Read Thomas Johansson’s (Tournament Director) thoughts about this year’s tournament.

The If Stockholm Open has come to a close for the year. During the 2011 edition of the tournament, first-seeded Gaël Monfils won The Royal Trophy and the top-seeded doubles pair Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi took home the doubles title, which has given them a chance to reach the ATP finals this year.

In this year’s singles final, we saw the crowd favorite Gaël Monfils play against Jarkko Nieminen. With Robin Söderling’s loss, I think we got the final match that we all wanted. Even though the match was a bit choppy at times, it ended up being a fantastic game. In each match Monfils found himself in a bit of trouble, but he managed to turn them around and win the title.

It’s great that he took over the title after Roger Federer. In my eyes, Monfils is one of the five best players in the world, if he can keep his focus. His Achilles heel made his concentration like a roller coaster in his matches, but he managed to tighten up in the important plays and eventually win the whole tournament.

It was wonderful to see so many people in the Kungl. (Royal) Tennis Hall this week. On Tuesday, the hall was already filled with a lot of people — a sign that we had very strong and interesting matches early in the week. It also showed that the audience here in the Kungl. (Royal) Tennis Hall is very knowledgeable about tennis.

The biggest surprise of the week was when James Blake defeated second-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro. I think it is James’ turn now. I talked to him after the game and it’s the first time in quite a while that he has felt so refreshed in his body.

Both Jonas and I thought it was very fun to play on the center court, but it was just as fun to put on the tournament. Now we will head to London and try to start an early discussion with the players. Our goal for next year is that we will have the top three players at the Kungl. (Royal) Tennis Hall. We hope to see you here again next year, we’re really looking forward to it.

Thomas Johansson
Tournament Director