Philipp Petzschner

Began playing at age four or five with his father who had his own tennis school and one day handed him a racquet (at 12 or 13 he practiced more and turned pro at 18... Nicknamed "Petzsche"...Comes from Bavarian city of Bayreuth, same as countryman Florian Mayer...Captured German national championship in 2004 (d. Behrend in final)...Idols growing up were Goran Ivanisevic "because I enjoyed his craziness and you never knew what was going to happen on court" and Stefan Edberg "because of the way he played; he was so smooth and great to watch"...Considers hard courts his best surface, especially indoors, and best shots are his serve and forehand from baseline... Enjoys playing golf and has a 14 handicap along with playing soccer...Sidelined for two and-half months with a shoulder injury from April-June in 2007...Coached by countryman and former ATP pro Lars Uebel.

2001 -- Reached Futures event final in Switzerland (l. to Bohli);

2002 -- Reached QF in two Futures events, SF in another and closed season with title at Czech Republic #10 Futures (d. Scherrer)...In doubles, reached final at Eckental Challenger (w/Stadler)...

2003 -- Followed up success of Futures win at end of '02 by reaching SF at German Futures #1 event to start year; Received wild card into Stuttgart and lost in 1st RD to Nadal...Qualified and reached first ATP QF in Metz with wins over Dupuis and Ascione (ret. vs. Clement)...In doubles, reached two Challenger finals...

2004 -- Reached final at Portugal #1 Futures (l. to Garcia-Lopez) and SF at Dubai #1 Futures; Qualified for lone ATP tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch (d. A. Popp, l. to Sluiter)...Also QF at Eckental Challenger...In doubles, won three Futures and two German Challenger titles (w/Kas)...

2005 -- Opened season by reaching three straight SF in German Futures events and then advanced to SF at Heilbronn Challenger; Fell in his first ATP Masters Series match in Hamburg to Rusedski in three sets; In doubles, won four Challenger titles and reached five other finals...

2006 -- Reached three Futures finals, winning title at Dubai #1, and reaching final at Germany #5 and Dubai #2; Advanced to first Challenger final at Eckental (l. to Gulbis) to close out season; In doubles, won three of five Challenger finals...

2007 -- Finished in Top 200 for first time at No. 184...Reached final at Oberstaufen Challenger (l. to Trujillo-Soler) in July and captured first Challenger title in Rennes (d. Muller) in October...Qualified for first Grand Slam tournament at US Open and rallied from two sets down beat No. 50 Benjamin Becker before falling to countryman and No. 10 Tommy Haas in four sets in 2nd RD...Made Davis Cup debut in SF vs. Russia and lost to No. 17 Youzhny in four sets in fourth rubber...In doubles, won four-set match over Tursunov-Youzhny (w/Waske)...Also won four of six Challenger finals during year.

2008

The German compiled a career-best season by winning his maiden ATP title and finishing in Top 100 for first time...One of two Germans (Kohlschreiber) to win an ATP title during year...Breakthrough came in October when he qualified in Vienna and posted his first Top 10 win over Wawrinka in opening round and continued with victories over Hernych, Moya, Lopez and Monfils...Became third qualifier to win an ATP title during season and afterwards climbed from No. 125 to No. 72, his first Top 100 appearance...Two weeks prior, reached QF in Bangkok (l. to Monfils)...Earlier in season, reached Challenger finals in Heilbronn (ret. vs. Golubev) and Belgrade (l. to Karanusic)...Made his Wimbledon debut as a qualifier and reached 2nd RD (d. Lee, l. to Ancic)...In doubles, reached first ATP final in Vienna (w/Peya) and advanced to QF at Wimbledon (w/Peya) and US Open (w/Kas)... Finished a year-end best No. 41 in doubles and earned a career-high $470,036.