Mitch Johnson... Wimbledon champ?

As the Wimbledon Championships near their crescendo for 2016, Mitchell Johnson has revealed that his boyhood ambition was to grace the famous grass courts of the All England Club as a professional tennis player before he reached the age of 18.

Johnson, who retired from international cricket last year aged 34 after 73 Tests and more than 180 limited-overs internationals for Australia, was a gifted junior tennis prodigy when growing up in Townsville in Queensland’s north.

He competed at national schoolboy championships against peers who went on to pursue dreams on the professional circuit, but by the time he left secondary school his enthusiasm for the individual sport was beginning to wane and his passion for cricket took its place.

As he forged a reputation as one of the most feared fast bowlers of his generation, Johnson’s tennis outings were restricted to social matches with cricket teammates who share his love of the game including current Test captain Steve Smith who is an unabashed admirer of Swiss champion Roger Federer.

In 2010, as the Australia team was in Hobart preparing for the third Test of their series against Pakistan, Johnson and his fellow Queenslander Shane Watson were invited to take part in a promotional ‘hit’ for the upcoming Hobart Women’s Tennis Open.

The pair took on Australian Alicia Molik, the former world number eight who had won doubles titles at the Australian and French Opens, and her ex-doubles partner Sania Mirza from India who went on to win a doubles title at Wimbledon last year with Switzerland’s Martin Hingis.

It was as close as Johnson was to come to life as a tennis pro and an experience as part of The Championships, but now that he has drawn the curtain on his international cricket career he will have more opportunities to spend time on court.

“I had idols like (America’s 14-times Grand Slam winner) Pete Sampras and (Swedish former world number one) Stefan Edberg, I remember when I was quite young watching him (Edberg) play although I wasn’t a serve-volleyer,” Johnson recounted to cricket,com.au recently.

“I used to love watching Pete Sampras, the single-hand backhand and his serve and I wanted to go to Wimbledon.

“I made a goal that I wanted to get there by the age of 18, but cricket was always a passion as well, always playing in the backyard and played it at school and eventually played club cricket and then really enjoyed that as well.”