“I don’t want to be gone when important things are happening. Hopefully I can play for a few more years, but there’s going to be a side of me that probably will be more at home than he is on the road.”

After a quick catch-up with Irina Falconi as she gets set to enter the New York bubble, Nina Pantic chats with world No. 63 Stevie Johnson (interview starts at 7:07). The 30-year-old discusses his impending fatherhood and how that’s going to impact his career.

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Admitting he needs a reason to stay motivated, the California native took 75 days off during the shutdown. He would still play exhibitions during the summer as well as the full three-week-long season of World TeamTennis for the Orange County Breakers.

He knows a thing or two about team tennis having won four NCAA team championships at the University of Southern California, as well as two individual rings—though he doesn't like to linger on those incredible achievements.

The American has restarted his 2020 season in New York at the Western & Southern Open. He lost his first round qualifying match, but is into the quarterfinals of doubles with Austin Krajicek, and still has the US Open to go.

Regardless of what unfolds in 2020 on the court, what he’ll remember his 2020 for is the birth of his daughter with wife Kendall in December. The growing family are moving into a new home in Manhattan Beach where Johnson plans to “live happily ever after.”

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