Stefan Koubek
Stefan Koubek (born 2 January 1977 in Klagenfurt, Carinthia ) is a former Austrian tennis player.
- 4.2.1 Siege
- 4.2.2 finals
Youth and First Steps
Koubek began playing tennis at the age of two and half years and has long been recognized as a talent. In 1993, he was supervised by Günter Bresnik as a coach. His debut on the ATP Tour, he celebrated in 1994. He caused a sensation, however, only in 1996 the tournament in Umag, where he reached the round of sixteen. The next year he played mainly Challenger tournaments.
Career development
A first small peak in his career was reaching the quarter-finals in Kitzbühel in 1997, where he was able to defeat the defending champion, among others, Alberto Berasategui.
In 1998 he first played for Austria in Davis Cup, but lost both games against Israel. During the year he was to find the first time among the top 100 in the world rankings.
1999 was the most successful year in Koubeks career. At the tournament in Atlanta, he celebrated his first tournament victory on the ATP Tour. He defeated in the tournament were Michael Chang, Magnus Larsson and Sebastien Grosjean. Other season highlights included the quarter-finals of St. Pölten, the second round at the French Open, the finals of Bournemouth and the quarterfinals of Vienna. With the Austrian Davis Cup team, he obtained a great success as he, along with Markus Hipfl that could turn off heavily favored Sweden. By season's end, he was to find the first time among the top 50 in the world.
In the 2000 season Koubek reached his second tournament win with victory in Delray Beach. Another good result was the semifinals of Mexico City with wins over Gaston Gaudio and Albert Portas. Otherwise, it was a bad year for Stefan Koubek and in the following year it was not much better. This was due to a ligament injury and his weak nerves. The only good result was reaching the semi-final in Vienna, where he beat Goran Ivanisevic among other things, and the then emerging Roger Federer.
The 2002 season opened Koubek with the best Grand Slam result of his career. At the Australian Open he beat Cyril Saulnier, James Blake (both after every sentence 0:2 residue ) and Fernando Gonzalez before he was defeated in the quarter -finals of the Czechs Jiří Novák with 2:6, 3:6 and 2:6. Another highlight of the season was the quarterfinals at the ATP Masters Series tournament in Hamburg with wins over Albert Costa and Younes El Aynaoui.
Stefan Koubek in 2003 succeeded his third tournament victory. In the Qatar Open in Doha, defeating Jan-Michael Gambill in the finals. The only further highlight was the semi-finals of Munich where he was able to beat the top players Rainer Schuettler and Tim Henman.
After a poor start to the 2004 season Koubek managed end of the season some good results as the third round at the U.S. Open, the second round of the ATP Masters Series tournament of Madrid and the semi-finals of the Swiss Indoors, among other things with a win over Ivan Ljubičić. Another highlight was the Davis Cup qualification game in Pörtschach, where he had Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski no chance.
2005 was a bad year in the career Koubeks. He could not achieve good results by injuries, a six-month doping ban due to the misconduct of a physician and pneumonia.
2006, did not run for Koubek also as desired. Except for a finals in Zagreb and a semifinal in Mumbai Koubek had no sense of achievement.
The year 2007 began for Stefan Koubek with a bang. At the very first tournament in Chennai, he reached the finals and defeated while Carlos Moya and Paradorn Srichaphan, where he made only four games. The final against Belgium's Xavier Malisse he lost, however. In February, he reached the quarter- final, which he lost to Andy Murray but the tournament of Memphis. After a long dry spell in the summer, he reached the quarter-finals of Sopot again a good result. At the U.S. Open he failed after clear victories over Sam Querrey and Michael Llodra in the third round in four sets to local hero James Blake. In September Koubek had with a win over Ricardo Mello share in the victory of the Austrians in the Davis Cup relegation match against Brazil. After a quarterfinal of Mumbai and one quarter-final at the Madrid Masters Stefan Koubek was the number one in the Austrian men's tennis again, sparking off Jurgen Melzer, who was at that position since January 2004.
In 2008 he started at the Australian Open and lost in the third round against Paul -Henri Mathieu in five sets. When Challenger tournament in East London, he reached with his partner Thomas Johansson in double or in specific the final. The singles final, he lost 6:7, 4:6 against Ivan Ljubičić. In March he lost at the Masters tournament in Miami in the first round against Robin Soderling. He then underwent a disc surgery and was sidelined about six months. He dropped it in the top 100 in the world rankings and gave the position of the top-ranked Austrian again. His first game after the injury, he played on 29 September 2008 at the Challenger tournament in Mons, which he lost to Christophe Rochus. At the tournament in Vienna Koubek made his comeback on the ATP Tour, but lost the first match 1:6, 2:6 against lucky loser Santiago Giraldo. There were other Erstrundenniederlagen at Challengerturnieren Koubek and fell back into the world rankings to No. 234. When Challenger from Eckental he came to the quarter- finals and semi-finals in Dnepropetrovsk and thus creates at the end of the season just to make it into the top -200.
At the start of the 2009 season he had verteitigen the points from the previous year in order to avoid a relapse into the world rankings. Except for his first round match at the Australian Open, he failed to win a game and fell in mid-February return to the 304 place in the world rankings. During the early year he improved to No. 213 In tennis tournament in Kitzbühel he reached the 2nd round and improved again among the top 200 in the world rankings. In early August he improved in the rankings among the top 150 despite poor showing at the Challengerturnieren.
At the beginning of 2010, Koubek struggled through the qualifying for the Australian Open and reached the third round. Here he was against Fernando Verdasco after the first sentence on the basis of a viral disease.
On June 3, 2010 Koubek choked between page flipping of the Bundesliga match TC track village and the UTC Strasbourg at a score of 4:6 3:2 misconduct Daniel Köllerer after he had beaten him his racquet after a war of words out of his hand and was then the referee disqualified.
At Wimbledon, he failed in the third qualifying round after a 2-0 set lead even with 2:3. But as a lucky loser he could but take part in the main competition, but lost in the very first round. Two weeks later, he was Austrian champion.
In July 2011, Koubek finished his pro career in the context of the ATP tournament in Kitzbühel.
Play
Stefan Koubek was a classic baseline player who was once often compared because of its fighters heart and its good run working with Thomas Muster. However, Koubeks successes were limited. In addition, he was a running player and felt on hard court surfaces outdoors most comfortable, where he celebrated his greatest successes. His trademark was the eingesprungene, two-handed backhand, which once Marcelo Ríos made known, with which he hit some Winner. His biggest problem was his mental weakness, which is why it underwent many unforced errors in tight game situations. For a time he was able to address its weaknesses and reduce the number of unforced errors.