With the welcome return to form of Thomas Enqvist, the return from injury of Thomas Johansson, the ever presence of Jonas Bjorkman and two fast-rising stars in Robin Soderling and Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis is back on the upturn in 2004.

Following their famous Davis Cup victory over defending champions Australia in Adelaide earlier this month, Enqvist and the 21-year-old Johansson are both in the quarterfinals at the Kroger St. Jude in Memphis.

And, while Enqvist may be a veteran of the ATP circuit at the age of 29, he is once again showing signs of the kind of form that took him to No. 4 in the world in 1999. With victories over No. 5 seed Vincent Spadea and big-serving German Alexander Popp so far this week, the Swede is looking forward to a potential meeting with Andy Roddick with some relish.

"It's another perfect opportunity for me to get that kind of match," said Enqvist. "It's exactly what I need at the moment. If I play Roddick it will be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it."

Enqvist, who is now working with long-time friend Julius Demsburg, slipped down to No. 95 at the end of 2003. But after training hard in the off-season, he is starting to reap the rewards so far this year.

Improving

"I worked really hard in December," said Enqvist. "I tried to both put last year behind me but also learn a lot from it. I think I'm very fit again and from each match I'm improving. To get back into the Top 20 I need to play matches, and if you get in a good match routine and win consistently sooner or later I'm going to have a good week somewhere and move up in the rankings."

Meanwhile, Johansson is making his rapid rise up the INDESIT ATP Entry Ranking after bursting onto the scene in Stockholm last year, when he advanced to his first ATP quarterfinal. Since then, having teamed up with Bjorkman to win the doubles rubber in their Davis Cup tie in Australia, the 21-year-old has appeared in back-to-back quarterfinals in San Jose and now Memphis.

With a booming serve reaching the 140mph mark against James Blake in his second round match on Thursday - including making 100 percent of his first serves in the opening set - the young Swede is enjoying his breakthrough year.

"It's only the last few months that I've started to play pretty well," said Johansson. "I was ranked around 200 about four months ago, so I'm just enjoying life and have fun when I'm playing. That's my attitude and if I win some matches, it's great."

Impression

Johansson's rise has certainly made an impression on Enqvist, whose old coach Mikael Stripple has taken the reins as Johansson's mentor.

"He's very confident at the moment," said Enqvist. "By playing well in Davis Cup it helped his confidence. With a serve like his he's always going to put himself in a good position against anyone. He has a great coach now, my old one, so he's going to help him understand the game better. With that kind of serve, it's very easy to play the game and Mikael [Stripple] really told him how to use that serve in the best way possible."

It was during the Davis Cup that Johansson's serve gave notice that he could threaten Andy Roddick's 150mph record, and it's something Enqvist believes could happen soon.

"At the Davis Cup he looked at the radar gun after every single serve he hit," said Enqvist. "When you're 30 you don't really do that anymore. Me and Bjorkman, we just try to win the point, we don't really care how fast we hit it. And he plays with a really small racquet - a very thin, tightly strung Head Prestige. Imagine if he played with Roddick's racquet - a wide one - you'd have to give him a special license."