Lukáš Lacko
Lukáš Lacko ( born November 3, 1987 in Piešťany ) is a Slovak tennis player.
- 2.2.1 Siege
- 2.2.2 finals
Life and career
Even as a junior Lukáš Lacko was very successful and won numerous tournaments around the globe. His greatest successes at junior Grand Slams were the semi-finals at the French Open in 2005 and two quarter- final appearances at the Australian Open in 2005 and the French Open in 2004.
Since 2004 Lacko played even in the adult area, and focused initially on here Futures tournaments. In 2005, there the first successes, and he reached six finals, of which he won two.
In 2006, he won two more futures tournaments and rose in the tennis world rankings to a place in the top 300 From now on he played increasingly tournaments in the ATP Challenger Tour, and was there in August 2006 in Binghampton first reach a final. In addition, he was appointed for the first time in the Slovakian Davis Cup team this year, but despite two individual victories not prevent the defeats against Chile and Belgium. He has since played in nine games with Davis Cup, and has an even balance.
At the beginning of 2007, Lacko first time to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open, but lost in the first round of the Australian Robert Smeets. In the remaining Grand Slam tournaments of the year, but he could not qualify for the ATP tournament in Stuttgart, where he was eliminated in the first round against David Ferrer. On the Challenger Tour Lacko could reach two finals in Rijeka and Istanbul before then in October 2007 in Kolding won his first title. He finished the year ranked 139 in the world rankings.
The year 2008 began auspiciously with the times but qualifying for the Australian Open, but as the year came in the very first round match against Denis Istomin the corner. However, the rest of the year was less successful: he was qualified for no other ATP tournament, and reached only three times in 21 Challenger tournaments the quarterfinals.
Thus it fell out into the world rankings of the top 300, and had to play Futures tournaments again from 2009. After four Futures titles and a successful qualification for the ATP Tournament Zagreb however, he had again gathered enough world ranking points to start at Challenger tournaments are allowed. In May 2009, Lukáš Lacko won in Fargona his second Challenger title. A month later, he retired in the final qualifying round of the ATP tournament in Halle against the Israeli Harel Levy, however, enlisted as a lucky loser after the main draw. There he had the same line up again against Levy, and at the second attempt he was able to defeat him and thus celebrate his first individual victory at the ATP level. Following Lacko played successfully qualifying for Wimbledon, but retired in the first round to eventual quarter-finalists Ivo Karlović from. In October 2009, he won his third in Seoul Challenger titles, and was then able to complete the first time among the top 100 one year.
In January 2010, Lukáš Lacko was directly qualified for the Australian Open, and was against the Argentine Leonardo Mayer first to win a Grand Slam match. However, in the second round he had no chance against the world number two Rafael Nadal. Lacko played from now on almost only ATP tournaments, and was able to Chennai, Zagreb, Memphis, Hall each reach the quarter-finals. In 2010, he won the French Open in a nearly five-hour match against American Michael Yani, then retired but against Mikhail Youzhny of. At Wimbledon, he defeated Marcos Baghdatis with the first time a player from the top 50, but then lost again in the second round in a five set match against Frenchman Jérémy Chardy. In doubles, he reached the second round at the side of Serhiy Stachowskyj. They defeated in the second round set at position 3 pairing Lukas Dlouhy and Leander Paes. In the following American hard court season Lukáš Lacko could be reached the third round in Atlanta and New Haven, and defeated Among other things, the top 30 players Lleyton Hewitt and Thomaz Bellucci. In his U.S. Open debut but he had no chance in the first round against Andy Murray. The annual financial statements could reach Lacko in Ortisei again a Challenger final, which he lost to Michal Przysiezny.
At the beginning of 2011, Lukáš Lacko won against world number one Rafael Nadal the second set 6-0 in the second round of the ATP tournament in Doha, but he ultimately lost the match in three sets yet. At the Australian Open, he met with Roger Federer again to a favorite, against whom he was subject to chance. Lacko won the 2011 two Challenger tournaments in September in Izmir and in November at home in Bratislava.
At the Australian Open Lacko 2012, initially failed to qualify for the main draw. In the first round he defeated despite a 0-2 residue Ivan Ljubičić still the favorite in five sets. It was followed by another victory against Donald Young, before he lost to eventual finalist Rafael Nadal in the third round. In February 2012, he reached his first ATP final, which he lost to Mikhail Youzhny, however, in Zagreb.