| Playername | Mikhail Kukushkin |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Residence | Astana, Kazakhstan |
| Datebirth | December 26, 1987 |
| Placebirth | Volgograd, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 2006 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | $271,929 |
| Singlesrecord | 28-20 |
| Singlestitles | 1 |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 58 (November 1, 2010) |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 59 (November 29, 2010) |
| Usopenresult | 1R (2010) |
| Doublesrecord | 1-1 |
| Doublestitles | 0 |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 491 (August 27, 2007) |
| Updated | April 12, 2010 |
Mikhail Kukushkin (born 26 December 1987) is a professional Kazakh tennis player from Russian origin.
In 2009, he came through qualifying to reach the main draw of a Masters Series 1000 tournament for the first time at the Miami Masters. He beat Tommy Haas in the first round, but lost to Dmitry Tursunov in the second round.
In September 2010, during the Davis Cup play-offs, he notably beat Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka. His good form continued, later reaching and winning his maiden ATP World Tour title, as he beat Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the St. Petersburg Open, 6-3 7-6(2).
{| class="wikitable" |- style="background:#EFEFEF;" |width=80|Outcome |width=40|No. |width=120|Date |width=220|Tournament |width=70|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=120|Score |- |- style="" | style="background:#98FB98"|Winner | 1. | 31 October 2010 | St. Petersburg, Russia | Hard (i) | Mikhail Youzhny | 6–3, 7–6(2) |}
Category:1987 births Category:Living people Category:People from Volgograd Category:Kazakhstani tennis players
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Playername | Rafael Nadal |
|---|---|
| Fullname | Rafael Nadal Parera |
| Caption | Rafael Nadal at 2010 US Open. |
| Country | Spain |
| Nickname | Rafa The King of Clay The Matador |
| Residence | Manacor, Majorca, Spain |
| Datebirth | June 03, 1986 |
| Placebirth | Manacor, Majorca |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 2001 |
| Plays | Left-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | $37,475,012 |
| Singlesrecord | 475–102 (82.3%) |
| Singlestitles | 43 |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 1 (7 June 2010) |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 1 (18 August 2008) |
| Australianopenresult | W (2009) |
| Frenchopenresult | W (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010) |
| Wimbledonresult | W (2008, 2010) |
| Usopenresult | W (2010) |
| Othertournaments | Yes |
| Masterscupresult | F (2010) |
| Olympicsresult | Gold medal (2008) |
| Doublesrecord | 86–52 |
| Doublestitles | 7 |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 26 (8 August 2005) |
| Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
| Australianopendoublesresult | 3R (2004, 2005) |
| Wimbledondoublesresult | 2R (2005) |
| Usopendoublesresult | SF (2004) |
| Updated | 10 January 2011 |
}}
Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera (; ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked No. 1 in the world. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His success on clay has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay", and has prompted many experts to regard him as the greatest clay court player of all time. Nadal has won nine Grand Slam singles titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, a record 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, and also was part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008 and 2009. He completed the career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 US Open, being the 7th player in history, and the youngest in the open era, to achieve it. He is the second male player to complete the Career Golden Slam (winner of the four grand slams and the Olympic Gold medal) after Andre Agassi.
Nadal was ranked World No. 2, behind Roger Federer, for a record 160 consecutive weeks before earning the top spot, which he held from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. He regained the World No.1 ranking on 7 June 2010 after winning his fifth French Open title.
At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 year regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player. This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and at that time he encouraged Nadal to play left-handed—for a natural advantage on the tennis court, as he noticed Nadal played forehand shots with two hands. Nadal participated in two events on the ITF junior circuit. In 2002, at the age of 16, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Boy's Singles tournament at Wimbledon, in his first ITF junior event.
By the age of 17, he beat Federer the first time they played and became the youngest man to reach the third round at Wimbledon since Boris Becker. At 18, he helped pace Spain over the US in the junior Davis Cup in his second, and final, appearance on the ITF junior circuit. At 19, Nadal won the French Open the first time he played it, a feat not accomplished in Paris for more than 20 years, he won it the first four times he played it.
He then dominated the spring clay court season. He won 24 consecutive singles matches, which broke Andre Agassi's open era record of consecutive match wins for a male teenager. Nadal won Torneo Conde de Godó in Barcelona, Spain and beat 2004 French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria in the finals of 2005 Monte Carlo Masters and 2005 Rome Masters. These victories raised his ranking to World No. 5 and made him one of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the 2005 French Open semifinals, being one of only four players who defeated the top seeded that year (along with Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet and David Nalbandian). Two days later, he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the second male player to win the French Open on his first attempt since Mats Wilander in 1982: He also became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. He then lost in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg.
Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments, bringing his ranking to World No. 2 on 25 July 2005.
Nadal started his North American summer hard court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the 2005 Canada Masters but lost in the first round of the 2005 Cincinnati Masters. Nadal was seeded second at the 2005 US Open, where he was upset in the third round by World No. 49 James Blake in four sets.
In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the 2005 Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup.
Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four ATP Masters Series titles in 2005. Nadal broke Mats Wilander's previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay and the remainder were on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005 with eleven 6–0 sets during the year. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award.
On European clay, Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. He defeated Federer in the final of the Masters Series Monte Carlo in four sets. The following week, he defeated Tommy Robredo in the final of the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. After a one week break, Nadal won the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Federer in a fifth set tiebreaker in the final after saving two match points and equaling Björn Borg's tally of 16 ATP titles won as a teenager. Nadal broke Argentinian Guillermo Vilas's 29-year male record of 53 consecutive clay-court match victories by winning his first round match at the French Open. Vilas presented Nadal with a trophy but commented later that Nadal's feat was less impressive than his own because Nadal's winning streak covered two years and was accomplished by adding easy tournaments to his schedule. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open. The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive as the rivals traded 6–1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker. Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first player to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final. Champion]] On grass, Nadal injured his shoulder while playing a quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt at the Artois Championships, played at Queen's Club in London. Nadal was unable to complete the match, which ended his 26-match winning streak. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon but was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets. In the third round, Nadal defeated World No. 20 Andre Agassi in straight sets at Agassi's last career match at Wimbledon. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up his first Wimbledon final, which was against Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years. Nadal was the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966 to reach the Wimbledon final, but Federer won the match in four sets 6–0 7–6(5) 6–7(2) 6–3 to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.
During the lead up to the US Open, Nadal played the two Masters Series tournaments in North America. He was upset in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second at the US Open but lost in the quarterfinals to World No. 54 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets.
Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. Joachim Johansson, ranked World No. 690, upset Nadal in the second round of the Stockholm Open 6–4, 7–6. The following week, Nadal lost to Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals of the year's last Masters Series tournament, the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid. During the round-robin stage of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Robredo. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer 6–4, 7–5. This was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer.
Nadal went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1994–95 to finish the year as the World No. 2 in consecutive years.
Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Majorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.
Nadal played the Artois Championships at Queen's Club in London for the second consecutive year. As in 2006, Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before being beaten by Federer in the five-set final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001.
In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which proved to be his last title of the year. He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was a semifinalist at the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal before losing his first match at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open but was defeated in the fourth round by David Ferrer.
After a month-long break from tournament tennis, Nadal played the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid and the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him 6–4, 6–1.
During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. In addition, there were rumors at the end of the year that the foot injury he suffered during 2005 caused long term damage, which were given credence by coach Toni Nadal's claim that the problem was "serious". Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".
During the spring clay court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his open era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer holding a 4–0 lead in the second set. Nadal then won his fourth consecutive title at the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg, defeating Federer in the three-set final. He then won the French Open, becoming the fifth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set. He defeated Federer in the final for the third straight year, but this was the most lopsided of all their matches, as Nadal only lost four games and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999. Nadal entered the final on a 23-match winning streak, including his first career grass court title at the Artois Championships staged at Queen's Club in London prior to Wimbledon. Federer had won his record fifth grass court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win. They played the longest (in terms of time on court, not in terms of numbers of games) final in Wimbledon history, and because of rain delays, Nadal won the fifth set 9–7 in near-darkness. The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some tennis critics even calling it the greatest match in tennis history. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, after Rod Laver in 1969 and Borg in 1978–80, (Federer later accomplished this the following year) as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. He also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles and 65 straight wins on grass courts. This is also the first time that Nadal won two Grand Slams back to back. trophy]] After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Rogers Cup title in Toronto, and then made it into the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, Nadal clinched the US Open Series and, combined with Federer's early-round losses in both of those tournaments, finally earned the World No. 1 ranking on 18 August, officially ending Federer's record four-and-a-half year reign at the top.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nadal defeated Novak Djoković of Serbia in the semifinals 6–4, 1–6, 6–4 and Fernando González of Chile in the final to win his first Olympic gold medal. Nadal became the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.
At the US Open, Nadal was the top-seeded player for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament. He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round. He then needed four sets to defeat both Sam Querrey in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual runner up, Andy Murray 6–2, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4. Later in the year in Madrid, Nadal helped Spain defeat the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals.
At the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid, Nadal lost in the semifinals to Gilles Simon 3–6, 7–5, 7–6(6). However, his performance at the event guaranteed that he would become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year as the World No. 1. In October 24 at the Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, Spain; Nadal was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, in recognition of his achievements in tennis. Two weeks after the Madrid Masters at the BNP Paribas Masters in France, Nadal reached the quarterfinals, where he faced Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal lost the first set 6–1 before retiring in the second with a knee injury. The following week, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, citing tendinitis of the knee. On 10 November, Nadal withdrew from Spain's Davis Cup final against Argentina, as his knee injury had not healed completely.
At the 2009 Australian Open, Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals, the longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes. This win set up a championship match with Roger Federer — their first meeting ever in a hard court Grand Slam tournament and nineteenth meeting overall. Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard court Grand Slam singles title, making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and the fourth male tennis player—after Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces. This win also made Nadal the first male tennis player to hold three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces at the same time.
Nadal then played the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. In the final, he lost to second-seeded Murray in three sets. During the final, Nadal called a trainer to attend to a tendon problem with his right knee, which notably affected his play in the final set. Although this knee problem was not associated with Nadal's right knee tendonitis, it was serious enough to cause him to withdraw from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships a week later.
In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Serbia in a Davis Cup World Group first round tie on clay in Benidorm, Spain. Nadal defeated Janko Tipsarević and Novak Djokovic. The win over World No. 3 Djokovic was Nadal's twelfth consecutive Davis Cup singles match win and boosted his career win–loss record against Djokovic to 11–4, including 6–0 on clay.
At the 2009 Indian Wells Masters, Nadal won his thirteenth Masters 1000 series tournament. In the fourth round, Nadal saved five match points before defeating David Nalbandian for the first time. Nadal defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semi-finals before defeating Murray in the final. The next ATP tour event was the 2009 Miami Masters. Nadal advanced to the quarter-finals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match. This was the first time del Potro had defeated Nadal in five career matches. Nadal began his European clay court season at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, where he won a record fifth consecutive singles title there. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final for his fifth consecutive win, a record in the open era. Nadal is the first male player to win the same ATP Master series event for five consecutive years.
Nadal then competed in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. He advanced to his fifth consecutive Barcelona final where he faced David Ferrer. Nadal went on to beat Ferrer 6–2, 7–5 to record five consecutive Barcelona victories. At the Rome Masters, Nadal reached the final, where he defeated Novak Djokovic to improve his overall record to 13–4 and clay record to 8–0 against the Serb. He became the first player to win four Rome titles.
, Miami, Florida, United States]] After winning two clay court Masters, he participated in the Madrid Open. He lost to Roger Federer 4–6, 4–6 in the final. This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semi-finals of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.
On 19 May, the ATP World Tour announced that Nadal was the first player out of eight to qualify for the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at the O2 Arena in London.
By beating Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of 2009 French Open, Nadal (2005–09 French Open) set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros, beating the previous record of 28 by Björn Borg (1978–81 French Open). Nadal had won 32 consecutive sets at Roland Garros (since winning the last 2 sets at the 2007 French Open final against Federer), the second-longest winning streak in the tournament's history behind Björn Borg's record of 41 consecutive sets. This run came to an end on 31 May 2009, when Nadal lost to eventual runner-up, Robin Söderling in the 4th Round. The Swede triumphed 6–2, 6–7 (2), 6–4, 7–6 (2). This was Nadal's first loss at the French Open.
After his surprise defeat at Roland Garros, Nadal withdrew from the AEGON Championships. It was confirmed that Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees. On 19 June, Nadal withdrew from the 2009 Wimbledon Championship, citing his recurring knee injury. He was the first champion to not defend the title since Goran Ivanišević in 2001. There, in his first tournament since Roland Garros, Nadal lost in the quarter-finals to Juan Martín del Potro. With this loss he relinquished the No. 2 spot to Andy Murray on 17 August 2009, ranking outside the top two for the first time since 25 July 2005.
In the quarter-finals of the US Open he defeated Fernando González 7–6(4), 7–6(2), 6–0 in a rain delayed encounter. However, like his previous US Open campaign, he fell in the semi-finals, this time losing to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro 2–6, 2–6, 2–6. Despite the loss, he regained his No. 2 ranking after Andy Murray's early exit.
At the World Tour Finals, Nadal lost all three of his matches against Robin Söderling, Nikolay Davydenko and Novak Djokovic respectively without winning a set.
In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. He defeated Czech number 2 Tomáš Berdych in his first singles rubber to give the Spanish Davis Cup Team their first point in the tie. After the Spanish Davis Cup team had secured its fourth Davis Cup victory, Nadal defeated Jan Hájek in the first Davis Cup dead rubber of his career. The win gave Nadal his 14th consecutive singles victory at Davis Cup (his 13th on clay).
Nadal finished the year as No.2 for the fourth time in five years. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2009 with nine 6–0 sets during the year. Nadal has won the award three times (a tour record).
Nadal participated in an Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, where he lost in the finals.
In the first round of the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Peter Luczak of Australia 7–6(0), 6–1, 6–4. In the second round, he beat Lukáš Lacko 6–2, 6–2, 6–2. In the third round, he was tested by Philipp Kohlschreiber, finally beating him 6–4, 6–2, 2–6, 7–5. In the fourth round, he beat Ivo Karlović of Croatia, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4, 6–4. In the quarter-finals, Nadal pulled out at 3–0 down in the third set against Andy Murray, having lost the first two sets 6–3, 7–6(2). After examining Nadal's knees, doctors told him that he should take two weeks of rest and then two weeks of rehabilitation.
Nadal reached the semifinals in singles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he was the defending champion; however, eventual champion Ivan Ljubičić defeated him in three sets. He and countryman López won the doubles title, though, as wildcard entrants against number one seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić. This boosted his doubles ranking 175 places to world number 66, whereas he was 241st before Indian Wells. After Indian Wells, Nadal reached the semi-finals of Sony Ericsson Open where he lost to eventual champion Andy Roddick in three sets.
Nadal reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6–3, 6–2 in the semi-finals. This was Nadal's first tour final since Doha earlier in the year. He won the final with a 6–0, 6–1 score over his compatriot Fernando Verdasco. He lost 14 games throughout all five matches, the fewest he ever lost en route to a championship, and the final was the shortest Masters 1000 final in terms of games. With this win, Nadal became the first player in Open Era to win a tournament title for six straight years.
Unlike in previous years, Nadal next chose to skip the Barcelona tournament (despite being that event's five-time defending champion), and his next tournament was the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. He defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber, Victor Hănescu, and Stanlias Wawrinka all in straight sets to win his 57th straight match in April. In the semis, he faced a resilient Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Roger Federer earlier in the tournament and took Nadal to three sets, for the first time, this clay court season. Nadal eventually prevailed with a 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 in two hours and forty minutes. He then defeated compatriot David Ferrer in the final 7–5, 6–2 for his fifth title at Rome to equal Andre Agassi's record of winning 17 ATP Masters titles.
, Madrid, Spain]] Nadal then entered the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, where he had finished runner-up the previous year. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, he defeated qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr in straight sets. He then played the six foot nine inch tall American John Isner. Nadal comfortably came through in straight sets, 7–5, 6–4. He defeated Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals 6–1, 6–3 and his countryman Nicolás Almagro in the next round, who was playing in his first Masters 1000 semifinal, 4–6, 6–2, 6–2. The first set of his match against Almagro would be just the second set he lost on clay up to this point in 2010. Nadal then defeated longtime rival Roger Federer 6–4, 7–6(5), avenging his 2009 finals loss to Federer. The win gave him his 18th Masters title, breaking the all-time record. He became the first player to win all three clay court Masters titles in a single year and the first player to win three consecutive Masters events. Nadal moved back to No. 2 the following day.
Entering the French Open, many were expecting another Nadal-Federer final. However, this became impossible when rival Robin Söderling defeated Federer 3–6, 6–3, 7–5, 6–4 in the quarterfinals. The failure of Federer to reach the semi-finals allowed Nadal to regain the world number 1 ranking if he were to win the tournament. Nadal advanced to the final and defeated Soderling 6–4, 6–2, 6–4 to win the French Open. The win gave Nadal his seventh Grand Slam, tying him with John McEnroe; John Newcombe and Mats Wilander on the all-time list, and allowed Nadal to reclaim the position of ATP World Number One denying his biggest rival Roger Federer the all time record for weeks at No. 1. By this win, Nadal became the first man to win the three Masters series on clay and the French Open. This was dubbed by the media as the "Clay Slam". This victory at Roland Garros marked the second time (2008) that Nadal had won the French Open without dropping a single set (tying the record held by Björn Borg). With the win in Paris he also booked his place at the World Tour Finals in London, and became the first player to win five French Open titles in six years.
In June, Nadal entered the AEGON Championships—which he won in 2008—at the prestigious Queen's Club. He played singles and doubles at this grass court tournament as a warm up for the Wimbledon Championships. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, where he played his first match on grass since winning Wimbledon 2008, he defeated Marcos Daniel easily, 6–2, 6–2. In the third round, he played Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, whom he defeated 7–6(4), 4–6, 6–4, to advance to the quarterfinals. However, he was defeated by compatriot Feliciano López 6–7(5), 4–6 in that quarterfinal stage.
in the 2010 Wimbledon Championships 4th Round]] At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships Nadal beat Kei Nishikori 6–2, 6–4, 6–4. Nadal was taken to the limit by Robin Haase winning 5–7,6–2,3–6,6–0,6–3. He defeated Philipp Petzschner in the third round. The match was a 5 set thriller with Nadal triumphing 6–4 4–6 6–7 6–2 6–3. During his match with Petzschener, Nadal was warned twice for receiving coaching from his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, resulting in a $2,000 fine by Wimbledon officials. Allegedly, encouraging words for Nadal shouted during the match were some sort of coaching code signal. He met Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the round of 16 and comfortably beat Mathieu 6–4, 6–2, 6–2. In the quarter-finals, he got past Robin Soderling of Sweden in 4 sets 3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–4), 6–1. He defeated Andy Murray in straight sets 6–4 7–6(8–6) 6–4 to reach his fourth Wimbledon final.
Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon men's title by defeating Tomas Berdych in straight sets 6–3 7–5 6–4. After the win Nadal said "it is more than a dream for me" and thanked the crowd for being both kind and supportive to him and his adversary during the match and in the semi-final against Andy Murray. The win gave him a second Wimbledon title and an eighth career major title just past the age of 24. The win also gave Nadal his first "Old World Triple"; the last person to achieve this was Björn Borg in 1978 ("Old World Triple" is a term given to winning the Italian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in the same year).
In his first hard-court tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup, along with No.2 Novak Djokovic, No.3 Roger Federer, and No.4 Andy Murray, after coming back from a one-set deficit to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. In the semifinal, defending champion Murray defeated Nadal 6–3, 6–4, becoming the only player to triumph over the Spaniard twice in 2010. Nadal also competed in the doubles with Djokovic in a one-time, high profile partnership of the world No.1 and No.2, the first such team since the Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe team in 1976. However, Nadal and Djokovic lost in the first round to Canadians Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil. The next week, Nadal was the top seed at the Cincinnati Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.
At the 2010 US Open, Nadal was the top seed for the second time in three years. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Denis Istomin, Gilles Simon, number 23 seed Feliciano Lopez, number 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, and number 12 seed Mikhail Youzhny all without dropping a set, to reach his first US Open final, becoming only the eighth man in the Open Era to reach the final of all four majors, and at age 24 the second youngest ever to do so, behind only Jim Courier. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic 6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2 which completed the Career Grand Slam for Nadal and he became the second male after Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam. Nadal also became the first man to win grand slams in clay, grass, and hardcourt in the same year, and the first to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969. Nadal and Mats Wilander are the only male players to win at least two Grand Slams each on clay, grass, and hardcourts in their careers. Nadal also became the first left-handed man to win the US Open since John McEnroe in 1984. Nadal's victory also clinched the year-end number one ranking for 2010, making Nadal only the third player (after Ivan Lendl in 1989 and Roger Federer in 2009) to regain the year-end number one ranking after having lost it.
Nadal began his Asian tour from 2010 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where he reached the semifinals, losing to compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Nadal was able to regroup, and at the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (debut), he defeated Santiago Giraldo, Milos Raonic and Dmitry Tursunov. In the semifinals against Viktor Troicki, Nadal saved two match points in the deciding set tiebreaker to win it 9-7 in the end. In the final Nadal comfortably defeated Gael Monfils 6-1, 7-5 for his 7th title of the season.
Nadal next played in the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, where he was the top seed, but lost to world #12 Jurgen Melzer in the third round, snapping his record streak of 21 consecutive Masters quarterfinals. On the 5th of November Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters due to tendinitis in his left shoulder. On 21 November 2010, in London, Nadal won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the first time.
At the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nadal defeated Roddick 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the first match, Djokovic 7–5, 6–2 in the second match, and Berdych 7-6(3), 6-1 in the third match, to advance to the semifinals for the third time in his career. This is the first time that Nadal achieves three wins in the round robin stage. In the semifinal, he defeated Murray 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(6) in a hard-fought match, to reach his first final at the tournament. In only their second meeting of the year, Federer beat Nadal in the final by a score of 6–3, 3–6, 6–1. After the match, Nadal stated: "Roger is probably the more complete player of the world. I'm not going to say I lost that match because I was tired." This was a reference to his marathon victory over Murray on Saturday. "I tried my best this afternoon, but Roger was simply better than me."
Nadal ended the 2010 season having won three Slams and three Masters 1000 tournaments, and having regained the No. 1 ranking.
Next up for Nadal is a two-match exhibition against Federer for the Roger Federer Foundation. The first match will take place in Zurich on December 21, 2010, and the second in Madrid the next day.
At his first tour event of the year in an Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, Qatar. Nadal barely struggled past his first three opponents, Karol Beck 6–3, 6–0, Lukáš Lacko 7–6(3), 0–6, 6–3 and Ernests Gulbis 7–6(3), 6–3 citing fever as the primary reason for his poor performance. He fell in straight sets to a resurgent Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals, 6–3, 6–2. He and countryman López won the doubles title, they defeated Italian duo Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi 6–3, 7–6(4).
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- style="background:#efefef;" ! Tournament !! 2002 !! 2003 !! 2004 !! 2005 !! 2006 !! 2007 !! 2008 !! 2009 !! 2010 !! 2011 !! style="width:65px;"|Career SR !! style="width:69px;"|Career W–L !! style="width:69px;"|Career Win % |- | colspan="15" | Grand Slam Tournaments |- | style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"| Australian Open | A | A | style="background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="background:#afeeee;"|4R | A | style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="background:yellow;"|SF ! style="background:lime;"|W | style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF | | style="background:#efefef;"|1/6 | style="background:#efefef;"|25–5 | style="background:#efefef;"|83.33 |- | style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"| French Open | A | A | A ! style="background:lime;"|W ! style="background:lime;"|W ! style="background:lime;"|W ! style="background:lime;"|W | style="background:#afeeee;"|4R ! style="background:lime;"|W | | style="background:#efefef;"| 5/6 | style="background:#efefef;"| 38–1 | style="background:#efefef;"| 97.44 |- | style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"| Wimbledon | A | style="background:#afeeee;"|3R | A | style="background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="background:thistle;"|F | style="background:thistle;"|F ! style="background:lime;"|W | A ! style="background:lime;"|W | | style="background:#efefef;"|2/6 | style="background:#efefef;"|29–4 | style="background:#efefef;"|87.87 |- | style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"| US Open | A | style="background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="background:yellow;"|SF | style="background:yellow;"|SF ! style="background:lime;"|W | | style="background:#efefef;"|1/8 | style="background:#efefef;"|28–7 | style="background:#efefef;"|80.00 |- style="background:#efefef;" || Win–Loss ||0–0 ||3–2 ||3–2 ||13–3 ||17–2 ||20–3 ||24–2 ||15–2 ||25–1 ||0-0 ||9/26 ||120–17 ||87.59 |}
In recent years, Nadal employs a full western grip forehand, often with a "lasso-whip" follow through, where his left arm hits through the ball and finishes above his left shoulder — as opposed to a more traditional finish across the body or around his opposite shoulder. Nadal's forehand groundstroke form allows him to hit shots with heavy topspin — more so than many of his contemporaries. San Francisco tennis researcher John Yandell used a high-speed video camera and special software to count the average number of revolutions of a tennis ball hit full force by Nadal. "The first guys we did were Sampras and Agassi. They were hitting forehands that in general were spinning about 1,800 to 1,900 revolutions per minute. Federer is hitting with an amazing amount of spin, too, right? 2,700 revolutions per minute. Well, we measured one forehand Nadal hit at 4,900. His average was 3,200." While Nadal's shots tend to land short of the baseline, the characteristically high bounces his forehands achieve tend to mitigate the advantage an opponent would normally gain from capitalizing on a short ball. Although his forehand is based on heavy topspin, he can hit the ball deep and flat with a more orthodox follow through for clean winners.
Nadal's serve was initially considered a weak point in his game, although his improvements in both first serve points won and break points saved since 2005 have allowed him to consistently compete for and win major titles on faster surfaces. Nadal relies on the consistency of his serve to gain a strategic advantage in points, rather than going for service winners. However, before the 2010 season, he altered his service motion, arriving in the trophy pose earlier and pulling the racket lower during the trophy pose. Before the 2010 U.S. Open, Nadal modified his service grip to a more continental one. These two changes in his serve have increased its average speed by around 10 mph, maxing out at 135 mph (217 km), allowing him to win more free points on his serve.
Nadal's mental resilience and strategic approach to the game are other noted strengths. Nadal is able to avoid discouragement regardless of match score, allowing him to singularly focus on winning the current point and gaining an advantage. As a strategic player, Nadal can assess outside variables such as court surface, weather conditions, and his opponent's tactics in order to adjust his own play to best adapt to present conditions.
Although once considered a clay court specialist, Nadal has shed that label due to his success on the tournaments played on other surfaces, including holding Grand Slams simultaneously on grass, hard courts, and clay on two separate occasions, winning five Masters series titles on hardcourt, and winning the Olympic gold medal on hardcourt. Despite praise for Nadal's talent and skill, some have questioned his longevity in the sport, citing his build and playing style as conducive to injury. Nadal himself has admitted to the physical toll hard courts place on ATP Tour players, calling for a reevaluated tour schedule featuring fewer hard court tournaments.
Nike serves as Nadal's clothing and shoe sponsor. Nadal's signature on-court attire entailed a variety of sleeveless shirts paired with 3/4 length capri pants. For the 2009 season, Nadal adopted more-traditional on-court apparel. Nike encouraged Nadal to update his look in order to reflect his new status as the sport's top player at that time and associate Nadal with a style that, while less distinctive than his "pirate" look, would be more widely emulated by consumers. At warmup tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha, Nadal played matches in a polo shirt specifically designed for him by Nike, paired with shorts cut above the knee. Nadal's new, more conventional style carried over to the 2009 Australian Open, where he was outfitted with Nike's Bold Crew Men's Tee and Nadal Long Check Shorts. Nadal wears Nike's Air CourtBallistec 2.3 tennis shoes, bearing various customizations throughout the season, including his nickname "Rafa" on the right shoe and a stylized bull logo on the left.
Becomes the face of Lanvin's L’Homme Sport cologne, launched April 2009.
Nadal uses an AeroPro Drive racquet with a 4 1/4-inch L2 grip. As of the 2010 season, Nadal's racquets are painted to resemble the new Babolat AeroPro Drive with Cortex GT racquet in order to market a current model which Babolat sells. Nadal uses no replacement grip, and instead wraps two overgrips around the handle. He used Duralast 15L strings until the 2010 season, when he switched to Babolat's new, black-colored, RPM Blast string. Nadal's rackets are always strung at , regardless of which surface or conditions he is playing in.
As of January 2010, Rafa is the international ambassador for Quely, a company from his native Majorca that manufactures biscuits, bakery and chocolate coated products; he has consumed their products ever since he was a young child.
In 2010, luxury watchmaker Richard Mille announced that he had developed an ultra-light wristwatch in collaboration with Nadal called the Richard Mille RM027 Tourbillon watch. The watch is made of titanium and lithium and is valued at US$525,000; Nadal was involved in the design and testing of the watch on the tennis court.
Nadal replaces Cristiano Ronaldo as the new face of Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans for the Italian fashion label's upcoming spring/summer 2011 collection, in a campaign that will launch in February. This is the first time that the label has chosen a tennis player for the job; association football has ruled lately prior to Ronaldo, David Beckham graced the ads.
He is also a fervent supporter of the Spanish national team, and was one of only six people not affiliated with the team or the national federation allowed into the team's locker room immediately following Spain's victory in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final.
;The Rafa Nadal Foundation
The creation of the organization took place in November of 2007 and its official presentation was in February of 2008 at the Manacor Tennis Club in Mallorca, Spain. The foundation will focus on social work and development aid particularly on childhood and youth. On deciding why to start a foundation, "This can be the beginning of my future, when I retire and have more time,[...] I am doing very well and I owe society, [...] A month-and-a-half ago I was in Chennai, in India. The truth is we live great here....I can contribute something with my image..." Nadal was inspired by the Red Cross benefit match against malaria with Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, recalling, "We raised an amount of money that we would never have imagined. I have to thank Iker, my project partner, who went all out for it,[...] That is why the time has come to set up my own foundation and determine the destination of the money." Ana Maria Parera, Rafa's mom, will chair the organization and father Sebastian will be vice-chairman. Coach and uncle Toni Nadal and his agent, former tennis player Carlos Costa, are also involved. Roger Federer has giving Rafa advice on being involved in philanthropy. Despite the fact that poverty in India struck him particularly hard, Nadal wants to start by helping "people close by, in the Balearic Islands, in Spain, and then, if possible, abroad."
In October 16 2010, Rafa traveled to India for the first time to assist in the transformation of one of the poorest and most needy areas of India, Anantapur. He has an academy in the south of the country, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. His foundation has also worked in the Anantapur Educational Center project, in collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation.
Nadal has revealed himself to be Agnostic.
Category:1986 births Category:Australian Open (tennis) champions Category:French Open champions Category:Laureus World Sports Awards winners Category:Living people Category:Male tennis players Category:Olympic gold medalists for Spain Category:Olympic tennis players of Spain Category:People from Manacor Category:Spanish agnostics Category:Spanish football chairmen and investors Category:Spanish tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:United States Open champions (tennis) Category:Wimbledon champions Category:World No. 1 tennis players
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Playername | Arnaud Clément |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Residence | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Datebirth | December 17, 1977 |
| Placebirth | Aix-en-Provence, France |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 1996 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | US$6,294,664 |
| Singlesrecord | 303–308 |
| Singlestitles | 4 |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 10 (2 April 2001) |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 75 (10 January 2011) |
| Australianopenresult | F (2001) |
| Frenchopenresult | 4R (2003) |
| Wimbledonresult | QF (2008) |
| Usopenresult | QF (2000) |
| Othertournaments | Yes |
| Olympicsresult | 2R (2004, 2008) |
| Doublesrecord | 199–162 |
| Doublestitles | 12 |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 8 (28 January 2008) |
| Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
| Australianopendoublesresult | F (2008) |
| Frenchopendoublesresult | SF (2001) |
| Wimbledondoublesresult | W (2007) |
| Usopendoublesresult | QF (2006) |
| Updated | 2 November 2009 |
Arnaud Clément (born 17 December 1977) is a professional tennis player from France. His best achievement is reaching the final of the 2001 Australian Open.
Clément has been ranked as high as 10th in the world in singles and as high as 24th in doubles, where he has often partnered with fellow Frenchmen Sébastien Grosjean and Michaël Llodra. He has won four ATP singles titles (Lyon 2000, Metz 2003, Marseille 2006, Washington 2006), and five doubles titles. In September 2005 he defeated Great Britain's Andy Murray in the U.S. Open tournament.
Clement also, until recently, held the record for the longest match in the history of the Open Era. At Roland Garros 2004, Fabrice Santoro defeated Clément 6–4, 6–3, 6–7, 3–6, 16-14 in six hours and 33 minutes. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut would eventually beat this record six years later at Wimbledon.
In March 2006, Clément ended his two and a half year period of not winning an ATP singles title by capturing the Marseille Open, defeating world number 2 Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and Mario Ančić in the finals. In August 2006, Clément won his first ATP title in the United States, defeating Murray in straight sets in the final of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.
In July 2007, Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra won the men's double title at Wimbledon, beating World No. 1 and number one seeds defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan, thus winning his first Grand Slam doubles title (Llodra had won two previous titles with Fabrice Santoro, making it his third Grand Slam title). He and Llodra were ecstatic, and celebrated by throwing their shirts, rackets, and towels into the crowd.
At the 2007 U.S. Open, he and Llodra were seeded 7th in doubles, but were upset by Jesse Levine and Alex Kuznetsov 7–6 (5), 6–4 in the second round.
Clément was selected to represent one of the world's best-known and most important fashion label, Lacoste. He was seen from May 2004 onwards in a pan-European print and TV campaign alongside the Danish pop singer Natasha Thomas. The advert was directed and shot by Bruno Aveillan, who in the course of his career has already filmed top stars such as Monica Bellucci, Claudia Schiffer, Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane and Gisele Bündchen.
At only 13 months old Clément was diagnosed with unilateral coloboma, meaning the condition only effects one eye, at that time Clément was only given a 40/60 % chance of having healthy eyesight for the rest of his life, throughout his tennis career Clément has worn sunglasses to protect his eyes.
In July 2008, Arnaud Clément and Rainer Schüttler, both in their early 30s, played against each other in a Wimbledon quarterfinal singles match. Because of rain delays and darkness, play was suspended over a period of two days. Eventually, the match went in favour of Schüttler. The match went five sets and over five hours combined within the two playing days. The fifth set's score was 8–6. Finishing in five hours and twelve minutes, it was the third longest men's singles match in Wimbledon history.
{| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=125|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | November 6, 2000 | Lyon, France | Carpet (i) | Patrick Rafter | 7–6(2), 7–6(5) |- | 2. | September 29, 2003 | Metz, France | Hard (i) | Fernando González | 6–3, 1–6, 6–3 |- | 3. | February 13, 2006 | Marseille, France | Hard (i) | Mario Ančić | 6–4, 6–2 |- | 4. | July 31, 2006 | Washington, D.C., USA | Hard | Andy Murray | 7–6(3), 6–2 |}
;Runner-ups (6) {| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=125|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | 8 February 1999 | Marseille, France | Hard (i) | Fabrice Santoro | 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 |- bgcolor="#e5d1cb" | 2. | 29 January 2001 | Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia | Hard | Andre Agassi | 6–4, 6–2, 6–2 |- | 3. | 24 June 2002 | 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands | Grass | Sjeng Schalken | 3–6, 6–3, 6–2 |- | 4. | 23 June 2003 | 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands | Grass | Sjeng Schalken | 6–3, 6–4 |- | 5. | 13 October 2003 | Lyon, France | Carpet | Rainer Schüttler | 7–5, 6–3 |- | 6. | 23 June 2007 | Nottingham, UK | Grass | Ivo Karlović | 3–6, 6–4, 6–4 |- | 7. | 16 January 2010 | Auckland, New Zealand | Hard | John Isner | 6–3, 5–7, 7–6(2) |}
A = did not attend tournament
LQ = lost in the qualifying draw
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
|width=50|No.
|width=125|Date
|width=250|Tournament
|width=75|Surface
|width=200|Partner
|width=200|Opponent in the final
|width=200|Score in the final
|-
| 1.
| 10 April 2000
| Casablanca, Morocco
| Clay
| Sébastien Grosjean
| Lars Burgsmüller
Andrew Painter
| 7–6(4), 6–2
|-
| 2.
| 11 February 2002
| Marseille, France
| Hard (i)
| Nicolas Escudé
| Julien Boutter
Max Mirnyi
| 6–4, 6–3
|- bgcolor="#dfe2e9"
| 3.
| 8 March 2004
| Indian Wells USA
| Hard
| Sébastien Grosjean
| Wayne Black
Kevin Ullyett
| 6–3, 4–6, 7–5
|-
| 4.
| 11 October 2004
| Metz, France
| Hard (i)
| Nicolas Mahut
| Ivan Ljubičić
Uros Vico
| 6–2, 7–6(8)
|-
| 5.
| 25 October 2004
| St. Petersburg, Russia
| Carpet (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Dominik Hrbatý
Jaroslav Levinský
| 6–3, 6–2
|-
| 6.
| 23 October 2006
| Lyon, France
| Carpet (i)
| Julien Benneteau
| František Čermák
Jaroslav Levinský
| 6–2, 6–7(3), 10–7
|- bgcolor="#dfe2e9"
| 7.
| 30 October 2006
| Paris, France
| Carpet (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Fabrice Santoro
Nenad Zimonjić
| 7–6(4), 6–2
|-
| 8.
| 12 February 2007
| Marseille, France
| Hard (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Mark Knowles
Daniel Nestor
| 7–5, 4–6, 10–8
|- bgcolor="#e5d1cb"
| 9.
| 25 June 2007
| Wimbledon, London, UK
| Grass
| Michaël Llodra
| Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
| 6–7(5), 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
|-
| 10.
| 1 October 2007
| Metz, France
| Hard (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Marcin Matkowski
| 6–1, 6–4
|-
| 11.
| 5 October 2008
| Metz, France
| Hard (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Marcin Matkowski
| 5–7, 6–3, 10–8
|-
| 12.
| 22 February 2009
| Marseille, France
| Hard (i)
| Michaël Llodra
| Julian Knowle
Andy Ram
| 3–6, 6–3, 10–8
|}
A = did not attend tournament
Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:People from Aix-en-Provence Category:French tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic tennis players of France
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Playername | Stanislas Wawrinka |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Stan, Stan the Man, Rink, King of the Wrink, |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Residence | Saint-Barthélemy, Switzerland |
| Datebirth | March 28, 1985 |
| Placebirth | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 2002 |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | $3,144,246 |
| Singlesrecord | 141–115 |
| Singlestitles | 3 |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 9 (9 June 2008) |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 19 (10 January 2011) |
| Australianopenresult | 3R (2007, 2009, 2010) |
| Frenchopenresult | 4R (2010) |
| Wimbledonresult | 4R (2008, 2009) |
| Usopenresult | QF (2010) |
| Doublesrecord | 35–42 |
| Doublestitles | 1 |
| Othertournamentsdoubles | Yes |
| Olympicsdoublesresult | Gold Medal () |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 90 (6 November 2006) |
| Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
| Australianopendoublesresult | 3R (2006) |
| Frenchopendoublesresult | 3R (2006) |
| Wimbledondoubleresult | 1R (2006, 2007) |
| Usopendoubleresult | 1R (2005) |
| Updated | 9 November 2009 |
Stanislas "The Manislas" Wawrinka (born 28 March 1985 in Lausanne) is a Swiss professional tennis player. His career ranking high is #9, achieved on 9 June 2008.
He considers clay his best surface, and his backhand his best shot. He won the gold medal for Switzerland in the men's doubles event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, partnering Roger Federer, by beating Swedish team Simon Aspelin/Thomas Johansson in the final. They were also honoured with the 2008 Swiss Team of the Year Award.
John McEnroe believes Wawrinka has one of the most powerful backhands he has ever seen and describes him as having "the best one-handed backhand in the game today".
Wawrinka started playing international junior events at age 14 and entered the satellite circuit the following year. He compiled an outstanding junior career, winning the 2003 French Open junior championships and finishing as the number 14 junior.
Wawrinka, one of four tennis-playing siblings, turned pro in 2002 at the age of 17. By the end of 2005 he hovered just outside the Top 50. He has a 2–3 career Davis Cup singles record in three ties. He was coached from age eight until June 2010 by Dimitri Zavialoff.
In the 2007 Australian Open, Wawrinka reached the 3rd round to be beaten by second seed Rafael Nadal. He has so far never beaten Nadal, losing in Melbourne 6–2 6–2 6–2. He showed some impressive backhand skills, but was unable to deal with Nadal's heavy game.
In October 2006, Wawrinka reached a career high No. 29 and had high hopes to reach the Top 20 in 2007. But those plans were put on hold when he suffered a three-month setback, tearing a tendon in his right knee while practicing for the Swiss Davis Cup team's tie against Spain in February.
In the 2007 French Open, Wawrinka pushed No. 7 seed Ivan Ljubičić to four sets before falling in the second round. He also claimed wins over Guillermo Cañas and Juan Ignacio Chela en route to a meeting with Rafael Nadal in the finals of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart in July. There, Nadal edged the Swiss in straight sets, 6–4, 7–5.
