Igor Andreev - Rising Russian Tennis Professional Player

Tennis career

Andreev is a clay court specialist. Many consider him of having one of the best forehand in the business. His best Grand Slam performance is reaching the quarterfinals of the 2007 Roland Garros.

2003

Igor Andreev made his ATP debut in September 2003 at Bucharest, Romania as a qualifier and defeated top seed Nikolay Davydenko 7–5 6–7(1) 6–0 in the first round, before losing in the next round to Jose Acasuso.

At the Moscow ATP tournament later the same month, Andreev defeated the top seed Sjeng Schalken in straight sets, 6–3, 6–1, and made his first ATP quarterfinal appearance, eventually losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu 6–2, 3–6, 5–7. He entered the St. Petersburg tournament in October of 2003 as a wildcard, and defeated the number 4 seed Max Mirnyi 6–4, 7–6(1), before losing to Sargis Sargsian in the second round.

2004

Igor Andreev finished in the top 50 of the ATP rankings for the first time in his career. During the same year he also reached two ATP finals, Gstaad, Switzerland in July (losing to Roger Federer), and Bucharest, Romania in September (losing to Jose Acasuso). He won a personal best 28 matches in the year, and also made his Davis Cup debut.

Andreev made his Grand Slam debut at the 2004 Australian Open, where he lost in the first round to France's Olivier Patience, 4–6, 4–6, 7–6(4), 6–1, 6–2. At the French Open he made the round of 16, losing to eventual champion Gaston Gaudio 6–4, 7–5, 6–3. At Wimbledon that year, he reached the second round, losing to Fernando Gonzalez, and lost in the first round at the US Open to Fernando Verdasco, 6–3, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6, 7–5.

At the Athens Olympics in August 2004, Andreev made the third round, and lost only to the eventual gold medalist, Chilean Nicolαs Massϊ.

Igor Andreev won his first ATP doubles title in Moscow in October of 2004 with Nikolay Davydenko, after defeating Mahesh Bhupathi and Jonas Bjφrkman 3–6, 6–3, 6–4 in the final.

2005

Andreev's first ATP singles title came in April 2005 in Valencia, Spain, which he won by beating Spaniard David Ferrer 6–3, 5–7, 6–3 in the final, after having taken out world number 4 Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals earlier. After this point, Nadal began his record-breaking 81 match win streak on clay, which lasted for more than two years. Andreev made the third round at both the French Open and Wimbledon, and reached the quarterfinal at New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He then reached the final of the event at Bucharest, losing to Florent Serra 6–3, 6–4. Igor Andreev continued his consistent performance of the year by winning the Palermo event in September 2005, beating Filippo Volandri of Italy 0–6, 6–1, 6–3 in the final, and the Kremlin Cup at Moscow in October, defeating Nicolas Kiefer 5–7, 7–6, 6–2 in the final.

2006

Andreev had some ups and downs in the first half of the season; despite seven first-round losses, highlights included reaching the finals at Sydney and the quarterfinals at Indian Wells, losing both matches to James Blake. A knee injury forced Andreev to sit out the second half of the clay court season, including Roland Garros.

2007

Igor Andreev returned in 2007, and made an immediate impact with an impressive showing at the French Open. Unseeded, he beat former World no.1 Andy Roddick 3–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–4 in the first round (which was widely expected as Roddick has a poor record on clay) and in-form Marcos Baghdatis in the fourth round, to make his first Grand Slam quarter-final, which he lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic 6–3, 6–3, 6–3. However, he was disappointingly a first-round casualty at Wimbledon that year.

2008

Andreev made it to the third round of Australian Open losing to Richard Gasquet in four sets. His other notable performances include reaching the quarterfinals of Buenos Aires, Dubai, and Miami. At Miami he was defeated by Tomas Berdych, 6–4, 6–4. After Miami, he reached the final of another Masters Series event in Monte Carlo. He defeated in-form clay-courter Nicolas Almagro on his way to the quarters, where he was defeated by number four seed Nikolay Davydenko.

Equipment

Igor Andreev is sponsored by Under Armour and Babolat.

Personal life

Andreev is currently dating WTA player Maria Kirilenko.

Andreev speaks fluent Spanish.

Singles Titles

ATP Tour (3)

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Source of this article: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia