Petr Korda

Petr Korda

Country	Czechoslovakia (1987–1993)  Czech Republic
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born	(1968-01-23) 23 January 1968 (age 45) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	73 kg (160 lb; 11.5 st)
Turned pro	1987
Retired	July 1999[1]
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$10,448,900
Singles
Career record	410–248
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 2 (2 February 1998)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1998)
French Open	F (1992)
Wimbledon	QF (1998)
US Open	QF (1995, 1997)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (1992)
Doubles
Career record	234–160
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 10 (11 June 1990)
Last updated on: October 9, 2012.

Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. As of 2013, Korda is the last man from the Czech Republic to win a Grand Slam singles title, having won the Australian Open in 1998.^[2]

Career [edit]

Juniors [edit]

He first came to the tennis world's attention as a promising junior player. In 1985, he partnered with fellow Czech Cyril Suk to win the boy's doubles title at the French Open. Korda and Suk ranked the joint-World No. 1 junior doubles players that year.

Junior Slam results:

Australian Open: -
French Open: 3R (1986)
Wimbledon: QF (1986)
US Open: QF (1986)

Pro tour [edit]

Korda turned professional in 1987. He won his first career doubles title in 1988, and his first top-level singles title in 1991. Korda was involved in four Grand Slam finals during his career — two in singles and two in doubles.

In 1990 Korda and Goran Ivanišević finished runners-up in the men's doubles at the French Open. In 1992, he rose to the men's singles final at the French Open, where he was defeated in straight sets by defending champion Jim Courier 7–5, 6–2, 6–1. In 1996, he teamed-up with Stefan Edberg to win the men's doubles title at the Australian Open.

The crowning moment of Korda's career came in 1998, when he faced Marcelo Ríos in the men's singles final at the Australian Open. Korda dominated the match from start to finish by winning in straight sets 6–2, 6–2, 6–2 and claimed his first (and only) Grand Slam singles title. The win propelled him to his career-high singles ranking of World No. 2. At four tournaments in 1998, Korda had the World No. 1 ranking in his sights, but he lost to Karol Kučera in Antwerp, Marcelo Ríos at Indian Wells, Tim Henman in Miami and Richard Krajicek in Monte Carlo. Korda's career-high doubles ranking was World No. 10.

Other highlights of Korda's career include winning the Grand Slam Cup in 1993, with five set wins in the semi final and final over Pete Sampras and Michael Stich, the number 1 and 2 tennis players in the world at that time. Korda was also a part of the Czech Republic's team which won the Hopman Cup in 1994, and upset defending champion Pete Sampras in five sets in the fourth round of the 1997 US Open.

Korda married Regina Rajchrtová, a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia. The oldest of their three children, Jessica, was born on 27 February 1993. Jessica is a professional golfer, and finished 19th in the 2008 U.S. Women's Open as a 15-year-old, with Korda as her caddy.^[3][4] Jessica later finished as runner-up in the 2010 U.S. Women's Amateur, and then went through the LPGA Tour's qualifying school and earned a tour card for 2011. Jessica won the Women's Australian Open in Melbourne in February 2012 following a 6-way playoff.

Korda also was known for the "Scissors Kick" which he would do at midcourt after winning matches.

Suspension and Retirement [edit]

Following his quarter final match against Tim Henman at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships, Korda tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.^[5] This was publically revealed in December 1998. At the time, Korda was stripped of the ranking points and prize money that he had won at 1998 Wimbledon, but was not banned from the sport. The ITF soon announced that they felt that they had made a mistake in not banning Korda, and would be seeking to appeal against its own decision not to ban Korda from tennis competition. London's High Court ruled in late January 1999 that the ITF could not appeal against their own initial decision, but Korda was later banned from tennis for 12 months from September 1999 and stripped of the prize money and ranking points that he had won since July 1998 (although the suspension meant little as Korda had retired after failing to qualify for 1999 Wimbledon, losing to Danny Sapsford in a qualifying match).^[1][6] He did, however, compete in the Prague Challenger in December 2000 and the Prostejov Challenger in both 2001 and 2005 (the former in singles and doubles, the latter two only in doubles).

Major finals [edit]

Grand Slam finals [edit]

Singles: 2 finals (1 title, 1 runner-up) [edit]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1992	French Open	Clay	Jim Courier	5–7, 2–6, 1–6
Winner	1998	Australian Open	Hard	Marcelo Ríos	6–2, 6–2, 6–2

Men's doubles: 2 finals (1 title, 1 runner-up) [edit]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1990	French Open	Clay	Goran Ivanišević	Sergio Casal Emilio Sánchez Vicario	5–7, 3–6
Winner	1996	Australian Open	Hard	Stefan Edberg	Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien	7–5, 7–5, 4–6, 6–1

Career finals [edit]

Singles: 27 finals (10 titles, 17 runner-ups) [edit]

Wins (10) [edit]

