Grega Zemlja

Started playing tennis aged seven when his parents build an artificial grass tennis court in front of his house…Nicknamed “Gregc” and “Zemlak”...Father, Franc, is a former ski jumper; mother Darinka works in advertising for a local newspaper...Has a younger sister, Tjasa, who is finishing her university degree…Speaks four languages: Slovenian, English, German and Serbo-Croatian…Skiing was his main sport until the age of 10 when he decided to focus on tennis…He now enjoys skiing as a hobby and would be a skier if he wasn’t a tennis player…Idols growing up were Pete Sampras and Roger Federer…Favourite surface is grass and considers his backhand his best shot…Favourite tournaments are Wimbledon and Australian Open…Made Davis Cup debut for Slovenia in 2007...He practices in Kranj and travels to Vienna (Austria) during his off season to practice at the Berger-Eschauer Academy…Physical trainer is Anton Erlah.

2012 -- The top Slovenian put together his best season by reaching 1st ATP World Tour final and finishing a year-end best No.55, his 1st Top 100 ranking...Also compiled a 23-10 match record in Challengers, winning 3 titles – Nottingham-2 (d. K. Beck) in June, An-Ning (d. Bedene) in July and Beijing (d. Wu) in August...In Grand Slam play, reached 2R at Wimbledon (d. Goodall, l. to Verdasco) and personal-best 3R at US Open as a qualifier (d. Melo, Stebe, l. to No. 9 Tipsarevic)...In October, qualified in Vienna and defeated 3 seeds en route to final - No. 8 Malisse, No. 3 Haas in QF (1st Top 20 victory) and No. 2 seed/No. 9-ranked Tipsarevic in SF (1st Top 10 win) (l. to No. 8 del Potro). Afterwards climbed from No. 70 to No. 50 on Oct. 22...Compiled records of 10-6 on hard and 1-2 on grass (7-2 in TB sets). Went 1-3 against Top 10 players and earned a career-high $261,990...

2011 -- Qualified for ATP main draws 3 times in 11 attempts. Claimed Challenger title at Caloundra and reached final at Rijeka, Ljubljana and Salzburg...

2010 -- Earned 1st match win in an ATP-level main draw at Roland Garros as a qualifier (d. Monaco, l. to Gabashvili). Also qualified and reached 2R in Washington and Vienna. Finalist at Honolulu Challenger and reached 2 other SF...

2009 -- Appeared in 1st ATP-level main draw as qualifier at Wimbledon (l. to Montañes). Was finalist at Challengers in Burnie, Ljubljana and Cancun...

2008 -- Earned 1st career Challenger title at Cancun. Also reached final at Recanati. Won 3 Futures titles in 4 finals...

2007 -- Reached 3 QF at Challengers. Claimed 1 Futures title and reached 1 other final...

2006 -- Reached 3 Futures finals, winning 1 title...

2005 -- Won 3 Futures titles in 5 finals...

2004 -- Was 21-16 in Futures with 1 title...

2013

On 8 January, at Auckland, retired at 46 13 versus Falla due to a virus in 1R…Fell in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami 3R (l. to Simon)…