Richard Krajicek
Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek is a Dutch former professional tennis player. In 1996 he won the men's singles title at Wimbledon and is the only Dutch player to have won a Grand Slam tournament. In the quarterfinals of that tournament, he defeated Pete Sampras in straight sets. This was Sampras' only singles defeat at Wimbledon between 1993 and 2000. Since 2004, Krajicek has been the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. He is also the author of various sports books. Krajicek reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in March 1999.
Personal life
Richard Krajicek is the son of Czech immigrants. In 1999, Krajicek married model, writer and hostess of Holland's Next Top Model and Benelux' Next Top Model, Daphne Deckers. Nicknamed "de Kraai" in his home country, Krajicek has, among his siblings, half-sister Michaëlla Krajicek who also is a professional tennis player. His distant cousin is Austin Krajicek. He is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.Career
Richard Krajicek began playing tennis at the age of four. As a youngster he won both the Dutch under-12 and the under-14 National Championships twice. His biggest achievement as a youngster was winning the Wiltshire Open in the UK after beating Steven White in straight sets in the final. He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title in Hong Kong and his first tour doubles title at the Dutch Open.In 1992, the 1.95 m Dutchman reached his first Grand Slam semifinals at the Australian Open. He had to withdraw from this semifinal match due to a shoulder injury. The following year, he reached the semifinals at the French Open, where he lost in four sets to the defending champion Jim Courier. Also in 1992, Krajicek made a controversial comment regarding equal pay for women in Grand Slam events, saying, "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Later, he jokingly clarified his comments, remarking, "What I meant to say was that only 75 percent are fat pigs."
At the 1996 Italian Open, Krajicek reached the final, before losing in four sets to the reigning champion, Thomas Muster. At the French Open later that year, Krajicek was the only player to take a set off the eventual champion, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, during their quarterfinal match.
Coming into 1996 Wimbledon, Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round at the tournament and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He was seen as a player with potential, having one of the fastest serves at the time, but was not considered to be a strong contender for the title. The clear favourite was Pete Sampras, who had won the title for the past three consecutive years. Despite being ranked within the world's top 16, Krajicek just missed out on the seedings for the tournament, but when seventh seed Thomas Muster pulled out shortly before the tournament due to an injury, Krajicek was declared the 17th seed and moved to Muster's place in the draw. Opinions differ, therefore, on whether or not he won the tournament as an unseeded player.
He beat former champion Michael Stich in the fourth round and met Sampras in the quarterfinals. By that time, he had managed to turn his notably weak slice backhand into an aggressive top-spin shot. Krajicek defeated Sampras in straight sets, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993 until Sampras' fourth-round loss to Roger Federer in the 2001 tournament. Next, he beat Australia's Jason Stoltenberg in the semifinals, and went on to face American MaliVai Washington in the final. He won the final in straight sets to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon.
In 1997, Krajicek's defence of his Wimbledon title ended in the fourth round, when Tim Henman defeated him in four sets.
In 1998, Krajicek was in the Wimbledon semifinals again, where he lost to Goran Ivanišević in a marathon match, 13–15 in the fifth set, with both players serving a combined 38 aces. His final attempt at winning a second Wimbledon title was in 2002, when he lost in the quarterfinals to Xavier Malisse. Krajicek beat world no. 5 Andre Agassi, world no. 1 Sampras and world no. 9 Yevgeny Kafelnikov on his way to the Stuttgart Masters title in November.
At the 1999 U.S. Open, Krajicek lost a quarterfinal matchup to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Despite the loss, Krajicek set several most aces records that day. In the 2000 U.S. Open, Krajicek met Sampras in the quarterfinals, winning the first set and being up 6–2 during the second-set tiebreaker, but then losing six straight points and going on to lose the match. In 2000, Krajicek was awarded the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award for his efforts to help youth in his home country. He was named ATP Comeback Player of the Year in 2002.
Krajicek retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won 17 singles titles and 3 doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was world no. 4 in 1999. Krajicek's Wimbledon victory over Sampras proved to be no fluke, since he ended his career with a 6–4 record against the American player.
Since retiring from the ATP circuit, Krajicek runs The Richard Krajicek Foundation, which builds sports facilities for children in inner-city areas in the Netherlands. In 2004, Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
In 2005, he published a book on tennis called Fast Balls.
Major finals
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1–0)
Masters Series finals
Singles: 6 (2–4)
Career finals
Singles: 26 (17–9)
Performance timelinesSinglesTop 10 wins |
Wally Masur
Jim Courier
Michael Stich
Carlos Costa
Paul Haarhuis
Thomas Muster
Daniel Vacek
Lionel Roux
Marc Rosset
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Greg Rusedski
Thomas Enqvist