Jan Hájek (tennis)
January Hájek ( born August 7, 1983 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia at the time ) is a Czech tennis player.
- 2.1 Single 2.1.1 Siege
- 2.2.1 Siege 2.2.1.1 ATP World Tour
- 2.2.1.2 ATP Challenger Tour
Life and career
January Hájek began playing tennis at the age of six with his father Svatopluk Hájek, a tennis coach. In 1999 and 2000 he played a few tournaments on the junior tour, and chose 2000 for a career as a professional player.
At first he was playing tournaments in the Future category, and won his first title in October 2000 in Negril. The following year he won another title and reached two other finals.
After he had already won three Futures tournaments in 2002 until August, he rose in the tennis world rankings to a place in the Top 300 and was thus directly qualified for tournaments in the ATP Challenger Tour. Here, however, he could not prevail at first; in the years 2002 and 2003, he was only twice reached the semi-final, and resigned from otherwise usually in the first or second round. In 2003, he also tried for the first time, to qualify for tournaments of the ATP Tour and Grand Slam tournaments, but he always failed in qualifying.
Between August 2003 and April 2004 Hájek was due to an injury no match dispute, and therefore fell in the rankings to No. 875 in 2005, we went back slowly uphill: Jan Hájek won two Futures tournaments, it could also be for several Challenger Tournaments qualify, and reached the semifinals here in Genoa.
The year 2006 then brought the breakthrough: The Challenger tournament Barletta Hájek be qualified and then marched to the finals by which he won against Stefano Galvani smooth. In the course of the tournament he had turned off the Top 100 players Potito Starace among others. Also in the Challenger tournament in Prague, he survived the qualification, and had to get in the finals defeated. After he was eliminated in qualifying at the French Open in 2006 in the third qualifying round Jan Hájek won in June 2006 in Prostějov his second Challenger title. Only two weeks later in Braunschweig the third title, and associated with it the first time into the top 100 in the world rankings. But that was not the highlight of the season: In July 2006, Hájek won in Poznan his fourth Challenger title without issuing a single set, and a month later he qualified in New Haven for the first time for an ATP tournament. Although he retired in the first round against Marc Gicquel, but was nevertheless due to his world ranking at the 2006 U.S. Open qualifying directly. In his first Grand Slam match he defeated his compatriot Lukas Dlouhy smooth in three sets, but then lost to the set at position 10 Fernando González. From now on, he played regularly ATP tournaments, but had always struggled with shoulder problems.
Sun Jan Hájek had his first round match against Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Australian Open 2007 Place in the first sentence, and also at the French Open in 2007 after he had two close wins over Thomas Johansson and Bohdan Ulihrach in the third round of his match against Marcos Baghdatis after finish two sentences. A week before the French Open Hájek had reached with his Czech colleagues the finals at the World Team Cup, and won it all three singles. In the final he lost then, however, and also the Czech Republic defeated Argentina 1-2. After being in Prostějov and Brunswick both could not defend his Challenger title, and also at Wimbledon retired against Juan Carlos Ferrero after he had already led 2-0 sets Jan Hájek fell in the rankings out of the Top 100 out and up end of the year even to rank 245
The year 2008 was even worse: A Challenger quarter-finals as well as a Futures title in Portugal were the only highlights. He was able to qualify for only one ATP tournament in Poertschach, where he lost in three sets Ivan Ljubičić. In the meantime, Hájek was performed even outside the top 500.
But in 2009 was followed by the comeback: the beginning of April, Jan Hájek qualified for the Challenger tournament in Athens, and came there before the semi-finals. Even better, he made it three weeks later in Ostrava: He marched through the qualification and to the finals, where he won in straight sets against Ivan Dodig, who was also a qualifier. The same he achieved in June 2009 in Prostějov, where he again won eight matches in a row and thus his second title after 2006. On the way to the final, he defeated Among other things, the former world ranking third parties Ivan Ljubičić. After the final in Bytom followed in September 2009 in Freudenstadt, the third Challenger title of the season and the seventh overall of his career. Subsequently, he was appointed first to the Czech Davis Cup team for the semi-final against Croatia, and won his debut match against Roko Karanusic there. In the world rankings, he was, after he had started the year ranked 474, now led back to rank 110, and was therefore directly qualified for the ATP tournament in Vienna. There he recorded against the world number 52. Andreas Seppi his first victory on the ATP level in over two years. At year- end, he played with the Czech Republic against Spain in the Davis Cup final. Against Rafael Nadal, he was there in the individual just as chance as his entire team that lost 0:5.
At the start of 2010 January Hájek could reach the second round, where he retired against Mikhail Youzhny at the Australian Open by defeating Robby Ginepri. However, after almost three years this meant the re-entry into the top 100 in the world rankings. Also in May 2010 in the quarter-finals of the ATP tournament in Munich Youzhny was the terminus for Hájek. At the French Open and Wimbledon, he left each in the first round, but he could defend his Challenger title in Prostějov. After second-round defeats at the ATP tournaments of Hamburg, Umag and New Haven January Hájek met at the U.S. Open on the world ranking 21st Mardy Fish. After losing the first set 0-6, he could Sentences 2 and 3 to decide for themselves, but then won in the last two sentences again only a single game and thus retired.
In January 2011, January Hájek had no chance at the Australian Open in the first round against Andy Roddick set at position 8. In doubles, he could reach the second round along with Alexander Dolgopolov.
Davis Cup
Since 2009, Hájek plays for the Czech Davis Cup team. In the 2009 season, he reached the finals with this, which, however, clearly documents in Barcelona Spain with 0:5. 2013 he was in the final squad of the team, but was not in a 3-2 victory over Serbia used. This season, he played a single and the double game only in the quarterfinal against Kazakhstan.