The 30-year-old, who had been Australian Open champion in 2002, was forced to sit out 2003 to undergo knee surgery and when he returned to the tour in January 2004, he was in for a shock.

"The first tournament I played after my injury was Adelaide and I practised for five or six days and I didn't win one set," said Johansson.

"I said to my coach: 'I think this is it'. But I was practising with players like Dominik Hrbaty, Taylor Dent, winners, finalists and semi-finalists so apparently I was playing really well.

"A lot of people thought I wasn't going to be able to come back. But I love to play my tennis and when you are away you miss it a lot.

"I was working really hard to come back and to be able to play all these young guys who had popped up while I had been away."

Johansson picked up his eighth career title on home ground in Stockholm in October, beating Andre Agassi in the final, and then enjoyed a solid Wimbledon build-up by making the semifinals at Queen's and the last eight at Nottingham.

As 12th seed, Johansson has become the first Swede since Stefan Edberg in 1993 to make the semifinals, but he will have to get past second seed Andy Roddick on Friday if he is to make Sunday's final.

He believes the experience of winning the Australian Open three years ago will work to his advantage against the American.

"It's always tough to do well at the Grand Slams, you have to be solid for two weeks," he explained.

"In Australia, I was playing the best tennis of my life. At the moment, I'm playing as good as I can. Fitness-wise I'm a lot stronger now. While I was out I had a lot of time to work on my fitness.

"On court, I never feel that I'm really tired. I get back to the points quickly."

Johansson is playing in his ninth Wimbledon but this is his best performance beating his runs to the fourth round in 1996 and 2000.

Unlike Edberg, who was a double champion, Johansson is taking full advantage of the slowness of the courts, happily making winners from the baseline.

"It's pretty slow," he admitted. "You can easily stay back which I do pretty well most of the time. It's a lot slower than five years ago.

"I don't know if it's the balls or the courts. I'm not complaining."