Biggest Victory, Bigger Mistake

The request wasn’t that out of line. Now if Krista Johnson had asked for a week off to go watch her husband play in Acapulco, Mexico, or another regular tour stop, the reluctance of her superiors would be understandable.

She thought this would be different, and asked her boss if she could stay an extra day to watch her husband complete his rain-delayed final. Johnson, a graduate of the University of North Carolina medical school and now a resident there, called the chief resident and reached him after many attempts.

“He said to her, ‘Well, you know, you can’t go running off every time your husband is in the finals,’ ” said Don Johnson, chuckling a bit ruefully.

The final was the Wimbledon doubles. At 32, Don Johnson was one match from winning his first Grand Slam men’s doubles championship. (Last year, Johnson won the Wimbledon mixed doubles with Kimberly Po.)

And so, the latest bloomer achieved a career highlight without his wife in attendance. Johnson and Jared Palmer defeated the Czech Republic team of Jiri Novak and David Rikl, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6). They had faced and survived four match points in the quarterfinals.

“She was really distraught and crying and went back and got in late Sunday night and was in the hospital 4:30 Monday morning,” Johnson said. “When she arrived back home, there were five messages from the chief resident, profusely apologizing, along with flowers.”

Don, possessed of a vision beyond sports, understood the confusion.

“Some people don’t know the magnitude of tennis, just like no one knows the magnitude of the medical [profession],” he said.

The 30-something maturity has served him well. He has won six titles this year, five with Palmer and one with Gustavo Kuerten. Two were on grass, three on clay and the other on a hard-court surface.

His perspective also kept him mellow when certain U.S. tennis officials ignored Johnson and Palmer and focused on 23-year-old twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who lost in the semifinals. He was amused when he heard one commentator predict the Bryans would be in the Wimbledon final and enjoyed surprising the experts.

The last U.S. men’s doubles team to win Wimbledon was Rick Leach and Jim Pugh in 1990.

These days, late bloomers are rare in the game. Johnson, an all-Atlantic Coast Conference player at North Carolina, was never an All-American. He didn’t win his first ATP doubles title until 1996, and has played in one Grand Slam singles tournament, the French Open in 1995.

“I’m getting on in age,” said Johnson, who will turn 33 in September. “That’s no secret. I still feel young. I’ve been working real hard. Maybe it’s the hard work and I’ve matured at the right time. I hope I’m still blooming.”

The next major goal is to play Davis Cup for the U.S. For Johnson, the relegation match against India in September at Winston-Salem, N.C., close to his Chapel Hill home, represents a storybook opportunity.

“I’ve been a practice partner for the Davis Cup four, five times, it makes logical sense for me to play,” Johnson said. “It’s a progression. I know Jared has played several times. It’s a dream of mine to play. We’ve had some great results, and if we do it again this summer, we should get the nod.

“If I didn’t get the chance to play there, so close to my home, I think it would be a big slap in the face.”

Add Doubles

For Johnson and Palmer, the biggest competition will come from the Bryans. This year, the Bryans have won three tournaments, in Memphis, Tenn., and Queen’s on grass in London, and won the final Sunday at the ATP stop in Newport, R.I.

Or Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe could bypass a proven doubles team, the way he did against Switzerland in the first round. There won’t be a Johnson-Palmer vs. the Bryans showdown until next month, at the earliest, because Johnson and Palmer are not playing the Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles, which starts next Monday.

Meanwhile, officials had hoped Richard Krajicek, the champion in 1992 and 1993, would return from his long injury layoff in time for the UCLA event, but Krajicek’s representatives said last week he is not ready.

The field, though, is deeper than it has been in years, featuring 1999 champion Pete Sampras, 1998 winner Andre Agassi, Kuerten, Marat Safin, Carlos Moya and Greg Rusedski, among others. Michael Chang, the defending champion, is scheduled to return.

Behind the Scenes

Brooke Lawer, an associate director of communications with the WTA, had hardly unpacked in Paris at the French Open in May when she received news that her grandmother died after a long illness.

Lawer packed her bags and headed home before the tournament started and missed the French Open and Wimbledon. She has been with the tour since 1998 and her family received two floral arrangements from the tennis world.

One was from the men’s tour, the ATP.

The other came from Venus and Serena Williams.

Quotebook

“On the first Tuesday of Wimbledon, I am about to call the bookmaker and I see Goran [Ivanisevic]. He said, ‘Bad Goran here, but Good Goran here, also. So I put 20 pounds on Tim Henman at 12-1, and 20 pounds on Goran at 50-1.”--Ted Schroeder, 1949 Wimbledon men’s singles champion.