Markus Hipfl
Markus Hipfl ( born April 26, 1978 in Wels, Upper Austria ) is a former Austrian tennis player.
Youth and First Steps
Hipfl began playing at the age of four years of tennis and was first cared for by his father. In his youth he attended in Austria quite a stir and has been hailed as successor to Thomas Muster. He was with the Austrian team U14 World Champion, 1996, he won the Orange Bowl with the team the Vice World Champion title in 1992. In 1997, he won the Satellite series in Italy and Austria. His debut on the ATP Tour, he celebrated in 1994. He was trained at the beginning of his professional career by Ronald Leitgeb, then coach of Thomas Muster.
Career development
In 1994 Hipfl at the ATP tournament in St. Pölten, but lost in the first round against Francisco Clavet with 0:6 and 4:6.
In 1995, he continued to focus on youth tournaments and won the ATP tournament in Vienna a wildcard. He played against Mark Woodforde and lost again in the first round.
In 1996 he made his debut in the Austrian Davis Cup team and played in Brazil against Gustavo Kuerten. After winning the first two sets, he still lost in five sets. He started for the first time in Kitzbühel and reached after a victory over Stefan Koubek the second round.
1998 won Hipfl at Challenger tournaments of Nettingsdorf and Guadalajanea in Mexico. In 1999, he reached the quarter- finals of St. Pölten, Palermo and Mallorca. In 2001 he celebrated his greatest success with reaching the final of St. Pölten, which he 0:6 and 5:7 lost against his training partner Andrea Gaudenzi. In the same year he celebrated victory over Marcelo Ríos, Buenos Aires, Albert Costa and Yevgeny Kafelnikov at the ATP Masters tournament in Monte Carlo. At the beginning of 2002, he was out on 62nd place in the world rankings. Markus Hipfl fought his entire career with injury problems. So he gave in 2005 in Kitzbühel his comeback, but injured himself again at the elbow. He currently plays for smaller tournaments, but has his pro career ended.
Impressive is its good Davis Cup record of 10-3. Among other things he was involved with Stefan Koubek, 1999 on win over Sweden.