Stefan Koubek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Stefan Koubek**

Country	Austria
Residence	Vienna
Date of birth	January 2, 1977
Place of birth	Klagenfurt, Austria
Height	5'9 (175 cm)
Weight	150 lbs (68 kg)
Turned Pro	1994
Plays	Left
Career Prize Money	$2,445,675
Singles
Career record:	168-193
Career titles:	3
Highest ranking:	20 (March 13, 2000)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	QF (2002)
French Open	4th (1999)
Wimbledon	2nd ( 2000, 2002 - 2004)
U.S. Open	3rd (2004)
Doubles
Career record:	11-25
Career titles:	1
Highest ranking:	143 (August 2, 2004)

Stefan Koubek (born January 2, 1977 in Klagenfurt) is a tennis player from Austria, who turned professional in 1994. Koubek is a lefthander with a doubled handed backhand. His idol when growing up was Thomas Muster, in spite of winning two of his three titles on hardcourt. He says his favourite surface is clay and the backhand is his favourite shot. [1].

His nickname is Cooley or Stef away from tennis he likes sports cars, video games, golf and skiing.

1 Tennis career
2 Singles Titles (3)
- 2.1 Singles Finalist (3
- 2.2 Doubles (1)
3 External link

[edit] Tennis career

Koubek turned professional in 1994 and lost his first match in St Pölten. In between 1994 and 1998 Koubek was playing mostly on the ATP Futures and ATP Challenger Series events, with the occasional ATP event.

In 1997 he jumped up 184 positions with good Challenger results making finals in Ulm and Alpirsbach. 1998 saw Koubek win his first Challenger event in Alpirsbach and lost to Younes El Aynaoui in the final of Maia and he compiled a 33-20 record for the year.

Koubek won his first ATP title in 1999 at Atlanta as a qualifier, he achieved this losing only one set in the whole tournament overcoming Sebastien Grosjean in the final 6-1 6-2. Koubek reached the fourth round on his French Open debut losing to Alex Corretja and to this date this is his best performance at this event. Koubek made the final of Bournemouth losing to Adrian Voinea and helped his country Austria back into the World Group of Davis Cup by defeating Sweden 3-2 in a promotion tie. Koubek was only second to Albert Costa with 28 wins on clay during the 1999 season.

In 2000 Koubek, won his second title at Delray Beach on the hardcourts defeating Alex Calatrava, while making the semi finals at Mexico City losing to Juan Ignacio Chela which were his best results for the year. In the process he reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on March 13, 2000, when he became the number 20 of the world.

Koubek started off 2002 with his best ever performance at a Grand Slam tournament by making the quarter finals of the Australian Open. Koubek in the first round came back from 0-6 1-6 1-4 15-40 deficit to eventually defeat Cyril Saulnier 0-6 1-6 7-6(6) 6-4 8-6. In the next round he followed that comeback with another one from two sets to love down against James Blake to win in 5 sets, Kristian Pless and Fernando Gonzalez were then defeated and Koubek lost to Jiří Novák. Apart from his tennis during the tournament Koubek wore yellow shorts which stood out as much as his tennis during these two weeks.

After the good start to the year, Koubek’s best result was a quarter final at the Hamburg Masters losing to Tommy Robredo and then finished the year with seven consecutive first round losses.

2003 saw Koubek turn around the poor form at the end of the 2002 season and he won his third title in Doha without losing a set defeating Jan-Michael Gambill in the final and briefly became number 1 in the ATP Champions Race which is a ranking system that started at 0 every year and calculated the ranking points for the whole year. Koubek continued with his inconsistent form with again losing seven consecutive first round matches after his victory in Doha, before making the semi finals in Munich before losing to Roger Federer. In Davis Cup Koubek defeated the Belgians Christophe Rochus and his brother Olivier Rochus to help Austria back into the World Group.

Koubek made the third round at the 2004 French Open before losing to David Nalbandian. In Thomas Muster’s debut as Davis Cup captain, Koubek was instrumental in preserving Austria’s status in the World Group in Davis Cup Koubek won both of his singles matches over Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski .

At the 2004 French Open Koubek tested positive to Glucocorticosteroids after he took an injection for an injured wrist. He was suspended for three months and the ITF rejected the appeal of the suspension, they found that Koubek had not used the drugs to enhance performance [2].Koubek had to forfeit his points and prizemoney from Roland Garros but subsequent to Roland Garros those points were not disqualified [3]

Koubek due to a combination of his suspension and injuries struggled in 2005 as his ranking fell to outside the top 100 and he was playing most of his events on the Challenger circuit with his best results on the tour being a third round in Kitzbühel losing to Nicolas Massu and a semi final in the Helsinki Challenger to Björn Rehnquist.

At the start of 2006 Koubek was ranked 182nd in the world and finished the year ranked at number 80. Koubek played a mixture of Challengers, along with some ATP events. As a qualifier Koubek made the final of the ATP event in Zagreb losing in straight sets to local favourite Ivan Ljubičić. Koubek’s other main results for 2006 included third round performances in Stuttgart, the Generali Open and a semi final in Mumbai. In doubles Koubek won his first title at the Generali Open with Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Koubek began 2007 by making the final in Chennai losing to Xavier Malisse and at the Australian Open lost to Wayne Arthurs who was playing in his last tournament after leading 2 sets to 0 and played in Austria's first round defeat in Davis Cup to Argentina in Linz.

[edit] Singles Titles (3)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	26-04-1999	Atlanta, (USA)	Clay	Sebastien Grosjean (France)	6-1 6-2
2.	28-02-2000	Delray Beach, (USA)	Hard	Alex Calatrava (Spain)	6-1 4-6 6-4
3.	30-12-2002	Doha, (Qatar)	Hard	Jan-Michael Gambill (USA)	6-1 7-6(7)