. Along with pace, Johnson also has great variety in placement on the serve. Continually over the past two weeks, Johnson has been able to hit both kick and flat serves out wide on the ad side of the court, allowing him easy sitting forehands to hit crosscourt for a winner or approach. He has been effective with this when facing break point and game point situations alike.
Johnson’s fitness has also been impressive. Four out of his five matches last week were long 3 set affairs. In none of them did his level of play hurt noticeably. Johnson continued to run around his backhand throughout the contests, and also used his running down the line forehand effectively to get out of trouble when being moved across the court. Johnson has long been thought of as one of the hardest working younger Americans of his generation and a fan favorite because of it.
With this week’s good run at Valencia and a good showing at the Paris Master’s event next week, it is very plausible that Johnson could be one of three seeded American men at the Australian Open in January (along with Jack Sock and John Isner). It would be yet another milestone for the former NCAA champion as it would be his first seed at a Slam event.
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