Stéphane Robert
Stéphane Robert ( born May 17, 1980 in Montargis ) is a French tennis player.
- 2.2.1 Siege
Life and career
Stéphane Robert began at the age of eight years playing tennis, but it took until 2001 until he decided on a career as a professional tennis player. In February 2002, he won his first title in Tel Aviv at a Futures tournament, and then climbed into the top 400 of the world tennis rankings.
After three other Future titles in June and July 2003, he played in September 2003 in Kiev for the first time a tournament of the ATP Challenger Tour, and immediately reached the semi-finals. A week later in Sofia he was able to even win the title. The year ended Robert ranked 230 in the world rankings.
In April 2004, Stéphane Robert was in Houston for the first time to qualify for the main round of the ATP tournament, where it won in the first round against his compatriot Jean -Christophe Faurel, but before he had to retire against Luis Horna in three sets. For the French Open in 2004 he received from the French Association of a wild card, but lost in the first round against the set at position 30 Mariano Zabaleta. In September 2004, Stéphane Robert won his second Challenger title in Budapest.
In 2005, Robert was able to win only a few matches, the only title this year were a Futures title in Barcelona in October 2005, and a doubles title at the Challenger tournament in Reunion in November 2005 (on the side of Teimuraz Gabashvili ). In the world rankings, he fell to No. 586
The January 2006 then began again more successful: after another Futures title he could for over a year to reach in Wrexham for the first time a Challenger final. He also won here in the doubles alongside Jean -François Bachelot the title. In March 2006, another common title followed in Cherbourg, so that the duo got a wildcard for the French Open 2006. However, after they were able to win the first match, she eliminated in the second round against the set Andrei Pavel and Alexander Waske. In the single year was not as successful, but Robert was able to keep because of its success at the beginning of the year in the top 300.
At the beginning of 2007, Stéphane Robert won two Futures titles, but then was a big setback: he had been infected with hepatitis A and therefore had to be completely sidelined from February 2007 to June 2008. Because of the break, he fell out of the tennis world rankings and had to once again work their way up from the bottom. Within six months he reached thanks to two Futures titles and three other finals again a place in the Top 400
The year 2009 was similarly successful further: Thanks to several futures titles and finals he climbed steadily in the rankings up and could play on Challenger tournaments again from March 2009. In June 2009 he won his third in Kosice Challenger title, the first for nearly five years. In September 2009, followed in Alphen the next track, also reached Robert in Orléans and Jersey respectively the final. He defeated among others, his fellow countryman Jérémy Chardy, at this time at number 36 in the world rankings. He finished the year on his best ever ranking, rank 108
In January 2010, Stéphane Robert celebrated his comeback on the ATP Tour after more than five years: After a second-round defeat in Chennai, he won in the first round of the 2010 Australian Open against Italian Potito Starace for the first time a Grand Slam match. In the second round, he retired to the set at position 31 Spaniard Albert Montanes in five sets, after he had already led 2-0 sentences. In February 2010, then followed the biggest success of his career: In Johannesburg, Robert reached after victories including on the world ranking 18th David Ferrer his first ATP final. There he defeated Feliciano López then but the Spaniard. However, he first rose then into the top 100 in the world rankings. When Challenger tournament in Tangiers, he was placed at position 1, and then won the tournament against Alexander Dolgopolov. Thus he reached rank 61 its best ever ranking in the world rankings. Since then, he now only played on the ATP Tour, but was able to reach the second round, only five out of 14 tournaments played. Thus it fell to the end of the year at # 122 back.
In early 2011 Stéphane Robert has successfully qualified for the Australian Open after a second-round defeat in Chennai. However, in the first round he lost in four sets against the set at position 14 Nicolás Almagro. After a challenger semi-finals in Cherbourg in February 2011, Robert was able to for over a year to reach in March in Le Gosier first time a Challenger final. He defeated among others, the top 100 players Dustin Brown, Pablo Andújar and Jarkko Nieminen, but lost in the final against Olivier Rochus. In doubles, he won his first title in over five years, together with Riccardo Ghedin. The end of April reached Robert in Ostrava with a victory over the set at position 3 Benoît Paire another Challenger final, which he clearly won against the qualifiers Ádám Kellner. In addition to the individual title he also won along with Olivier Charroin also the title in the doubles competition. After a challenger semi-finals in Bordeaux Stéphane Robert in late May successfully qualified for the French Open, where he met in the first round on the world rankings Sixth Tomáš Berdych. After last season's semi-finalists already led 2-0 records, Robert was able to fight back into the match and eventually won with 9:7 in the fifth set against dan favorites. In the second round he will now take on Fabio Fognini.