ITF

33 G oing into the Olympics, since Thomas and I didn't play doubles together in the Tour, we didn't really have any expectations. We knew we would play good together but didn't really feel any pressure on us to live up to any expectations. We just started a tournament and played well from the beginning and won all of our matches in straight sets. Then all of a sudden we were playing in the semifinals. The experience was definitely special. Personally, if I look at my own game, I played really well throughout the whole tournament up until the final. I didn't think I played as well in the final, so for me I was a bit disappointed. When you lose a match and you haven't played as well as you know you can, it's extra disappointing compared to losing a match where you've played really well. That semifinal was played on a Friday evening in Beijing, so it was Friday afternoon in Sweden and I know a lot of people were watching and following this match. Our silver medal has really been recognised and that's what a lot of people know about me or remember me for. It's very hard to rank the Olympics higher than a Grand Slam. The two of them together are for me the best achievements. I was struggling with the time difference and the beds were really hard. The first few days when we got there, I had such problems sleeping, so I was up during the night quite a bit. It was a little bit amazing that we ended up going so deep in the tournament because I was so tired during the day in the first couple of days. You are staying dorm-style with the other Swedish athletes. Thomas Johansson BEIJING 2008 MEN'S DOUBLES SILVER BEIJING 2008 MEN'S DOUBLES SILVER T hat semifinal match was so up and down. [Arnaud] Clement was serving for the match twice and we were never close to breaking [Michael] Llodra. When we managed to win it in the end, the feeling was just amazing because then you knew you had the medal for your country. At that time, Sweden were struggling for medals, so it was a very big thing for Sweden. If we lost, we would have played the Bryan brothers for the bronze. I think both of us maybe had some problems to try and focus on the final because we were so happy we managed to secure the silver at least. And then we played Federer and Wawrinka. We thought we had a good chance because they don't play that much doubles, even though they are very good players. I had problems sleeping the night before because we were so excited. We played a good final, but Roger and Stan were way too good. When I won the Australian Open, it was very big in Sweden as well. But the Olympics is more for the people that are interested in sport in general. It was a huge thing that we managed to win the silver. I have heard stories from my friends that people were sitting in airports, bars and restaurants following the semifinal. It was a really exciting match back and forth. It was massive for both of us and for the country. A funny story was when I was out jogging one day. I wanted to get a workout in. I was jogging quite slow, but at a good speed. All of a sudden I get overtaken by one of the athletes doing the walk. It's not every day you get overtaken by a guy who is walking when you are running. Simon Aspelin Simon Aspelin Thomas Johansson Simon Aspelin Simon Aspelin Thomas Johansson

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