Victor Hănescu

Playername	Victor Hănescu
Caption	Victor Hănescu playing for Romania at the 2010 Davis Cup
Country	Romania
Residence	Bucharest, Romania
Datebirth	July 21, 1981
Placebirth	Bucharest, Romania
Height
Weight
Turnedpro	2000
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Careerprizemoney	US$2,724,373
Singlesrecord	147–158
Singlestitles	1
Highestsinglesranking	No. 26 (6 July 2009)
Currentsinglesranking	No. 51 (18 October 2010)
Australianopenresult	2R (2005, 2008-2010)
Frenchopenresult	QF (2005)
Wimbledonresult	3R (2003, 2009, 2010)
Usopenresult	2R (2008, 2010)
Othertournaments	Yes
Olympicsresult	2R (2008)
Doublesrecord	28–39
Doublestitles	1
Highestdoublesranking	No. 117 (21 July 2008)
Currentdoublesranking	No. 238 (20 September 2010)
Updated	23 September 2010

Victor Hănescu (born July 21, 1981 in Bucharest) is a Romanian tennis player. He achieved his career high rank of #26 on July 6, 2009.

Professional career

The 6'6" Hănescu attained a career high ranking of #35 on December 25, 2005. Six weeks later, in a Davis Cup match against the United States, he suffered a severe rib injury, and a subsequent injury sidelined him further in May, 2006. By January, 2007, his ranking had plummeted to #759, before he finally began making progress on a comeback.

1999: His Pro Career Begins

Hănescu earned his first ATP singles ranking points in August, 1999, with first round wins 2 weeks in a row at the Romania F1 and F2 Futures tournaments. Although he played 4 more tournaments from September through December, he did not earn any additional points and finished the year ranked #1231.

2000: Success In Satellites

In 2000, Hănescu played Satellites and Futures tournaments. His 4th place finish at a Satellite in Croatia in April/May and 3rd place at a Satellite in Portugal in October/November provided him with 36 of the 45 ATP singles ranking points he earned in 2000. He finished the year ranked #477.

2001: Futures Wins and Challenger Successes

Hănescu won his first pro tournaments in May, 2001, taking the singles titles in consecutive weeks at the Slovakia F1 and F2 Futures events. A quarterfinal finish at a Challenger in Budapest 2 weeks later put him in the top-400 for the first time. In July, as the #1 seed in consecutive weeks in Bucharest, he reached the final at Romania F1 and won the F2 Futures event to improve his ranking to #319. In August in Challengers in 3 consecutive weeks, he reached the semifinals in Poland and Germany and then the final in Germany to improve to #209. He broke into the top-200 for the first time in October, but went just 4–7 in Challengers after August and finished the year ranked #212.

2002: First ATP Quarter-final, First Challenger Win

Hănescu did not make much career progress in 2002. His highlights were reaching his first career ATP-level quarterfinal at Umag, Croatia in July, and then winning his first Challenger in Portugal in September. He finished the year ranked #172.

2003: Top-100, 3rd Round French Open and Wimbledon

Moderate success in Challengers improved Hănescu's ranking to #150 by April, 2003. He then qualified into the ATP tournament in Estoril and reached the 2nd round in April, and into the Rome Masters in May and beat #31 Mikhail Youzhny, his highest ranked win to that point. At the end of May, he qualified into the French Open and reached the 3rd round, losing to Jarkko Nieminen, to break into the top-100 for the first time. He was a Lucky Loser entry into Wimbledon, but reached the 3rd round there also, beating #34 Juan Ignacio Chela before losing to #12 Sjeng Schalken, improving his ranking to #85. He had limited success the rest of the year, losing first round at the US Open to #6 Lleyton Hewitt before reaching the quarterfinal at the ATP event in Bucharest in September. In October, he qualified into his second Masters event of the year in Paris, upsetting #49 Rafael Nadal and #69 Anthony Dupuis, and then upsetting #27 Wayne Ferreira in the first round before losing to #2 Andy Roddick. He finished the year ranked #70.

2004: Grand Slam Failures, First ATP Semi-final, First Top-10 Win

Hănescu played almost exclusively at the ATP level in 2004, but with very limited success. He was ranked high enough for direct entry into all 4 Grand Slams and the Olympics, but won only one match total in those 5 events. His successes were his first career ATP semifinal in Scottsdale in March, and several more ATP quarterfinals, including Bucharest again in September and Estoril in April, where he recorded his first-ever win over a top-10 player, #6 Rainer Schüttler. In October, he went back down to the Challenger level and won in Rome, his second career Challenger title. But he finished the year ranked #92, down 22 spots from 2003.

2005: His best year, French Open Quarter-finals, ATP Semi-finals

2005 is Hănescu's best year to date. At the French Open, he beat #32 Juan Ignacio Chela in the 2nd round, and then came back to beat #11 David Nalbandian in five sets 6–3 4–6 5–7 6–1 6–2 in the 4th round before losing to #1 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He reached ATP semifinals in New Haven (beating #58 Nicolás Massú and #20 Tommy Robredo before losing to #67 James Blake) and in Bucharest to reach the top-40 for the first time, in September. He also had his 2nd career win over a top-10 player, beating #10 Mariano Puerta in July, and finished the year with a career high ranking of #35.

2006: Lost to injuries

The rib injury in the Davis Cup match and a subsequent back injury in May sidelined him for most of the year, and after starting the year out at #35, he finished up at #646. His lone success was winning the ATP-level exhibition tournament in Houston in April, beating Vince Spadea and Juan Mónaco.

