Steve Johnson has struggled with his emotions since the death of his father.
Defending champ deals with personal gains and losses as he plies trade on tour
In little over a year’s time, Steve Johnson will have lost a father, gained a wife and won a tennis tournament in Houston.
He might win a pair of them here because, on a 6-0 roll at River Oaks Country Club, he’s halfway to a repeat Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship title this week.
By beating Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday, Johnson advanced to a Friday quarterfinal against his friend and Davis Cup teammate John Isner, a fellow former champion and the current top seed. Isner, who won in 2013, rolled past Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2.
Two other previous Clay Courts titlists, the third-seeded American Jack Sock (2015) and Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic (2007), are also in the quarters. Sock knocked out Argentine Horatio Zeballos 6-4, 6-4, in the nightcap. Karlovic, 39, advanced Wednesday.
Johnson launched his title defense — nobody has won backto-back since Andy Roddick in 2001-02 — with badly conflicted emotions. On April 21 he’ll stash his rackets to exchange vows with his longtime girlfriend, Kendall Bateman, an accomplished USC volleyball player back in the day.
And, of course, the man who won two NCAA singles championships for the Trojans has beautiful memories of holding a trophy aloft here last April, when he celebrated only his second ATP World Tour title in six years spent seeking a measure of the magic of a storied collegiate tenure that ended with 72 consecutive singles victories.
Memories of his father
Because April 21, 2018, is his wedding day, it will be a special day for Johnson — as was April 16, 2017, when he rallied from a service break down and overcame a crippling bout of cramps in the Clay Courts final against Thomaz Bellucci. But merely winning a tennis match, even such a consequential one, isn’t what he’ll replay in his head.
Rather, it’s knowing that his dad, who was watching via the Tennis Channel back home in Rancho San Clemente, Calif., would never see him play again.
Steve Johnson Sr. died in his sleep less than a month later. Only 58, he was on the courts daily, coaching tennis. When he retired for the evening that night, there was no reason to believe anything was wrong.
“A complete shock,” Johnson, 28, said, and he admits he struggles with the tragedy. “Some tournaments, it’s been easy to get through it, others have been tough. I’m just not quite there yet emotionally. I’ll look up in the stands and think he should be there …but he’s not there. It has been a constant struggle for me. Probably explains my erratic performances. Some weeks are a little bit easier to get through emotionally. Others, I’m just not quite there.”
Being back on the River Oaks grounds “is easy in a way” because of his championship, but he admitted: “It’s also tough because I’ve found myself spending a lot of time on the court, when I should be focusing on my game plan, thinking about how this was it, the last time he got to watch me. (The pain) comes and goes. I’m grateful for the time I spent with him …but the question marks are there for why he’s not here anymore.”
Wayne Bryan, the father of doubles stars Bob and Mike (who are through to the Houston semifinals in pursuit of a seventh Clay Courts title) is also longtime tennis coach. He has known the Johnson family since Steve Jr., was “7 or 8 years old. His dad and I put on a lot of clinics together through the years. A great friend, a great guy, a great father.”
Wayne Bryan serves as the pre- and post-match emcee for the Houston matches and recalls asking Johnson last year, after the title had been secured, what his dad might be thinking while listening to the interview from his living room.
“Steve told me, ‘He’s sitting there shocked I won a tournament on clay,’ ” Bryan said. “(Steve Sr.) texted me the next day and thanked me for the mention. That’s who he was.”
Tough going on tour
Johnson threw himself back on to the tour soon after the funeral, believing he’d be better served by playing the sport his father gave him than brooding about his passing. But the results have been spotty, he concedes. At least he’s back to .500 — 8-8 — in matches in 2018 after suffering a pair of desultory first-round losses at the end of 2017. Since being the last man standing in Houston, he hasn’t progressed beyond the quarters at the ATP Tour level.
Johnson’s accomplishments at USC, where he was also part of a record four consecutive NCAA team titles, rendered him unprepared for the realities of touring professionally. It took him four years to claim an ATP title, won on grass in Nottingham, England, in 2016.
Learning how to lose, and how to learn from losing, didn’t come easily.
“It was definitely a shock when you lose every week,” Johnson said. “I had to figure out how I could lose and find a way to see it as a positive week. Fortunately, that only took a year or two and now I feel like I’m in a much better situation mentally that, when I do lose, I’m going to draw on the positives.”
The looming wedding weekend will offer a respite from the tennis grind and, whether he repeats here, it will be a joyous occasion (Isner, among many of Johnson’s tour friends and rivals, plans to attend). But Steve Sr.’s absence will hardly go unnoticed.
“Yeah, another example,” Johnsons said. “I don’t know how I’ll feel. But I do know I’ll wish he was there.”