Might as well create a thread for this guy. NCAA champ. Didn't lose a college match from November onwards.
He's currently in the $15k future tournament in Sacramento. He's into the semis after beating top seed and world #240 Philip Bester. Hasn't lost a set yet.
Not to take anything away from David Ferrer, but he's not the player he was when he was ranked #4 in the world. On the fast courts of Cincinnati and in front of a home crowd, this was really a match that Steve should have won. He's on the entry list for Winston-Salem. Hopefully he can get a few wins in NC so that he enters the US Open with a bit more confidence.
Prior to Winston-Salem, Steve was 0-3 on hard courts (DC, Montreal, Cincinnati). I hate to think of the blow to Steve's confidence had he gone into the USO winless on hard. So yes, these last two victories were much needed. Steve next plays Edmund, a tough but beatable opponent. Since I like Kyle, I'm certainly not rooting against him, but given all that Johnson's been through and continues to deal with, I have to root for Steve in this one.
His ATP player page says Craig Boynton. Not totally sure about this, but I think Steve Sr. stopped coaching his son quite a while ago, at least officially. I'm sure he continued to give his son advice and support, but Steve Jr. has had an "official" coach other than his father for years.
At the time his father died the media made it seem that his father was just not his father, but his coach as well. Of course, we all know how the media is.
Well, Steve Sr. was Steve's coach from the time he first picked up a racket at 2 years old until at least college. Obviously Steve had a college tennis coach during his 4 years at USC. I don't know when exactly Steve hired a full-time traveling coach, but I could have sworn I saw a coach, who was not his father, listed on his ATP player page a few years back. Perhaps the media weren't distorting the picture that much. I also read somewhere that Steve Sr. watched all his matches, not necessarily in person but at least via TennisTV. Even though Steve Sr. was no longer his son's official coach, surely he continued to give him advice. So he kinda sorta was his coach, at least on an informal, unofficial basis.
Steve got his USO off to a good start by defeating Nicolas Almagro in straight sets.
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