In the 2007 US Open, Wawrinka reached the fourth round, a stage he had never reached previously in a Grand Slam event, notably defeating 25th seed Marat Safin (6–3 6–3 6–3) in an amazing show of talent in the second round. There, he was ousted by Juan Ignacio Chela at the end of an impressive 3h40 match (4–6, 6–2, 7–6 [6], 1–6, 6–4). By reaching the final of the 2008 Master's Series event in Rome, Wawrinka entered the top 10 for the first time. He lost in the final to Novak Djokovic in three sets.
In the 2008 Olympics, he teamed with Roger Federer in the men's doubles. On 15 August, they beat the favoured American twins Bob and Mike Bryan 7–6 (6), 6–4 in the semifinals. They defeated Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden in the finals, 6–3, 6–4, 6–7 (4), 6–3 to win the Gold Medal.
He reached the 4th round of the 2008 US Open, where British player Andy Murray defeated him in straight sets 6–1, 6–3, 6–3. Fellow Swiss player Roger Federer would eventually defeat Murray in the final.
Wawrinka lost to Rafael Nadal in the 4th Round at the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. Nadal came from behind in both sets to beat Wawrinka 7–6 (2), 7–6 (4). The match lasted for two hours and 42 minutes.
At the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, Wawrinka upset his friend and compatriot, World No. 2 Roger Federer. Wawrinka's 6–4, 7–5, victory over Federer halted the chances at a fourth straight Nadal-Federer final in Monte Carlo.
At the 2009 French Open, he defeated Nicolas Devilder in five sets and Nicolás Massú 6–1 6–1 6–2. He lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the third round 3–6 6–4 3–6 2–6.
In Wimbledon 2009, in the third round he defeated 21-year-old Canadian-born American Jesse Levine (who had upset Marat Safin in the first round), 5–7, 7–6(4), 6–3, 6–3. The Sunday Times reviewed Wawrinka's performance in the match by opining that he "is a strange player, clearly talented but short of match fitness and as clumsy on court as Federer is graceful." Wawrinka was defeated by Andy Murray 2–6 6–3 6–3 5–7 6–3 in the fourth round. The match was also a debut usage of the new roof on Centre Court and was recorded the latest played match in The Wimbledon Championships which lasted until 22:37BST.
Wawrinka went to play in the Davis Cup tie with Italy, and won in his first match against Andreas Seppi at the Valletta Cambiaso Clubs red clay courts with a score of 6–4, 6–1, 6–2.
Wawrinka started his 2010 season by reaching the finals of the Chennai Open losing to Marin Cilic 6-7 6-7.This was Wawrinka's 5th Consecutive loss in an ATP Final. He reached 3rd round at Australian Open losing to Cilic again. Stan returned to the ATP Tour at the Sony Ericsson Open after his wife gave birth to their daughter. He defeated Kevin Anderson before losing to Mikhail Youzhny in the 3rd round. He started his clay court season in Casablanca at the 2010 Grand Prix Hassan II after receiving a 1st round bye he defeated Slovakian qualifier Martin Klizan 6-4 0-6 6-4 in the 2nd round, in the Quarterfinals he easily defeated wildcard Reda El Amrani 6-3 6-1, in the Semifinals he defeated Italian Potito Starace 6-4 3-6 6-4 to advance to his 2nd ATP Final of 2010, In the final he defeated Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-2 6-3 to win his 2nd ATP Tournament. With this tournament win he snapped a 5 match losing streak in ATP Finals and a 3 and a half year title drought. He then became the 13th seed at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters he defeated Victor Hanescu in 1st round 6-2 6-4 in a rematch of the Casablanca final he then beat Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-1 6-4 to advance to the 3rd round, in the 3rd round he was stopped by Novak Djokovic 4-6 4-6. He continued his fine singles form by reached the Quarterfinals in Rome losing to Rafael Nadal 4-6 2-6 and the Semifinals in Belgrade losing to John Isner 5-7 5-7. At Roland Garros where he was the 20th seed he reached the 4th round without dropping a set defeating Jan Hajek 6-1 6-3 6-3 in the 1st round in the 2nd round he defeated German Andreas Beck 6-1 6-4 6-4 and in the 3rd round he beat Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3 6-4 6-1 before losing to good friend Roger Federer 6-3 7-6 6-2 in the 4th round.
Wawrinka currently lives in Saint-Barthélemy (10 minutes from Lausanne) with his wife, Ilham Vuilloud, a Swiss television presenter and former fashion model.
His hobbies include movies and music. He is good friends with British number 1 Andy Murray (both are fanatical go-karters) and Roger Federer.
He plays using Head tennis racquets. As of June 2010, he played with the YOUTEK Prestige Pro MidPlus. Previously he used the Flexpoint Prestige MidPlus and Microgel Prestige pro.
{| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=80|Outcome |width=50|No. |width=125|Date |width=200|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 1. | 4 July 2005 | Gstaad, Switzerland | Clay | Gastón Gaudio | 6–4, 6–4 |- | bgcolor="98FB98"|Winner | 1. | 24 July 2006 | Umag, Croatia | Clay | Novak Djokovic | 6–6, retired |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 2. | 22 July 2007 | Stuttgart, Germany | Clay | Rafael Nadal | 6–4, 7–5 |- style="background:#d0f0c0;" | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 3. | 14 October 2007 | Vienna, Austria | Hard (i) | Novak Djokovic | 6–4, 6–0 |- | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 4. | 5 January 2008 | Doha, Qatar | Hard | Andy Murray | 6–4, 4–6, 6–2 |- bgcolor="#dfe2e9" | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 5. | 11 May 2008 | Rome, Italy | Clay | Novak Djokovic | 4–6, 6–3, 6–3 |- | bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up | 6. | 4 January 2010 | Chennai, India | Hard | Marin Čilić | 7–6(2), 7–6(3) |- | bgcolor="98FB98"|Winner | 2. | 11 April 2010 | Casablanca, Morocco | Clay | Victor Hănescu | 6–2, 6–3 |- | bgcolor="98FB98"|Winner | 3. | 9 January 2011 | Chennai, India | Hard | Xavier Malisse | 7–5, 4–6, 6–1 |}
;Runner-ups (3)
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
|width=80|Outcome
|width=50|No.
|width=125|Date
|width=250|Tournament
|width=75|Surface
|width=200|Partner
|width=200|Opponents in the final
|width=200|Score in the final
|-
|bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up
| 1.
| 11 July 2004
| Gstaad, Switzerland
| Clay
| Marc Rosset
| Leander Paes
David Rikl
| 6–4, 6–2
|-
|bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up
| 2.
| 7 July 2008
| Gstaad, Switzerland
| Clay
| Stéphane Bohli
| Jaroslav Levinský
Filip Polášek
| 3–6, 6–2, 11–9
|-
|bgcolor="#FFA07A"|Runner-up
| 3.
| 11 January 2009
| Chennai, India
| Hard
| Jean-Claude Scherrer
| Eric Butorac
Rajeev Ram
| 6–3, 6–4
|-
|}
Category:1985 births Category:Living people Category:Swiss-French people Category:Swiss tennis players Category:Swiss people of Czech descent Category:Swiss people of Polish descent Category:Waldorf school alumni Category:Olympic tennis players of Switzerland Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic gold medalists for Switzerland
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Ruben Bemelmans (born 14 January 1988 in Genk), is a Belgian male professional tennis player. His career-high rank ATP singles ranking was No. 172 reached on October 26, 2009. His best doubles rank is No. 245.
Bemelmans competes mainly in the ITF Futures and Challenger tour circuit. He won his first Futures event in Espelkamp, Germany in July 2007, and has a total of six titles at this level. His best performance to date was in winning the Volkswagen Challenger event in Wolfsburg in March 2009, winning three matches in qualifying before going on to beat Stefano Galvani of Italy in the final.
In February 2010 Bemelmans succeeded in qualifying for his first ATP level event, the Zagreb Indoors tournament. However he lost in the First Round to Alexandre Sidorenko of France 6-7, 6-3, 3-6.
In June 2010, he entered the main draw of the 2010 Gerry Weber Open in Halle as a lucky loser. In the opening round he lost to German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7(2), 7-6(10), 4-6 after a good performance.
In September 2010, Ruben played for Belgium in the Davis cup play-off tie against Australia. He was a late replacement for an injured Steve Darcis. He played Lleyton Hewitt with nothing to lose; but after a solid effort, he succumbed in a 6-7(4-7), 5-7, 6-2, 4-6 duel.
{| class="wikitable" |- bgcolor="#efefef" |No. |Date |Tournament |Surface |Opponent in the final |Score |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 1. | 15 July 2007 | Espelkamp, Germany | Clay | Franz Stauder | 6–2, 7–5 |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 2. | 24 November 2007 | Ramat Hasharon, Israel | Hard | Niels Desein | 6–3, 6–3 |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 3. | 9 March 2008 | Bassersdorf, Switzerland | Carpet | Ladislav Chramosta | 3–6, 6–3, 6–2 |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 4. | 31 May 2008 | Cesena, Italy | Clay | Carlos Avellán | 6–4, 3–6, 6–0 |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 5. | 15 February 2009 | Bressuire, France | Hard | Vincent Millot | 6–4, 6–3 |- bgcolor="moccasin" | 6. | 1 March 2009 | Wolfsburg, Germany | Carpet | Stefano Galvani | 7–5(5), 3–6, 6–3 |- bgcolor="CFFCFF" | 7. | 27 September 2009 | Plaisir, France | Hard | Pierrick Ysern | 6–7(5), 6–1, 7–5 |}
Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:Belgian male tennis players Category:Flemish sportspeople Category:People from Genk Category:People from Limburg (Belgium)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Playername | Mikhail Youzhny |
|---|---|
| Nickname | Misha, Colonel |
| Country | |
| Residence | Moscow, Russia |
| Datebirth | June 25, 1982 |
| Placebirth | Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 1999 |
| Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | $7,889,433 |
| Singlesrecord | 339–244 |
| Singlestitles | 7 |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 8 (28 January 2008) |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 10 (25 October 2010) |
| Australianopenresult | QF (2008) |
| Frenchopenresult | QF (2010) |
| Wimbledonresult | 4R (2001, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008) |
| Usopenresult | SF (2006, 2010) |
| Doublesrecord | 103–123 |
| Doublestitles | 7 |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 43 (11 September 2006) |
| Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
| Australianopendoublesresult | 1R (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009) |
| Frenchopendoublesresult | 3R (2006) |
| Wimbledondoublesresult | 1R (2004, 2006) |
| Usopendoublesresult | QF (2006) |
| Updated | 28 November 2010 |
The highest singles world ranking of his career was number eight, achieved 28 January 2008 and again on 18 October 2010.
