Nicolas Kiefer
Nicolas Kiefer ( born July 5, 1977 in Minden wood ) is a former German tennis player. His greatest achievement was winning the silver medal in doubles at the side of Rainer Schuettler at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He won on the ATP World Tour six tournaments and was more 13 times in a playoff. He is one of the four most successful German tennis players of the Open Era.
- 2.1 Single 2.1.1 Siege
- 2.1.2 finals
Tennis career
Nicolas Kiefer began at the age of six years playing tennis and was soon discovered as a talent. He was trained in Einbeck by Martin Rausch and then promoted in the power center of Hanover. When he the title at the Grand Slam tournaments in Melbourne (Australian Open) and New York (U.S. Open) has won on the junior tour in 1995 and also reached the final of the junior competition at Wimbledon, maybe he was regarded as the greatest German tennis talent since Boris Becker. The breakthrough on the ATP Tour then managed pine in 1997, when he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and won his first professional tournament win in Toulouse. At position 32 in the tennis world rankings jaw ended the season for the first time as the best German. In 1998, Kiefer then the first time the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, failed there but surprisingly the Nicolas Escudé French. Kiefer finished the season ranked 35th
World top
The leap into the world top then managed pine in the 1999 season when he played four finals on the professional tour, of which he was able to win two (Hall and Tashkent) and for the first time ranked among the ten best players in the world. The season he finished in 6th place and was able to take it to the first and only time in his career at the season final Masters Cup, which was then held in Hannover. After a defeat against Thomas Enqvist pine reached with victories over Todd Martin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov the semifinals, he lost to Pete Sampras.
The year 2000
The season started promising for pine. He reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, subject to there, however, the Swede Magnus Norman in four sets. After this tournament pine stood in fourth position in the world ranking, his best finish. It was followed by numerous injuries and disappointing results. In September jaw could but at least reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, where he lost to the eventual winner Marat Safin. This year marked pine despite two tournament wins in Dubai and Hong Kong as the "epidemic season " of his career because he was stopped again and again by injuries and the season eventually finished in 20th place.
2001-2005
The years 2001-2005 were marked by streaky services jaw. Although he could reach nine more finals during this period, a victory he did not succeed. This brought him in succession the sad record of most final defeats on the ATP Tour. 2002 and 2003 jaw was rarely in the top 50 players in the world, as the hope of the German men's tennis he had increasingly behind Tommy Haas resign. It was not until the 2004 season, in which he reached four times a tournament final, Kiefer was back in better shape. At the 2004 Olympic Games jaw drew also on the side of Rainer Schuettler the finals, but with whom he lost to Fernando González and Nicolás Massú from Chile in five sets. The German double lost the fourth set at 2-1 set lead in the tiebreak with almost 7:9.
Injury and comeback again
To kick off the 2006 season pine reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, the best performance of his career at a Grand Slam tournament. The 28 -year-old managed so that the re- make it into the top 15 in the world. At the French Open, pine then suffered a wrist injury that forced him to a one-year break. The Gerry Weber Open 2007 in Halle (Westfalen ), he made his comeback, but was defeated Tomáš Berdych. His first success after a long injury break, he celebrated on the tour two weeks later in the first round of Wimbledon against Filippo Volandri. He eliminated in the third round in a very tight match, which was played to the end until four days later than planned due to continuous rain, against Novak Djokovic (then number five in the world rankings ) from. At the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, he penetrated to the semifinals, but this had to cancel due to a knee injury.
In July 2008, pine reached in Toronto for the first time the finals of a tournament of the Tennis Masters Series in which he had to admit defeat until the designated world number one Rafael Nadal after beating the two top ten players Nikolay Davydenko and James Blake. This result brought him back for the first time after his comeback under the top 20 of the world tennis rankings and made it back to number one in the German tennis. At the Olympic Games in Beijing, he was defeated in the second round Paul -Henri Mathieu. In doubles, he failed at the side of Rainer Schuettler in the first round of the Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle double.
2009
In March each jaw reached the third round at the Masters tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, where they lost against Andy Roddick ( Indian Wells ) and Roger Federer ( Miami). In May, he reached the second round in Munich and the second round at the French Open. He also proved to be a strong support of the German team at the World Team Cup in Dusseldorf, where he was able to win on the side of Mischa Zverev all four games. At the Gerry Weber Open in Halle (Westfalen ), he had his second round match in singles competition against Jurgen Melzer because of a stomach muscle injury abandon the semi-finals in a double (again with Zverev ) he could not compete only. In July, he reached the semifinals in Stuttgart, which he lost to Jérémy Chardy, as well as the quarter-finals of Gstaad, where he had to retire again against the eventual champions Thomaz Bellucci.
2010
This year, Kiefer played only four tournaments. The Gerry Weber Open he made once a stir when he could defeat the Russians Mikhail Youzhny in three sets in round one. In August, pine one daughter. End of 2010 Nicolas Kiefer announced his resignation, citing the fact that he wants to spend as much time with his family and doubted after an injury suffered last to get back to his old performance.
General
On the tennis court, Nicolas Kiefer was often extremely extroverted player who is noticed by some remaining in memory behaviors (such as non-acceptance of the referee's decisions, referee insults, arrogant demeanor ). After his return he showed himself much more mature and level-headed on the court. Away from the tournament action was and is pine avid football and hockey supporters of the club Hanover 96 and Hannover Scorpions. He is a club member of Hannover 96 and occurs in games of the Bundesliga team in their jersey. He is also involved in charitable and social projects, such as " bed by night " in Hannover, in a container village on the Welfenplatz ( device for supply of street children ), in "Action childhood dream " and together with the human rights organization Amnesty International in the fight against torture.
Achievements
Singles
Win
Finals
Doubles
Grand Slam singles results
Indicated is always reached the round
Grand Slam doubles results
Indicated is always reached the round
Others
Nicolas Kiefer's mother is French, his father was a physical education teacher at a private school in Dassel ( Northeim district ).