Jonas Lars Björkman (; born 23 March 1972) is a Swedish former professional tennis player.
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 is ranked in the top 40 on the all-time ATP prize money list with over $14.5 million.http://www.protennislive.com/posting/ramr/career_prize.pdf
On 20 November 2006, he replaced Dick Norman as the oldest player in the ATP top 100 (singles) when Norman dropped out of the top 100 for the last time.
On 9 June 2008, aged 36 years and 2 months, Björkman was himself succeeded in this honor by Fabrice Santoro.
Björkman has had long-term successful doubles partnerships with Jan Apell, Jacco Eltingh, Nicklas Kulti, Max Mirnyi, Patrick Rafter, 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's coaching 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, 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.
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, Todd Martin, Gustavo Kuerten, Scott Draper and Petr Korda 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 debut in 1994 and has played regularly for Sweden ever since.
He has 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, he found himself drawn against top seed Lleyton Hewitt in the first round.Bjorkman in Wimbledon warning to Hewitt - theage.com.au Björkman was defeated in straight sets, as Hewitt went on to win the tournament.Hewitt wins first-round scrap with Swede - smh.com.au
In the 2006 Wimbledon, he unexpectedly made it into the singles semifinals at the age of 34, making him the oldest player to get there since Jimmy Connors in 1987.
He had only made it into the singles quarterfinals once in 2003.
He was unseeded, but defeated 14th-seeded Radek Štěpánek in a match which included saving a match point.
He had previously ousted his doubles partner Max Mirnyi 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 too good and was overpowered in straight sets, 6–2, 6–0, 6–2.
When John McEnroe 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 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
thumb|right|Murray with new coach Jonas Björkman during practice at the 2015 Aegon Championships
Andy Murray added Björkman to his coaching staff in March initially on a five-week trial to help out in periods when Amélie Mauresmo was unavailable as she only agreed to work with him for 25 weeks.
However, at the end of the Australian Open, Mauresmo had informed Murray that she was pregnant and he announced at the end of April, that Björkman would be his main coach for all of the grass-court season and all of the US hard-court swing, while Mauresmo would only be with the team for Wimbledon.
Jonas Björkman joined Murray's team in April 2015, helping Murray win the BMW Open in Munich; his first clay-court title.Andy Murray: Jonas Bjorkman to help Scot be more aggressive  This was followed by Murray winning his first Masters 1000 title on clay in Madrid.
In June 2015, Björkman coached Andy Murray through Queen'sAndy Murray column: Winning titles & testing Bjorkman where he ended up winning his fourth Queen's Club title at the Aegon Championships.Andy Murray wins fourth Queen's Club title with two wins in a day 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 will not be part of the team in future.
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
