Began playing tennis at age six with his older brother Maurice, who teaches tennis in his hometown of Rotterdam...Father, Fred, works as a caretaker at his former school; mother, Cisca, works part-time as a cleaning lady...Compiled outstanding junior results, winning World Youth Cup in 1996 and reaching doubles final at US Open in 1995 (w/Wessels)... Played soccer as a youngster and his favorite team is Feyenoord in Rotterdam... Enjoys listening to Lenny Kravitz and Pearl Jam...Plays and enjoys watching snooker (favorite player is Ronnie O'Sullivan)... Says, "I can watch snooker all day."...Has a 6-11 career Davis Cup record (6-10 in singles) in 12 ties since 2001... Selected to ATP Player Council for 2004-06 term...Coached by Hugo Ekker.
1998 -- Qualified and won his first ATP match over No. 50 Vacek in Moscow...In doubles, won first title at Belgrade Challenger (w/Zimonjic) and won another at Eckental Challenger (w/Cibulec)...
2000 -- Made Grand Slam debut at Australian Open and beat Gaudenzi 13-11 in fifth set before losing to Philippoussis...Reached first ATP final in Amsterdam (l. to Gustafsson)... Reached QF in Lyon (l. to eventual champion Clement)...
2001 -- Reached QF at 's-Hertogenbosch followed by 3rd RD at Wimbledon (d. Hrbaty, d. Woodbridge, l. to Clement) for best ever Grand Slam showing...Won clay court Challenger at Scheveningen (d. Mathieu)...
2002 -- Won four Challenger titles and went 27-9...In June, reached SF at Queen's (d. Dent, Mirnyi, l. to Henman)... Defeated No. 1 Hewitt en route to QF (l. to Srichaphan) at Stockholm...In doubles, reached first career ATP final in Tashkent (w/Verkerk)...
2003 -- Finished year-end best No. 60...Advanced to second career ATP final in native Rotterdam, defeating Verkerk, Nieminen, Ferrero (ret.) and Grosjean before losing to Mirnyi...Reached SF in 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to eventual champion Schalken)...Defeated Kafelnikov in five sets in 1st RD at Wimbledon (l. to Popp in five sets in 2nd RD)...Advanced to second final of season in Amersfoort (l. to Massu)...Helped Netherlands qualify for Davis Cup World Group with playoff singles victory over India's Prakash Amritraj...Went 1-1 in Davis Cup singles play...In doubles, reached finals at Delray Beach (w/Verkerk)...Earned a career-high $356,693...
2004 -- Reached QF in Auckland (l. to Novak)...Also QF in Rotterdam (d. Corretja, d. Schalken, l. to Ferrero)...Advanced to QF in 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Llodra)...Reached QF in Washington (l. to Ginepri)...
2005 -- Reached QF in Munich (l. to Pavel)...Won Challengers in Luebeck (d. Waske) and Prague (d. Thomann) while reaching two other finals...
2006 -- The No. 1 Dutchman finished just outside Top 100 of ATP Rankings for second straight year...Opened season reaching 2nd RD in Auckland (l. to Ferrer) and Australian Open (l. to Andreev)...Reached SF at Andrezieux Challenger (l. to Simon)...Ended streak of five straight 1st RD defeats by reaching 3rd RD at Roland Garros with wins over Nieminen and Lapentti (l. to Vassallo Arguello)...Also reached 2nd RD at US Open (l. to Haas)...Finalist at Kolding Challenger (l. to Llodra).
2009 IN REVIEW
Ranked at No. 866, the Dutchman became the lowest-ranked player to reach an ATP World Final when he reached the title match on home soil at ‘s-Hertogenbosch as a wild card…Lost to Benjamin Becker in straight sets in the final but improved ranking to No. 329…
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