Johansson Looks to Defend Home Turf at ATP Stockholm

Defending champ Thomas Johansson heads his homecountry event this week at the if...Stockholm Open, joined by seeds David Ferrer, Taylor "Acci-" Dent, Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, James Blake, Jarkko Nieminen and Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco.

Johansson was handed a gift opener against Swedish wildcarded countryman Ervin Eleskovic, but a number of more interesting first-round match-ups await in (8) Hot Sauce vs. Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan, (3) Dent vs. the hot-handed Italian Davide Sanguinetti, (7) Nieminen vs. last year's Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu, (5) O.Rochus vs. homecountry hope Robin Soderling, former champ (WC) Jonas Bjorkman vs. last week's Tokyo winner Wesley Moodie in an "I'm not a doubles specialist" match-up, (6) Blake vs. Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez, and (2) Ferrer vs. Al Martin in an all-Spanish confrontation.

In last year's final the unseeded Johansson shocked No. 1 seed Andre Agassi 7-6 in the third.

Returning champs in the field are Johansson (2004,'00), Srichaphan (2002), Thomas Enqvist (1999,'96-95), and Bjorkman (1997).

Scheduled for Monday are Chela vs. Spadea, A.Martin vs. (2) Ferrer, Srichaphan vs. (8) Verdasco, and (3) Dent vs. Sanguinetti.