University of North Carolina Athletics
Johnson Two Wins Away From Repeating As Wimbledon Champion
July 2, 2002 | Men's Tennis
July 2, 2002
WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND - University of North Carolina assistant men's tennis coach Don Johnson kept his hopes for a third straight Wimbledon doubles title alive Tuesday as he and gentlemen's doubles partner Jared Palmer scored a straight set win in the doubles quarterfinals.
Johnson, who graduated from Carolina in 1990 and lives in Chapel Hill year-round, and Palmer, a former All-America at Stanford, are looking to repeat their Wimbledon doubles title and are the #1 seeds. On Tuesday they cruised to a 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Martin Damm and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic. Johnson and Palmer advance to play Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia in the semifinals. Bjorkman and Woodbridge are seeded #5.
So far at Wimbledon, Johnson and Palmer defeated Karol Beck of Slovakia and Jaroislav Levinsky of the Czech Republic in the first round 6-0, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, Karsten Braasch and Rainer Schnettler of Germany in the second round 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, and Neville Godwin of South Africa and Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the third round before their fourth round victory over Damm and Suk on Tuesday.
Johnson is also still alive in mixed doubles where he is playing with Kimberly Po-Messerli. Johnson and Po-Messerli, who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title in 2000, are the #2 seeds. Johnson and Po-Messerli defeated Luis Lobo and Laura Montalvo of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 in the first round. Their second round match Tuesday against Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Nannie DeVilliers of South Africa was postponed by rain at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
