Richard Krajicek - Dutch Tennis Champion

Personal life

Richard Krajicek was born on December 6, 1971 in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is the son of Czech immigrants.

His half sister Michaλlla Krajicek is also a professional tennis player.

In 1999, Krajicek married model, actress and writer Daphne Deckers.

Career

Richard Krajicek began playing tennis at the age of four. As a youngster he won the Dutch 12-under and 14-under National Championships twice each. He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title at Hong Kong, and his first tour doubles title in Hilversum.

In 1992, the 6ft 5 inch Dutchman reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at the Australian Open, but then had to withdraw from his semi-final match due to a shoulder injury. The following year, he reached the semi-finals at the French Open where he lost in four sets to the defending champion Jim Courier. Further in 1992, Krajicek made a controversial comment regarding equal pay for women in grand slam events, saying, "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Later, he jokingly clarified his comments, remarking, "What I meant to say was that only 75 percent are fat pigs." Krajicek later showed remorse for the comment.

Coming into Wimbledon in 1996, Richard Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round, and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He was a player with undoubted potential, but was not considered to be one of the strongest contenders to win the title. The clear favourite was Pete Sampras, who had won the title for the past three consecutive years. Despite being ranked within the world's top 16, Krajicek just missed out on the seedings for the tournament, but when seventh seed (and world number two) Thomas Muster pulled out shortly before the tournament due to injury, Krajicek was given Muster's place in the draw.

He beat former champion Michael Stich in the fourth round, and then met Sampras in the quarter-finals. Richard Krajicek shocked the tennis world by defeating Sampras in straight sets 7–5, 7–6(3), 6–4, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993-2000. He then beat Australia's Jason Stoltenberg in the semi-finals, and went on to face American MaliVai Washington in the final. He won the final in straight sets 6–3, 6–4, 6–3 to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon.

Krajicek's victory over Sampras proved to be no fluke. He amassed a 6–4 record against the American player.

In 1998, Richard Krajicek was in the Wimbledon semi-finals again, where he lost to Goran Ivanisevic in a marathon match 6–3, 6–4, 5–7, 6–7, 15-13. His final attempt at winning a second Wimbledon title was in 2002, when he lost in the quarter-finals to Xavier Malisse. Krajicek retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won 17 singles titles and 3 doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was world number 4 in 1999.

Since retiring from the ATP circuit, Krajicek runs The Richard Krajicek Foundation which builds sports facilities for children in Holland's inner-city areas. In 2004 Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

In 2005, he published a book on tennis called 'Fast Balls' (Dutch: 'Harde Ballen').

Go to the List of Male and Female Tennis Players

Source of this article: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia