David Goffin has hired Thomas Johansson as a coaching consultant. The Belgian, currently ranked 16 in the world, issued a statement via Twitter to announce the news: "The team is growing! I am very happy to announce a new member in my team: Thomas Johansson! Thomas will work with me and my coach Thierry Vancleemput a couple of weeks during the year. I am very excited to start with this extended structure next week when I play in Rotterdam!". Goffin was upset by Marcos Baghdatis in the first round of Rotterdam.
Johansson is a former Australian Open champion, having won the title over Russian Marat Safin in 2002. The Swede, who turned 40 last March, reached a career-high in singles on March 10, 2002 at number seven in the world. He won nine singles titles in his career, the biggest being the Rogers Cup in 1999. Aside from that title in Melbourne, Johansson was able to reach one other Grand Slam semifinal in his career, making the last four at Wimbledon in 2005, losing to American Andy Roddick. He previously worked with 19-year-old Croat Borna Coric from late April until late December last year.
Goffin's Head Coach Still Remains The Same
Goffin's current coach, Thierry Vancleemput, will remain as his primary coach. Vancleemput has been Goffin's coach since March of 2014, overseeing the Belgian's first two career titles, on clay in Kitzbuhel, which was his fourth straight title(the first three being Challengers) and on indoor hard courts in Metz. The Belgian also reached his first ATP Tour level 500 event at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, losing to Roger Federer. He did pick up his first career top 10 win in the event, knocking off Canadian Milos Raonic, who was ranked nine at the time. He would win ATP Comeback Player of The Year after rising from #111 in the rankings at the start of the year to #22. In 2015, with Vancleemput on board for his full year, Goffin reached the quarterfinals of Rome as well as the finals of 's-Hertogenbosch and Gstaad as well as steering Belgium to their first Davis Cup final since 1904. Unfortunately, he lost the deciding match to Andy Murray as the Brits clinched the title in Ghent. He reached his career-high ranking of #14 in the world on July 13 and is currently ranked at #16.
Goffin started 2016 in Brisbane, losing in the second round to Frenchman Lucas Pouille. He would reach the fourth round of the Australian Open, losing again to Federer in straight sets.
