Steve Johnson Jr. (born December 24, 1989) is an American former professional tennis player.
He had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 21 achieved on July 25, 2016, and a doubles ranking of world No. 39 achieved on May 23, 2016. For one week in August 2016, Johnson was the top-ranked American in men's singles. He won four ATP Tour and nine ATP Challenger Tour titles, one at Nottingham on grass, twice at Houston on clay, and one at Newport on grass. He won a bronze medal in men's doubles at the 2016 Olympics with fellow American Jack Sock.
Johnson played college tennis for the USC Trojans. He won the NCAA Men's Singles Championship in his junior and senior seasons (2011–2012), and he was a part of a Trojan team that won four consecutive NCAA Championships.
Personal life
Johnson's father, Steve Johnson Sr. (died May 11, 2017, aged 58), was a tennis coach at the Rancho San Clemente Tennis and Fitness Club, and his mother, Michelle, is a mathematics professor. His older sister, Alison, is a graduate of Sonoma State University. Johnson has credited his father with his success in tennis: "He taught me pretty much everything I know. Since I can remember, it's always been me and him out there hitting balls, having a blast. It's really been amazing. I wouldn't change anything." Growing up, he idolized Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. At USC, Johnson was coached by Peter Smith and majored in Human Performance, but left when he was three classes short of attaining his degree.
In July 2012, Johnson signed a clothing deal with Asics America and is represented by Sam Duvall at Lagardere Unlimited. He currently trains at the USTA Player Development Center West in Carson, California. Johnson is currently working with the USTA and travels with other Americans.
Johnson married Kendall Bateman at Maravilla Gardens in Camarillo, Ventura County in Southern California on April 21, 2018. Kendall is a former Trojan volleyball player.
Junior tennis Johnson's dad served as his coach in his early career. Johnson won four consecutive 18-under national team titles, becoming the first player in tournament history to be a member of four championship teams. Johnson contributed to a 6–1 victory over Texas in the 2005 final, a 6–1 triumph over Southern in 2006 and clinched Southern California's 4–3 win the next year over Southern. Some of Johnson's junior accomplishments include being the 2008 Kalamazoo Doubles finalist and winning the 2008 Southern California Sectional Boys 18 championship in straight sets over JT Sundling. This marked his fourth Sectionals title and near a clean sweep of all age divisions having won the 12s, 14s and 16s. He also has the distinction of being the only player to win the Triple Crown, singles and two doubles—twice. He also won nine Gold Balls. He was ranked the third-rated California senior tennis recruit (7th overall) in the country according to TennisRecruiting.net. Johnson clinched the title for Southern California at the 2007 Junior Davis Cup.
High school tennis Johnson is a 2008 graduate of Orange High School in Orange, California, and was coached by Pete Tavoularis. He won CIF singles championships in 2006 and 2007 and was named the Orange County and Los Angeles Player of the Year in both seasons. He is the only Southern Section tennis champion in the school's history. Johnson also made it a priority to play in as many team matches as possible. He missed just two because of junior tennis events and did not lose a set in team competition on his way to winning his second consecutive Golden West League title. Johnson beat future Stanford Cardinal Ryan Thacher of Harvard-Westlake High to win the Southern Section Individual Tournament when both were high school sophomores in 2006. His only high school loss of 2006 was a three-set defeat in the semifinals of the Ojai Tennis Tournament to eventual champion Jason Jung of West Torrance. In 2007, he was defeated in the finals by Andre Dome in another 3 set thriller at Ojai. He then defended his title by beating future UCLA Bruin Alex Brigham of Pacifica Christian High. The victories made Johnson the first back-to-back singles winner since Tom Leonard of Arcadia in 1965 and 1966. He also became the eighth player to repeat as champion and the fourth to win the title after losing the first set at love (Leonard in 1965, Barry Buss in 1982, and Phil Sheng in 1999 each won titles after losing the first set at love). Johnson was the Orange County boys tennis player of the year as a sophomore and junior at Orange, but opted to not play high school tennis his senior year.
College tennis Johnson chose to play college tennis for the University of Southern California. He said of his decision, "I chose USC because I felt like I had a great relationship with Peter Smith, USC Tennis Coach, and I got along with the team really well."
As a freshman, Johnson was selected to All-Pac-10 First Team, as well as being named the Pac-10 Doubles Team of the Year with Robert Farah. He also reached the final of the Pac-10 singles championship match and he won the ITA Regionals Doubles Championship with Farah.
As a sophomore, he was selected to represent the United States in the fourth annual Master'U BNP Paribas, an intercollegiate competition in which eight countries from around the world play for the title. He was also selected to the All-Pac-10 First Team and was the named the Pac-10 Doubles Team of the Year with Farah once again as well as winning the ITA Southwest Regionals doubles championship with Farah. As a sophomore, he won the ITA National Indoor championship.
As a junior, he captured the 2010–11 NCAA Singles Championship, defeating Rhyne Williams in the final. He also won the 2011 Pac-10 Singles and Doubles Title with Raymond Sarmiento. In addition, he was selected as the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and to the NCAA All-Tournament Team for singles.
In his senior season, he captured the 2011–2012 NCAA Singles Championship, defeating Kentucky's Eric Quigley in the final, overcoming a strained abdomen and shin splints and a bout of food poisoning to retain his title.
Johnson was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Player of the Year for the 2010–11 and 2011–2012 seasons, as well as the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 Pac-12 Men's Player of the Year.
In his college career, he became a seven-time Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American, two-time NCAA Singles Champion, and he captured the team title for the Trojans in all four of his years there. Furthermore, he ended his college career with an unprecedented 72 match win streak. He has said that "the biggest thing that I have learned from college tennis is to play aggressive while playing within myself and to never give up, because every dual match could end up being decided on your court." These exploits led to Johnson's becoming the most decorated college player of all time.
ITF Futures Circuit Johnson has competed in 12 Futures tournaments in his career for singles, all of them being in the United States. He has been in 3 finals, winning two of them. He lost the 2011 Sacramento Futures tournament to Daniel Kosakowski in 3 sets. Later that same year, Johnson won consecutive tournaments in the Claremont and Costa Mesa futures tournaments respectively beating Darian King and Artem Sitak in straight sets. Johnson has competed in various Futures tournaments since 2006 as a high schooler, and he won his first match and earned his first point the following year. He has compiled an overall record of 23 wins and 10 losses on the Futures Tour.
ATP Challenger Tour Johnson has competed in 27 Challenger tournaments in his career for singles in the United States, Turkey, Canada, and France. He won his first challenger tournament in the Comerica Bank Challenger played in Aptos, California. He won it in the summer of 2012, before the 2012 US Open. In the finals, he defeated Robert Farah in straight sets, 6–3, 6–3, gaining 100 points, as well as A month after his win in Aptos, Stevie competed in 2 challenger tournaments in Turkey and France. He reached the semifinals in Izmir, Turkey, winning three matches along the way. In Orléans, France, Stevie reached the second round and lost to the no.2 seed David Goffin of Belgium. in a tightly contested match, with the final score being 7–5, 6–4. A couple of weeks later in the 2012 Tiburon Challenger, Stevie was ousted in the semifinals by Jack Sock 4–6, 6–7(4). Johnson competed in the 2012 Charlottesville Challenger but fell to Rhyne Williams in the Round of 16. Johnson planned on playing in the Knoxville Challenger as well as the JSM Challenger of Champaign–Urbana to finish the year, but a shoulder injury forced him to pull out. The shoulder injury also forced him to miss the Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs. Stevie has compiled an overall record of 32 wins and 18 losses on the Challenger Tour and has earned In doubles, Stevie has had equal success on the Challenger Tour, compiling an overall record of 13 wins and 8 losses including a title in Knoxville, Tennessee with Austin Krajicek in 2011. He also made it to the finals in the 2011 Tiburon challenger with Sam Querrey, but they lost 6–10 in the 3rd set super tie-breaker. In 2012, Stevie reached the semifinals in Tiburon partnered with Robert Farah, as the #1 seeds. Johnson played doubles in the 2013 Maui Challenger being seeded no.2 and reached the semifinals with his partner Alex Bogomolov Jr. Johnson played singles and doubles in the 2013 Sarasota Open. In singles, he lost in the quarter-finals to the eventual champion, Alex Kuznetsov, 2–6, 6–3, 1–6. In doubles, he partnered with Bradley Klahn, and they won three matches to reach the finals but lost 7–6(5), 6–7(3), 9–11. Johnson played three more clay challengers before the French Open and lost in the first round in each. After a successful French Open, Johnson won his second career challenger at the Aegon Nottingham Challenge defeating Ruben Bemelmans in the finals. Winning this tournament helped grant him a wild-card into Wimbledon. Johnson finished the 2013 Challenger Tour season 1–5. In his second challenger event of the 2014 season, Johnson won the 2014 Challenger of Dallas, dropping only one set throughout the tournament. He defeated fellow American Ryan Harrison along the way and Tunisian Malek Jaziri in the finals. After the match, he stated, "I was struggling with confidence a little before the start to this year, and to come out and win the tournament here makes it more special." One month later in the 2014 Irving Tennis Classic, Johnson beat three top-100 players along the way to reach the finals, where he lost to Lukáš Rosol. A win at the 2014 Open Guadeloupe Challenger Tour tournament boosted Johnson's singles ranking to a career-high No. 69 and gave him his fourth career challenger title. After taking a month off from competing in tournaments, Johnson's next challenger tournament was the BNP Paribas Primrose Bordeaux where he was the number two seed. He lost in the finals to number one seed Julien Benneteau. Johnson kicked off his grass court season as the number two seed in the 2014 Aegon Trophy where fell in the quarterfinals to Gilles Müller.
ATP World Tour
2011: Grand Slam debut