Youzhny has a reputation for engaging the crowd, subsequently taking inspiration from it to attempt high-risk winners, especially when facing matchpoints. After each big victory Youzhny gives a military style salute to the spectators. He does it by holding the tennis racquet above his head with his left hand and saluting with his right hand. The racquet imitates a hat, since according to Russian military tradition one must wear a hat to give proper salute.
Youzhny represents CSKA Moscow, and is also an avid supporter of FC CSKA.
As for his equipment, he wears adidas clothing and Barricade V shoes and uses a Head Youtek Extreme Pro racquet.
In 2001, he reached the third round of the Australian Open, made his first ATP tour semifinal at Copenhagen, and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, losing to eventual finalist Patrick Rafter. Youzhny also reached the third round at the US Open, losing to eventual finalist Pete Sampras.
The following year in 2002, Youzhny captured in Stuttgart his first ATP title, and led Russia to its first Davis Cup title, but he did not play for six weeks due to a back injury. By winning this match, Youzhny became the first ever player to recover successfully from a two sets to love deficit in the live fifth rubber of a Davis Cup Final.
During 2004 he won a career-high 42 matches, finishing the year in the top 20.
One of his best tournaments was the 2006 U.S. Open. Having beaten Tommy Robredo 6–2, 6–0, 6–1 he defeated World No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6–3, 5–7, 7–6, 6–1 in the quarterfinal. He lost in the semi-finals to Andy Roddick 6–7 6–0 7–6(5) 6–3. In the men's doubles, Youzhny partnered Leoš Friedl; together they defeated the world's number one pairing, Bob and Mike Bryan in the round of 16, before losing to Martin Damm and Leander Paes in the quarterfinals.
On 1 April in the Miami Masters, Youzhny was 4-5 down with Nicolás Almagro serving in the final set, he hit a relatively easy return into the net. He gestured angrily towards his own temple, and then hit his head strongly with the edge of frame of his tennis racket three times, drawing blood. Despite this—and after receiving medical attention—he won the next seven points, taking the tiebreaker and also the match. He then played with Russia in the ARAG World Tennis Team Cup and reached the final, before losing to Sweden.
After Wimbledon - where he lost in the fourth round to eventual champion Rafael Nadal - Youzhny hasn't won three matches in a row, suffering first-round losses at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters (Cincinnati, Ohio), the 2008 Madrid Masters and the BNP Paribas Masters. At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Youzhny lost in the third round to eventual bronze medal winner Novak Djokovic.
In the Davis Cup first round tie against Romania, he won his singles match against Victor Hănescu in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-2. Russia eventually won the tie 4-1 with a lone loss in the doubles rubber.
At Queens Club, he paired up with doubles veteran Wesley Moodie and won the doubles title in their debut.
Heavily favored Russia was hosted by Israel in a Davis Cup quarter-final tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Russia had won the Davis Cup in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings. The Israeli team beat the Russian team in each of their first three matches, thereby winning the tie. Harel Levy (world # 210) first beat Andreev (world # 24). Dudi Sela (# 33) followed by beating Youzhny 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5. "This is a bit of a surprise", Youzhny remarked. He said he was very disappointed, and added: "I began very well, but after I took the first set, my luck fell away." The next day Israelis Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich beat Safin and doubles specialist Kunitsyn. With the tie clinched for Israel, the reverse singles rubbers were "dead", and instead of best-of-five matches, best-of-three sets were played, with the outcomes of little to no importance. Israel wrapped up a 4-1 victory over Russia, splitting the final matches.
He made the finals at the Japan Open in Tokyo, after beating Lleyton Hewitt for the first time in a grueling 6–2 5–7 7–5 win. In the final, he faced no.2 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but was ousted 3–6 3–6. He then clinched his first title in 2009 at the 2009 Kremlin Cup where he defeated Janko Tipsarević 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-4. After the back-to-back tournaments, Youzhny retired in the second round at St. Petersburg. Youzhny then played at Valencia Open. He defeated both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon to advance to the semifinals where he beat second seed compatriot Nikolay Davydenko. He lost to Andy Murray in the final 6-3, 6-2. After his performance in Valencia, Youzhny is assured of breaking back into the top 20.
After the recovery, he made the final at the 2010 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, worth 500 ATP points. Notably, he stunned top-seeded Novak Djokovic 7-6(5), 7-6(6) in the semifinal. In the final, he trailed behind Robin Söderling 4-6, 0-2 before retiring, due to a right hamstring injury. His good performance here lifted his ranking to #15.
In his next appearance, he reached his second successive final at the 2010 Dubai Tennis Championships, worth 500 ATP points. En route to the final, he beat Lukáš Lacko, Björn Phau, Janko Tipsarević, and Jürgen Melzer. In the final, he lost to No.2 seed Novak Djokovic (the defending champion) 5-7, 7-5, 3-6. It was Youzhny's fourth consecutive final loss in an ATP World Tour 500 event.
On May 9, Youzhny defeated Marin Čilić 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to win his first BMW Open in Munich, Germany. It was his third trip to the final at this event having previously lost to Tomáš Berdych in 2009 and Philipp Kohlschreiber in 2007.
As the 11th seed at the 2010 French Open, Mikhail beat injured 8th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round after he retired during the match and reached his first ever Paris quarter-final.
After a good showing at the U.S. Open, Youzhny lost to number one seed Rafael Nadal 2-6, 3-6, 4-6 in the semifinals. With this strong performance, he reentered the top 10 for the first time since 2008.
During his first tournament since the US Open, Youzhny defeated Andrey Golubev 6-7(2), 6-2, 7-6(3) to win his second title of the year at the 2010 Malaysian Open. Following this result, his ranking rose to #8.
Forced to withdraw due to a viral infection, Youzhny was unable to defend his title in Moscow. He returned the following week as the top seed in St. Petersburg and reached his fifth singles final of the year, falling to Mikhail Kukushkin 3-6, 6-7(2).
Youzhny's season ended when he was forced to retire with a back injury against Ernests Gulbis at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. For the first time in his career, he finished the year in the top 10 and as the top-ranked Russian player.
{| class="wikitable" |- style="background:#efefef;" ! Tournament !! 1999 !! 2000 !! 2001 !! 2002 !! 2003 !! 2004 !! 2005 !! 2006 !! 2007 !! 2008 !! 2009 !! 2010 !! 2011 !! Career SR !! Career Win-Loss |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Australian Open | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 10 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|16–10 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | French Open | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 10 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|15–10 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Wimbledon | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 10 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|19–10 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | U.S. Open | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:yellow;"|SF | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 8 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|18–8 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Grand Slam SR | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 0 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 0 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 3 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 3 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 3 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 4 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 38 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|N/A |- style="background:#efefef;" |Grand Slam Win-Loss | style="text-align:center;"|0–0 | style="text-align:center;"|0–0 | style="text-align:center;"|7–4 | style="text-align:center;"|5–3 | style="text-align:center;"|5–4 | style="text-align:center;"|4–4 | style="text-align:center;"|7–4 | style="text-align:center;"|8–4 | style="text-align:center;"|9–4 | style="text-align:center;"|9–3 | style="text-align:center;"|2–4 | style="text-align:center;"|12–3 | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; "|N/A | style="text-align:center;"|63–35 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Tennis Masters Cup | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 0 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0–0 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Indian Wells Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 7 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|4–7 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Miami Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|4R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 7 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|7–8 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Monte Carlo Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 6 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|3–6 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Rome Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 7 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|4–7 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Madrid Masters (Stuttgart) | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 7 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|3–7 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Canada Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 8 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|8–8 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Cincinnati Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 8 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|8–8 |- |style="background:#efefef;" | Shanghai Masters | colspan="10" style="text-align:center; color:#ccc;"|Not Masters Series | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 1 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0–1 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Paris Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|LQ | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 5 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|5–5 |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;" | Hamburg Masters | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center;"|A | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|3R | style="text-align:center; background:#ffebcd;"|QF | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|2R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | style="text-align:center; background:#afeeee;"|1R | colspan="3" style="text-align:center; color:#ccc;"|NM1 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|0 / 7 | style="text-align:center; background:#efefef;"|6–7 |- style="background:#efefef;" |Tournaments played | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|8 | style="text-align:center;"|18 | style="text-align:center;"|23 | style="text-align:center;"|26 | style="text-align:center;"|27 | style="text-align:center;"|21 | style="text-align:center;"|22 | style="text-align:center;"|20 | style="text-align:center;"|23 | style="text-align:center;"|25 | style="text-align:center;"|20 | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center;"|234 | style="text-align:center;"|N/A |- style="background:#efefef;" |Finals reached | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|2 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|2 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|3 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|4 | style="text-align:center;"|5 | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; "|17 | style="text-align:center; "|N/A |- style="background:#efefef;" |Tournaments Won | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|0 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|1 | style="text-align:center;"|2 | style="text-align:center;"| | style="text-align:center; "|7 | style="text-align:center; "|N/A |- |style="background:#EFEFEF;"|Year End Ranking | style="text-align:center;"|290 | style="text-align:center;"|113 | style="text-align:center;"|58 | style="text-align:center;"|32 | style="text-align:center;"|43 | style="text-align:center;"|16 | style="text-align:center;"|43 | style="text-align:center;"|24 | style="text-align:center;"|19 | style="text-align:center;"|33 | style="text-align:center;"|19 | style="text-align:center; background:#EEE8AA;"|'''10 | style="text-align:center;"| |colspan=2 align="center" style="background:#EFEFEF;"|N/A |}
A = did not participate in the tournament.
LQ = lost in the qualifying draw.
SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Male tennis players Category:Olympic tennis players of Russia Category:People from Moscow Category:Russian male tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Playername | Dmitry Tursunov |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Residence | Moscow, Russia. |
| Datebirth | December 12, 1982 |
| Placebirth | Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Turnedpro | 2000 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Careerprizemoney | $3,424,601 |
| Singlesrecord | 156–133 |
| Singlestitles | 6 |
| Highestsinglesranking | No. 20 (October 2, 2006) |
| Currentsinglesranking | No. 264 (October 25, 2010) |
| Australianopenresult | 3R (2007) |
| Frenchopenresult | 3R (2006, 2008) |
| Wimbledonresult | 4R (2005, 2006) |
| Usopenresult | 3R (2003, 2008) |
| Doublesrecord | 71–78 |
| Doublestitles | 5 |
| Highestdoublesranking | No. 36 (June 16, 2008) |
| Grandslamsdoublesresults | yes |
| Australianopendoublesresult | 2R (2009) |
| Frenchopendoublesresult | SF (2008) |
| Wimbledondoublesresult | 2R (2007, 2008) |
| Usopendoublesresult | 3R (2008) |
| Updated | October 25, 2010 |
Dmitry Igorevich Tursunov (; born December 12, 1982, in Moscow, Russia) is a Russian professional male tennis player and music producer. He was 12 years old when he came to the United States to train and further his prospects of becoming a professional player.
Tursunov is an offensive baseliner with excellent groundstrokes from both sides, and prefers to play on faster surfaces; he jokes about his lack of ability and success on clay courts. He is sponsored by Fila and Wilson.
Tursunov helped the Russian Davis Cup team win the 2006 Davis Cup, and reach the finals of the 2007 Davis Cup.
2006 was a successful year for Tursunov as he achieved his highest ever ranking thus far, won his first ATP title beating Tomáš Berdych in Mumbai and made his first ATP final in Los Angeles losing to Tommy Haas in three sets. He was also successful on the Challenger circuit winning the Sunrise, Florida title over Alberto Martín and played in all ties for Russia in the Davis Cup, defeating Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the fourth rubber of the quarter-final; consequently sending the Russians into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup.
At the French Open, Tursunov lost to David Nalbandian after having a two sets to love lead. He defeated Ivan Ljubičić in the third round of Wimbledon coming back from two sets to love, before losing in the next round, 9–7 in the fifth set to Jarkko Nieminen. After losing his serve in the fifth set to give Nieminen a 8–7 lead he hit a ball at the chair-umpire's chair. He was given a point penalty and later fined £4,000 ($7,500) for "unsportsmanlike conduct". He called the chair umpire, Fergus Murphy, an "idiot" in the news conference he had after the match.
For the second time in 2006 Tursunov sealed victory for Russia in the Davis Cup this time in the semi finals where he defeated Andy Roddick of the United States 6–3 6–4 5–7 3–6 17-15 in a match that lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes and with this victory earned Russia the spot in the Davis Cup final against Argentina, which took place in December. Tursunov took part in a crucial doubles tie with Marat Safin, which they won to give Russia a 2–1 lead. Marat Safin later sealed the 2006 Davis Cup win for Russia with his victory over José Acasuso.
On January 6, 2007 Tursunov won the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia while representing Russia alongside Nadia Petrova. In the finals Tursunov defeated Tommy Robredo in straight sets, after teammate Nadia Petrova's victory over Anabel Medina Garrigues. Following this match was a proset mixed doubles between Russians Tursunov and Nadia Petrova and Spanish Tommy Robredo and Anabel Medina Garrigues. This match was a clear show of the playful nature of Tursunov and the other players. The match was relaxed, since the outcome of the mixed doubles proset match did not matter. At one stage Anabel Medina Garrigues switched with Tursunov so that Tursunov and Robredo were on one side, while Medina Garrigues and Petrova were on the other. The umpire, playing along assigned points to Spain regardless.
At Wimbledon, Tursunov was beaten in four sets in the 3rd round by Tommy Haas of Germany, 1–6, 6–4, 7–6, 6–4. Ironically, Haas was unable to go on and play his next game against Roger Federer due to an abdominal injury.
In Indianapolis, Tursunov won his 2nd career title, defeating surprise finalist Frank Dancevic 6–4, 7–5, losing only 10 points on serve and never facing a break point. Tursunov then won his second title of the year at the Thailand Open, dominating Benjamin Becker, 6–2, 6–1.
Tursunov was named in the four man team that played the United States in the Davis Cup final, in Portland, Oregon, on the 30th November - 2 December 2007. Tursunov lost the first rubber of the 2007 Davis Cup final against Roddick, who won by a scoreline of 6–4, 6–4, 6–2. Tursunov was on the verge of defeating James Blake, but Blake won 1–6, 6–3, 7–5 in the 4th dead rubber, the USA having won the tie in the previous doubles match.
Tursunov played his first tournament of 2008 at the Medibank International in Sydney, Australia. In the first round he defeated Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6–3, 6–3. In the second round, Tursunov defeated top seed and number eight in the world Richard Gasquet of France 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. In the 1/4 finals he defeated Sébastien Grosjean of France 6–3, 6–4 and in the semis, Tursunov defeated crafty Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6–3, 6–4. In the final, Tursunov defeated big serving giant Australian Chris Guccione 7–6, 7–6. This was his fourth career title.
At the Australian Open, Tursunov beat Xavier Malisse in the first round in 5 sets, after being down two sets to love - the final score being 6–7 5–7 6–2 6–1 6–3. However, he then lost his second round match against Sam Querrey in four sets - 7–6 4–6 6–4 6–2.
Tursunov lost in the first round of the Rotterdam Open to Rafael Nadal 4–6 4–6, but combined with Tomáš Berdych to win the doubles title, defeating Mikhail Youzhny and Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final 7–5 3–6 10-7. This was his 2nd doubles career title.
At Roland Garros, Tursunov won his first two round matches against Daniel Brands and Guillermo García López, and then lost to Jérémy Chardy in straight sets, Chardy having previously defeated David Nalbandian. However, Tursunov paired up with Igor Kunitsyn in the mens' doubles event. They reached the semi finals, losing to Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić 6-4 4-6 4-6. This performance lifted Tursunov to a career high doubles ranking of 36.
On the 17th June at the Slazenger Open in Nottingham, Tursunov walked off the court when losing by a set and a break in a first round doubles match after disagreeing with a line call. The next morning, the ATP announced he had been thrown out of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament because of his actions. This included the singles tournament, handing second round opponent Thomas Johansson a walk over into the quarter finals.
At Wimbledon, Tursunov beat Nicolas Mahut in five sets, 6-4 6-7 7-6 3-6 7-5, Chris Eaton 7-6 6-2 6-4, and lost to Janko Tipsarević 6-7 6-7 3-6 in the 3rd round. At the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, Tursunov upset the number 1 seed James Blake with the score of 4-6 6-3 6-4 to make it to the finals. He was unable to defend his title, losing to Gilles Simon 4-6 4-6 in the championship match. Tursunov lost in 3rd round to James Blake at the Rogers Masters and to eventual champion Andy Murray in 3rd round at the Cincinnati Masters. Tursunov represented Russia for the first time at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He lost first round to Roger Federer.
At US Open, Tursunov reached the 3rd round by beating Eduardo Schwank and Victor Hănescu. He was beaten by his compatriot Nikolay Davydenko.
Tursunov celebrated his 5th ATP title win at the Open de Moselle in Metz beating Paul-Henri Mathieu.
For the 2009 season, he won the doubles title in Dubai, partnering Rik de Voest for the first time. He also won his first singles grass-court title in Eastbourne.
Russia's lineup was Tursunov, Marat Safin, Igor Andreev, and Mikhail Youzhny when Israel hosted Russia in a quarter-final Davis Cup match the weekend of July 10–12. Israel was represented by Dudi Sela, Harel Levy, Jonathan Erlich, and Andy Ram on indoor hard courts in Tel Aviv. Israel won the tie 4-1.
He won another doubles title in Indianapolis, this time partnering Ernests Gulbis for the first time also.
;Runner-ups (2) {| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=125|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | 31 July 2006 | Los Angeles, United States | Hard | Tommy Haas | 6–4, 5–7, 3–6 |- | 2. | 20 July 2008 | Indianapolis, U.S. | Hard | Gilles Simon | 4–6, 4–6 |}
;Runner-ups (3)
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
|width=50|No.
|width=125|Date
|width=250|Tournament
|width=75|Surface
|width=200|Partner
|width=200|Opponent in the final
|width=200|Score in the final
|-
| 1.
| August 23, 2004
| Washington, United States
| Hard (O)
| Travis Parrott
| Chris Haggard
Robbie Koenig
| (3)6–7, 1–6
|-
| 2.
| September 19, 2005
| Beijing, China
| Hard (O)
| Mikhail Youzhny
| Justin Gimelstob
Nathan Healey
| 6–4, 3–6, 2–6
|-
| 3.
| June 26, 2006
| Nottingham, United Kingdom
| Grass
| Igor Kunitsyn
| Jonathan Erlich
Andy Ram
| 3–6, 2–6
|}
A = did not attend tournament.
NH = tournament not held.
LQ = lost in the qualifying draw.
NMS = not Masters Series
Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:Male tennis players Category:Olympic tennis players of Russia Category:Sportspeople from Moscow Category:People from Roseville, California Category:Russian expatriates in the United States Category:Russian male tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Chuck Palahniuk |
|---|---|
| Imagesize | 230px |
| Caption | Chuck Palahniuk, September 21, 2004, on tour at the University at Albany to promote Diary. |
| Birthdate | February 21, 1962 |
| Birthplace | Pasco, Washington |
| Occupation | novelist, essayist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Oregon |
| Period | 1996 - present |
| Genre | Transgressional fiction, satire, horror |
| Movement | Postmodernism, Minimalism |
| Notableworks | Fight Club, Choke, Rant |
| Influences | Don DeLillo, Bret Easton Ellis, Amy Hempel, Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, Mark Richard, Tom Spanbauer, Ira Levin, Michel Foucault, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Ken Kesey, Breece D'J Pancake, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joan Didion |
| Awards | |
| Website | http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/ |
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (; born February 21, 1962) is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. He lives near Vancouver, Washington.
In his twenties, Palahniuk attended the University of Oregon's School of Journalism, graduating in 1986. While attending college he worked as an intern for National Public Radio member station KLCC in Eugene, Oregon. He moved to Portland soon afterwards. After writing for the local newspaper for a short while, he began working for Freightliner as a diesel mechanic, continuing in that job until his writing career took off. During that time, he also wrote manuals on fixing trucks and had a stint as a journalist (a job he did not return to until after he became a successful novelist). After casually attending a free, introductory seminar held by an organization called Landmark Education, Palahniuk quit his job as a journalist in 1988. Palahniuk did volunteer work for a homeless shelter; later, he also volunteered at a hospice as an escort; he provided transportation for terminally ill people and brought them to support group meetings. He ceased volunteering upon the death of a patient to whom he had grown attached.
Palahniuk would also become a member of the rebellious Cacophony Society in his adulthood. He is a regular participant in their events, including the annual Santa Rampage (a public Christmas party involving pranks and drunkenness) in Portland. His participation in the Society inspired some of the events in his writings, both fictional and non-fictional. Most notably, he used the Cacophony Society as the basis for Project Mayhem in Fight Club.
Initially, Palahniuk struggled to find a literary agent and went without one until after the publication of Fight Club. After he began receiving attention from 20th Century Fox, Palahniuk was signed by Edward Hibbert, who is most famously known as the actor who played Gil Chesterton on Frasier. Hibbert eventually guided and brokered the deal that took Fight Club to the big screen. After his release, Shackleford followed Fontaine and the senior Palahniuk to Fontaine's home in Kendrick, Idaho, after they had gone out for a date. Shackleford then shot them both and dragged their bodies into Fontaine's cabin home, which he set on fire immediately afterwards. In the spring of 2001, Shackleford was found guilty for two counts of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. In the wake of these events, Palahniuk began working on the novel Lullaby. According to him, he wrote the novel to help him cope with having helped decide to have Shackleford get the death sentence.
In September 2003, Palahniuk was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly's Karen Valby. During the interview, Palahniuk in confidence mentioned information pertaining to his partner. While it had been previously believed by many that he was married to a woman (some members of the press had claimed he had a wife), Palahniuk had in fact been living with his boyfriend. Some time later, Palahniuk believed that Valby was going to print this information in her article, without his consent. In response, he put an angry audio recording of himself on his web site, not only revealing that he is gay, but also making negative comments about Valby and a member of her family. However, Palahniuk's fears turned out to be ungrounded, and Valby's article did not reveal anything about his personal life outside of the fact that he is unmarried. The recording was later removed from the website, making some fans believe that Palahniuk is embarrassed by his homosexuality. According to Dennis Widmyer, the site's webmaster, the recording was not removed because of the statements regarding his sexuality, but because of the statements about Valby. Palahniuk would later post a new recording to his site, asking his fans not to overreact to these events. He also apologized for his behavior, claiming that he wished he had not recorded the message. Palahniuk is now openly gay, and he and his unnamed male partner, according to a profile and interview in The Advocate in May 2008, live in "a former church compound outside Vancouver, Wash."
While on his 2003 tour to promote his novel Diary, Palahniuk read to his audiences a short story titled "Guts", a tale of accidents involving masturbation, which appears in his book Haunted. It was reported that to that point, 40 people had fainted while listening to the readings. Playboy magazine would later publish the story in their March 2004 issue; Palahniuk offered to let them publish another story along with it, but the publishers found the second work too disturbing. On his tour to promote in the summer of 2004, he read the story to audiences again, bringing the total number of fainters up to 53, and later up to 60, while on tour to promote the softcover edition of Diary. In the fall of that year, he began promoting "Haunted", and continued to read "Guts". At his October 4, 2004 reading in Boulder, Colorado, Palahniuk noted that, after that day, his number of fainters was up to 68. The last fainting occurred on May 28, 2007, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where 5 people fainted, one of which occurred when a man was trying to leave the auditorium, which resulted in him falling and hitting his head on the door. Palahniuk is apparently not bothered by these incidents, which have not stopped fans from reading "Guts" or his other works. Audio recordings of his readings of the story have since circulated on the Internet. In the afterword of the latest edition of "Haunted", Palahniuk reports that "Guts" is now responsible for 73 faintings.
At a 2005 appearance in Miami, Florida, during the Haunted tour, Palahniuk commented that Haunted represented the last of a "horror trilogy" (including Lullaby and Diary). He also indicated that his then-forthcoming novel Rant would be the first of a "sci–fi trilogy".
In 2008 Palahniuk took a role as an instructor for the Clarion West Writers Workshop, spending a week teaching his writing methods and theory of fiction to eighteen students.
The narratives of Palahniuk's books are often structured in medias res, starting at the temporal end, with the protagonist recounting the events that led up to the point at which the book begins. Lullaby used a variation of this, alternating between the normal, linear narrative and the temporal end after every few chapters. However, exceptions to this narrative form include the more linear Choke and Diary. There is often a major plot twist that is revealed near the end of the book which relates in some way to this temporal end (what Palahniuk refers to as "the hidden gun"). His more linear works also include similar plot twists.
Palahniuk's writing style has been influenced by authors such as the minimalist Tom Spanbauer (who taught Palahniuk in Portland from 1991 to 1996), Amy Hempel, Mark Richard, Denis Johnson, Thom Jones, and Bret Easton Ellis. In what the author refers to as a minimalistic approach, his writings use a limited vocabulary and short sentences to mimic the way that an average person telling a story would talk. In an interview, he said that he prefers to write in verbs instead of adjectives. Repetitions of certain lines in the stories' narratives (what Palahniuk refers to as "choruses") are one of the most common aspects of his writing style, found dispersed within most chapters of his novels. Palahniuk has said that there are also some choruses between novels; the color cornflower blue and the city of Missoula, Montana appear in many of his novels. The characters in Palahniuk's stories often break into philosophical asides (either by the narrator to the reader, or spoken to the narrator through dialogue), offering numerous odd theories and opinions, often misanthropic or darkly absurdist in nature, on complex issues of death, morality, childhood, parenthood, sexuality, and God.
Many of the ideas in his novels are traced to Continental thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Albert Camus.
When not writing fiction, Palahniuk tends to write short non-fiction works. Working as a freelance journalist in between books, he writes essays and reports on a variety of subjects; he sometimes participates in the events of these writings, which are heavy in field research. He has also written interviews with celebrities, such as Juliette Lewis and Marilyn Manson. These works appear in various magazines and newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and Gear magazine. Some of these writings have shown up in his book Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories. Palahniuk also includes some non-fiction factoids within his fictional works. According to the author, these are included in order to further immerse the reader in his work.
The content of Palahniuk's works has earned him a reputation as a nihilist. Palahniuk however rejects this label, claiming he is a romantic, and that his works are mistakenly seen as nihilistic because they express ideas that others do not believe in.
Palahniuk represents a distinct voice for an interim generation. "Coming to consciousness during the Vietnam War, watching Watergate destroy trust in public office, and raised by parents among whom divorce was popular but not well managed" this group, born between 1957 and 1965, grew up disassociated from and dissatisfied with institutions (L. E. Andrews, The Daily Cougar). Palahniuk channels this spirit, its ache to build and its inability to follow through. As they have aged, this half-generation has not developed a strong sense of group identity and are well known to alumni offices across America as the Lost Generation, regularly donating less to their colleges and universities than any other age group. From Project Mayhem in 'Fight Club' to Carl's building and destroying of model buildings in 'Lullaby', Palahniuk catheterizes his generation’s anger, failure, and disheartening desire to destroy whatever they build. “Chuck’s nihilism, small ‘n’, is a reflection of his age. The foundational act of his generation is the actual destruction of the global financial system in 2008” (A. Broussard, The Oswego Review).
Laura Miller of Salon.com wrote a scathing review of Diary, saying that Palahniuk's books "traffic in the half-baked nihilism of a stoned high school student who has just discovered Nietzsche and Nine Inch Nails" and that "everything even remotely clever in them has been done before and better by someone else".
In response, fans as well as Palahniuk himself (who had never responded to a review before) sent angry e-mails to Salon's Letters section. Palahniuk observed "Until you can create something that captivates people, I'd invite you to just shut up. It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one."
As Palahniuk's career continues, some critics have also accused him of using lurid subject matters simply because it is expected of him. In Tasha Robinson's review of Haunted in The A.V. Club, Robinson wrote that gruesome scenes are "piled up to such extremes that it seems like Palahniuk is just double-daring himself to top each new vile degradation with something worse."
Graphic novel adaptations of Invisible Monsters and Lullaby, drawn by comic artist Kissgz, aka Gabor, are available online.
Following the success of the movie of Fight Club, interest began to build in adapting Survivor to film. The film rights to Survivor were first sold in early 2001, but no movie studio had committed itself to filming the novel. After the attacks on The Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the movie studios apparently deemed the novel too controversial to film because it includes the hijacking and crashing of a civilian airplane. However, in mid-2004 20th Century Fox decided to commit itself to adapting Palahniuk's novel. Palahniuk has said that the people who made the film Constantine will be working on this film.
In the meantime, the film rights to Invisible Monsters and Diary were also sold. While little is known about some of these projects, it is known that Jessica Biel was signed on to play the roles of both Shannon and Brandy in Invisible Monsters, which was supposed to begin filming in 2004 but is still in development.
On January 14, 2008, the film version of Choke premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, starring Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston with Clark Gregg directing. David Fincher has expressed interest in filming Diary as an HBO miniseries.
Over the course of the next ten years, the website (which calls itself The Cult) grew to become the largest of its kind. With over 700,000 page views a month and 30,000 registered users on its forums alone, it expanded to include sections on Palahniuk's books, movies, media appearances, tour dates, and more. But perhaps its most important feature remains the Writers' Workshop. In 2004 Palahniuk and Widmyer conceived of a section on the site where up and coming writers could submit their original work to a database and have it read, rated, and reviewed by their peers. The section accepted everything from short stories and poems to screenplays and novel excerpts. Palahniuk would then pen a monthly "How To" essay on writing that his readers could benefit from and apply to their own craft. This process continued for three years.
In February 2009, Palahniuk began accepting six stories every month from his fans that would be narrowed down through a nominations process every month. The stories are read and reviewed by Palahniuk and helpful feedback is provided for the writer. It is Palahniuk's intention in 2010 to select the best stories from the year and publish them in an anthology for which he will be writing the introduction.
Besides contributing thoroughly to his fans through the Writers Workshop on the site, Palahniuk also tries to answer every piece of fan mail sent to him. He sometimes sends odd gifts (such as plastic severed hands, prom tiaras, and masks) back with his responses. He also often gives these to fans at his book readings, sometimes as prizes for asking him questions. Along with signing fans' books at these readings, he also marks them with humorous rubber stamps that relate to the books (for instance, a stamp of "Property of Dr. B. Alexander Sex Reassignment Clinic" in a copy of Invisible Monsters).
Category:1962 births Category:American novelists Category:American satirists Category:Cacophony Society Category:Clarion Writers' Workshop Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:Living people Category:Minimalist writers Category:People from Franklin County, Washington Category:American people of Ukrainian descent Category:Postmodernists Category:Postmodern literature Category:Writers from Oregon Category:University of Oregon alumni Category:Gay writers Category:LGBT people from Ukraine
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