2007: A comeback year, first ATP final

His ranking continued to plummet due mainly to inactivity, as well as poor results when he did play, until March, when he qualified into a Challenger event in Italy and beat #126 Björn Phau to reach the 2nd round. His protected ranking status gave him direct entry into a couple ATP events in April, with little success. So he continued to play Challengers, reaching a semifinal and quarterfinal in May, and then a final in June to get back into the top-300. Finally in August, he won two consecutive Challengers in Romania and Austria to improve to #151 by the start of his home ATP stop in Bucharest in September, where he was a semi-finalist in 2005; he went one step farther this time by making the finals, losing in three sets to Gilles Simon. It was his first career final.

In December, the ATP entered Hănescu into the 2007 Centuries Club for advancing hundreds of spaces to regain a spot in the top 100 rankings. Hănescu climbed more ranking positions than any other player in the top 100. He finished the year at number 77.

2009

Victor started off the year by reaching the quarter-finals of Doha, where he lost to Andy Roddick. In Auckland Victor lost in the first round to Juan Mónaco. He reached the second round of the Australian Open, after defeating Jan Hernych, but then fell to Dudi Sela. Victor reached the second round in Zagreb. In Dubai, he lost his first round match. In Miami he lost to Michael Russell in the first round. Victor reached the quarter-finals in Casablanca. He competed at the 2009 French Open. In the first round he eliminated Steve Darcis 7-6(8) 7-6(5) 7-6(3), in the second round Mikhail Youzhny 7-5 7-5 7-5, and in the third round he upset #7 seed Gilles Simon 6-4 6-4 6-2. He played next Fernando González and he lost 2-6 4-6 2-6.

At the 2009 Wimbledon he was seeded #31. In the first round he won a grueling match against Iván Navarro 6-3 6-7 6-4 6-7 12-10. Then he played Nicolas Devilder and won 6-2 6-3 6-1 to advance in the third round where he lost to the #8 seeded Gilles Simon 2-6 5-7 2-6. At the 2009 MercedesCup he reached the final beating in the process D.Meffert, Rainer Schüttler, Alexandre Sidorenko and Fabio Fognini in the semi-final. He lost in the final to Jérémy Chardy 6-1 3-6 4-6.

2010

At the 2010 Australian Open he won his first round match against Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4 6-3 7-6, but then lost in the second round to world number one Roger Federer 2-6 3-6 2-6.

He then played at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open where coincidentally, he won his first round match against Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3 7-6(4) and then lost again to Roger Federer 3-6 7-6(5) 1-6.

At the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia he defeated Michael Berrer 6-2 6-7 6-3 in the first round, then Juan Mónaco 7-6 6-4, to lose in the next round to eventual winner Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2.

At ATP Casablanca, April 5, 2010, he was runner up, losing in final to Stanislas Wawrinka.

Controversy

At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, Hănescu was booed and taunted by a group of spectators during his 3rd round loss to Daniel Brands of Germany. The group allegedly called him a gypsy, a highly derogatory and xenophobic term in Romania. Frustrated due to injury and crowd behaviour, he responded by spitting towards some spectators and subsequently received a warning from the umpire. He then deliberately made four service foot faults to lose two points, giving Brands a 3-0 lead in the final set before retiring. Four spectators were later arrested by police under Section 5 of the Public Order Act. Hănescu was also later fined USD 15,000 for his behavior, this being the first of its kind in his career.

His tricky-shot during the US Open 2010 at Flushing Meadows also caused surprise amongst the public, who initially though he had missed a smash, while he shot the ball from down.

Career Finals

Singles: 4 (1–3)

;Wins (1) {| width=43% | valign=top width=33% align=left | | valign=top width=33% align=left | |}

{| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=160|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | July 13, 2008 | Gstaad, Switzerland | Clay | Igor Andreev | 6–3, 6–4 |}

;Runner-ups (3)

{| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=160|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | September 16, 2007 | Bucharest, Romania | Clay | Gilles Simon | 4–6, 6–3, 6–2 |- | 2. | July 12, 2009 | Stuttgart, Germany | Clay | Jérémy Chardy | 1–6, 6–3, 6–4 |- | 3. | April 11, 2010 | Casablanca, Morocco | Clay | Stanislas Wawrinka | 6–2, 6–3 |}

Doubles: 3 (1–2)

;Wins (1) {| width=43% | valign=top width=33% align=left | | valign=top width=33% align=left | |}

{| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=160|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Partner |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- bgcolor="#d0f0c0" | 1. | July 14, 2008 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Clay | James Cerretani | Lucas Arnold Ker Olivier Rochus | 6–3, 7–5 |}

;Runner-ups (2) {| class="sortable wikitable" |- |width=50|No. |width=160|Date |width=250|Tournament |width=75|Surface |width=200|Partner |width=200|Opponent in the final |width=200|Score in the final |- | 1. | September 18, 2005 | Bucharest, Romania | Clay | Andrei Pavel | José Acasuso Sebastián Prieto | 6–3, 4–6, 6–3 |- | 2. | July 13, 2009 | Stuttgart, Germany | Clay | Horia Tecău | František Čermák Michal Mertiňák |7–5, 6–4 |}

Singles Performance timeline

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%" |- |align=center colspan=4|NMS || means an event that was not an ATP Masters Series tournament. |- |align=center colspan=4|NM1 || means an event that was not an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. |}

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded.

References

External links

Hanescu Recent Match Results

Hanescu World Ranking History

Victor Hănescu statistics

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Romanian tennis players Category:Olympic tennis players of Romania Category:Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:People from Bucharest