Johansson wins Australian Open men's title

Thomas Johansson showed dazzling form to win his first Grand Slam final, on his 25th try, at the Australian Open in Melbourne today.

The Swede Johansson used heavy serves and combinations of top spins, slices, flat drives and lethal drop shots to break down the power game of Marat Safin of Russia, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4).

The low point of Safin's bad day on his 22nd birthday came in the final tiebreaker, when Johansson slugged a backhand crosscourt passing shot that left him sprawling, and trailing 4-0.

Safin caught up from 1-6 to 4-6 and then drew Johansson in with a drop shot ? but then lobbed long, giving the 16th-seeded Swede the 1 million Australian dollars winner's cheque.

Publicly wishing Safin a happy birthday, he told the crowd of about 15,000 at the end: "He's turning 22 and I'm 27. I'm almost over the hill. I feel old here."

"I was lucky to win today," Johansson added.

Safin, who already had one Grand Slam title from his victory over Peete Sampras at the 2000 US Open, told Johansson it was important to "enjoy it as much as you can."

Johansson made few mistakes after losing serve on the first game of the match to give the Russian the only service break he needed to take the set.

Double faults hurt the ninth-seeded Safin in the service breaks that cost him the second and third sets.

In the second, Johansson reached deuce on a drop and lob combination. Four points later, after a double fault, Safin hit a backhand into the net and the Swede had a break for 2-1.

In the third, Johansson started the seventh game with a drive and drop-shot combination, and gained a break for 4-3 when Safin double faulted on the last point.

In six other games in the match, Safin had to save break points to hold.

Johansson started the fourth set with a break on errors by Safin, and had a break point for 3-0. But Safin held and then broke for 2-2 with a backhand winner down the line.

At 6-1 in the final tiebreaker, Safin saved three match points with a forehand winner, an unreturnable serve and a miss by Johansson before his lob went slightly too long.

Unlike in the women's final Saturday, when defending champion Jennifer Capriati labored in 95-degree heat to overcome Martina Hingis, the two men played under generally gray skies with temperatures no higher than 81.

Both served at up to 209 kilometers an hour (130 mph), with Johansson winning the battle of aces 16-13.

A lustily cheering band of blue-and-yellow-clad Swedes greeted most of Johansson's aces with a chant ending in "We like it!"

Both players had to come back after trailing 2-1 in sets in their semifinal matches.

After needing only 28 minutes in his quarterfinal when Wayne Ferreira pulled out with an abdominal strain, Safin rebounded after a 50-minute rain delay for a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 over seventh-seeded Tommy Haas. He had ousted Pete Sampras in the fourth round.

Johansson beat No. 26 Jiri Novak 7-6 (5), 0-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Johansson's best previous Grand Slam results were reaching the US Open quarterfinals in 1998 and 2000.

In remarks here about why tennis was fading in popularity in Sweden, he said, "Look at me. I'm not interesting."

Safin, who also beat Sampras for the 2000 US Open title, had back problems in early 2001 but reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the semifinals at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Sampras. At Wimbledon, he lost to eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic.