Karol Kucera
Encyclopedia
Karol Kučera is a retired ATP
professional male tennis
player from Slovakia
. He is a former top 10 player and has been ranked as high as World No. 6.
at Roland Garros
.
In 1995 when Kučera won his first ATP title in Rosmalen
. In 1996 he played in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta where he lost to eventual gold medalist Andre Agassi
.
A year later he won his second ATP title in Ostrava
defeating Magnus Norman
. He was runner-up in two other tournaments in Nottingham
on grass to Greg Rusedski
and Stuttgart
Outdoor to Sergi Bruguera
on clay.
Kučera's best year was in 1998, where he finished the year in the top 10, ranked World No. 8, which qualified him in the ATP Tour World Championship
in Hannover. During the year Kučera won 2 titles in Sydney
defeating Tim Henman
and New Haven defeating Goran Ivanišević
.
He reached another two finals, losing to Gustavo Kuerten
in Stuttgart Outdoor and to World No. 1 Pete Sampras
in Vienna
. Overall in 1998, Kučera compiled a career high 53 match victories and earning $1,402,557.
Kučera achieved his best Grand Slam result in 1998 reaching the semi-finals of Australian Open
where on his way he defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals, losing to eventual champion Petr Korda
in 4 sets.
In 1999, Kučera won his fifth ATP title in Basel
defeating Tim Henman
in the final. After 1999, Kučera struggled with form due to a right wrist and arm injury.
After some injury plagued years, Kučera found some form again in 2003 when he finished in the top 50 for the first time since 1999. During the year he won his sixth and final tour title in Copenhagen
defeating Olivier Rochus
in the final.
Recently, Kučera was one of the contributing members on the Slovakian team which reached the final of the Davis Cup
in 2005, eventually losing to Croatia
2–3. He announced his retirement after the final.
known as the "Big Cat" was Kučera's coach from 1997 to 2001. Kučera was nicknamed the "Little Cat" because of his deceptive style of play and his fluid movement around the court resembling his coach.
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
professional male tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player from Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. He is a former top 10 player and has been ranked as high as World No. 6.
Tennis career
Kučera turned professional in 1992. He was a member of the Czechoslovakian Galea Cup teams in 1991 and 1992 and the 1992 European championship squad. In 1993 he qualified for his first Grand SlamGrand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
at Roland Garros
French Open (tennis)
The French Open |Roland Garros]]) is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June in Paris, France, at the Stade Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments – the other three are...
.
In 1995 when Kučera won his first ATP title in Rosmalen
Rosmalen
Rosmalen is a city in the province of North Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands. It is located near 's-Hertogenbosch and has belonged to its municipality since 1996. In 2005 the city began construction of a new neighbourhood, De Groote Wielen...
. In 1996 he played in the Summer Olympics in Atlanta where he lost to eventual gold medalist Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...
.
A year later he won his second ATP title in Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
defeating Magnus Norman
Magnus Norman
Magnus Norman is a retired Swedish professional tennis player who is best known for being the runner-up at the French Open in 2000 and for briefly being ranked World Number 2. He won 12 singles titles, including a Tennis Masters Series tournament in Rome, Italy.Norman reached his career high...
. He was runner-up in two other tournaments in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
on grass to Greg Rusedski
Greg Rusedski
Gregory "Greg" Rusedski is a British Canadian former tennis player who turned professional in 1991 and played until his retirement on 7 April 2007, at the age of 33...
and Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Outdoor to Sergi Bruguera
Sergi Bruguera
Sergi Bruguera i Torner is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He is best remembered for winning consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994.-Career:...
on clay.
Kučera's best year was in 1998, where he finished the year in the top 10, ranked World No. 8, which qualified him in the ATP Tour World Championship
Tennis Masters Cup
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is a tennis tournament played at the end of each year, involving the top eight players in the men's tennis world rankings....
in Hannover. During the year Kučera won 2 titles in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
defeating Tim Henman
Tim Henman
Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman OBE is a retired English professional tennis player and former British Number One. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon. He was the first player from the United Kingdom since Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the...
and New Haven defeating Goran Ivanišević
Goran Ivaniševic
Goran Ivanišević is a retired Croatian professional tennis player. He is best remembered for being the only person to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001, having previously been runner-up at the championships in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Ivanišević is famous...
.
He reached another two finals, losing to Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten
Gustavo Kuerten is a retired former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001, and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000...
in Stuttgart Outdoor and to World No. 1 Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Overall in 1998, Kučera compiled a career high 53 match victories and earning $1,402,557.
Kučera achieved his best Grand Slam result in 1998 reaching the semi-finals of Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
where on his way he defeated defending champion Pete Sampras in the quarter-finals, losing to eventual champion Petr Korda
Petr Korda
Petr Korda is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. He is best known for winning the Australian Open in 1998 and for testing positive for the banned substance, nandrolone, following a match at Wimbledon that same year.-Career:Korda was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.He first...
in 4 sets.
In 1999, Kučera won his fifth ATP title in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
defeating Tim Henman
Tim Henman
Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman OBE is a retired English professional tennis player and former British Number One. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon. He was the first player from the United Kingdom since Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the...
in the final. After 1999, Kučera struggled with form due to a right wrist and arm injury.
After some injury plagued years, Kučera found some form again in 2003 when he finished in the top 50 for the first time since 1999. During the year he won his sixth and final tour title in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
defeating Olivier Rochus
Olivier Rochus
Olivier Rochus is a Belgian tennis player. He was born in Namur, Belgium, and currently resides in Auvelais, Belgium.-Career:...
in the final.
Recently, Kučera was one of the contributing members on the Slovakian team which reached the final of the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
in 2005, eventually losing to Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
2–3. He announced his retirement after the final.
Style of play
Miloslav MečířMiloslav Mecír
Miloslav Mečíř is a former professional tennis player from Slovakia. He won the men's singles gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games where he represented Czechoslovakia and played in two Grand Slam singles finals...
known as the "Big Cat" was Kučera's coach from 1997 to 2001. Kučera was nicknamed the "Little Cat" because of his deceptive style of play and his fluid movement around the court resembling his coach.
Singles (6)
| No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent in the Final | Score |
| 1. | June 12, 1995 | Rosmalen Ordina Open The Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, now sponsored by UNICEF and called the UNICEF Open, is a tennis tournament on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour held in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.-Singles:-Doubles:-Singles:-Doubles:-External links:*... , Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
Grass |  Anders JärrydAnders Järryd Anders Per Järryd is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. During his career he won eight Grand Slam doubles titles , reached the World No. 1 doubles ranking, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 5.Järryd was born in Lidköping, Västra Götaland... |
7–6(7), 7–6(4) |
| 2. | October 13, 1997 | Ostrava ATP Ostrava The Czech Indoor is a defunct ATP Tour affiliated tennis tournament played from 1994 to 1998. It was held at the ČEZ Aréna in Ostrava in the Czech Republic and was played on indoor carpet courts.-Singles:-Doubles:-References:*... , Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... |
Carpet (i) | Magnus Norman Magnus Norman Magnus Norman is a retired Swedish professional tennis player who is best known for being the runner-up at the French Open in 2000 and for briefly being ranked World Number 2. He won 12 singles titles, including a Tennis Masters Series tournament in Rome, Italy.Norman reached his career high... |
6–2 (Retired) |
| 3. | January 12, 1998 | Sydney, Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
Hard |  Tim HenmanTim Henman Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman OBE is a retired English professional tennis player and former British Number One. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon. He was the first player from the United Kingdom since Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the... |
7–5, 6–4 |
| 4. | August 17, 1998 | New Haven, U.S. United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Hard |  Goran IvaniševićGoran Ivaniševic Goran Ivanišević is a retired Croatian professional tennis player. He is best remembered for being the only person to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001, having previously been runner-up at the championships in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Ivanišević is famous... |
6–4, 5–7, 6–2 |
| 5. | October 4, 1999 | Basel Davidoff Swiss Indoors The Swiss Indoors is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. Originally an event of the Grand Prix tennis circuit between 1970 and 1989. It is currently part of the World Tour 500 Series of the ATP Tour. It is held annually at the St... , Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
Carpet (i) | Tim Henman Tim Henman Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman OBE is a retired English professional tennis player and former British Number One. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon. He was the first player from the United Kingdom since Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the... |
6–4, 7–6(10), 4–6, 4–6, 7–6(2) |
| 6. | February 24, 2003 | Copenhagen Copenhagen Open The Copenhagen Open was a tournament on the ATP Tour, first held in 1973. It was competed again in 1976, before being discontinued. It was re-introduced in 1991 and was halted again in 2003. The only man to win it more than once was Magnus Gustafsson... , Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
Hard (i) |  Olivier RochusOlivier Rochus Olivier Rochus is a Belgian tennis player. He was born in Namur, Belgium, and currently resides in Auvelais, Belgium.-Career:... |
7–6(4), 6–4 |