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	30 October 1989	Frankfurt, Germany	Carpet	Kevin Curren	2–6, 5–7
Runner-up	2.	6 May 1991	Tampa, USA	Clay	Richey Reneberg	6–4, 4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	3.	22 July 1991	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Andre Agassi	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	29 July 1991	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Andrei Chesnokov	6–3, 4–6, 3–6
Winner	1.	19 August 1991	New Haven, USA	Hard	Goran Ivanišević	6–4, 6–2
Winner	2.	14 October 1991	Berlin, Germany	Carpet	Arnaud Boetsch	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	4 May 1992	Munich, Germany	Clay	Magnus Larsson	4–6, 6–4, 1–6
Runner-up	6.	8 June 1992	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Jim Courier	5–7, 2–6, 1–6
Winner	3.	20 July 1992	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Henrik Holm	6–4, 6–4
Winner	4.	31 August 1992	Long Island, USA	Hard	Ivan Lendl	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	7.	5 October 1992	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Boris Becker	6–3, 3–6, 2–6, 4–6
Runner-up	8.	12 October 1992	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Guy Forget	3–6, 2–6
Winner	5.	26 October 1992	Vienna, Austria	Carpet	Gianluca Pozzi	6–3, 6–2, 5–7, 6–1
Runner-up	9.	23 August 1993	New Haven, USA	Hard	Andrei Medvedev	5–7, 4–6
Runner-up	10.	11 October 1993	Sydney, Australia	Hard (i)	Jaime Yzaga	4–6, 6–4, 6–7(4–7), 6–7(7–9)
Winner	6.	13 December 1993	Grand Slam Cup, Munich, Germany	Carpet	Michael Stich	2–6, 6–4, 7–6(7–5), 2–6, 11–9
Runner-up	11.	14 February 1994	Milan, Italy	Carpet	Boris Becker	2–6, 6–3, 3–6
Runner-up	12.	7 March 1994	Indian Wells, USA	Hard	Pete Sampras	6–4, 3–6, 6–3, 3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	13.	2 May 1994	Munich, Germany	Clay	Michael Stich	2–6, 6–2, 3–6
Winner	7.	8 January 1996	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Younes El Aynaoui	7–6(7–5), 2–6, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	14.	22 July 1996	Ostrava, Czech Republic	Carpet	David Prinosil	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	15.	16 June 1997	Halle, Germany	Grass	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–5), 6–7(7–9)
Runner-up	16.	21 July 1997	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Michael Chang	7–5, 2–6, 1–6
Winner	8.	27 October 1997	Stuttgart, Germany	Carpet	Richard Krajicek	7–6(8–6), 6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	17.	10 November 1997	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–7(2–7), 4–6
Winner	9.	12 January 1998	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	6–0, 6–3
Winner	10.	2 February 1998	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Marcelo Ríos	6–2, 6–2, 6–2

Doubles: 24 finals (10 titles, 14 runner-ups) [edit]

Wins (10) [edit]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	1988	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Milan Šrejber	Andrés Gómez Emilio Sánchez	7–6, 7–6
2.	1988	Prague, Czechoslovakia	Clay	Jaroslav Navrátil	Thomas Muster Horst Skoff	7–5, 7–6
3.	1989	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Tomáš Šmíd	Florin Segărceanu Cyril Suk	6–7, 6–3, 6–1
4.	1990	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Tomáš Šmíd	Andrés Gómez Javier Sánchez	6–2, 6–1
5.	1991	New Haven, USA	Hard	Wally Masur	Jeff Brown Scott Melville	W/O
6.	1991	Berlin, Germany	Carpet	Karel Nováček	Jan Siemerink Daniel Vacek	3–6, 7–5, 7–5
7.	1993	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Stefan Edberg	Paul Haarhuis Mark Koevermans	6–2, 2–6, 7–5
8.	1993	Halle, Germany	Grass	Cyril Suk	Mike Bauer Marc-Kevin Goellner	7–6, 5–7, 6–3
9.	1993	Cincinnati, USA	Hard	Andre Agassi	Stefan Edberg Henrik Holm	6–4, 7–6
10.	1996	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Stefan Edberg	Sébastien Lareau Alex O'Brien	7–5, 7–5, 4–6, 6–1

Runner-ups (14) [edit]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	1987	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Tomáš Šmíd	Leonardo Lavalle Claudio Panatta	6–3, 4–6, 4–6
2.	1989	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Milan Šrejber	Cassio Motta Todd Witsken	4–6, 3–6
3.	1989	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Tomáš Šmíd	Emilio Sánchez Javier Sánchez	5–7, 6–7
4.	1989	Prague, Czechoslovakia	Clay	Gene Mayer	Jordi Arrese Horst Skoff	4–6, 4–6
5.	1990	Munich, Germany	Clay	Tomáš Šmíd	Udo Riglewski Michael Stich	1–6, 4–6
6.	1990	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Goran Ivanišević	Sergio Casal Emilio Sánchez	5–7, 3–6
7.	1990	New Haven, USA	Hard	Goran Ivanišević	Jeff Brown Scott Melville	6–2, 5–7, 0–6
8.	1991	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	John McEnroe	Jakob Hlasek Patrick McEnroe	6–3, 6–7, 6–7
9.	1992	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Karel Nováček	Boris Becker Michael Stich	4–6, 4–6
10.	1992	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Cyril Suk	Hendrik Jan Davids Libor Pimek	W/O
11.	1994	Munich, Germany	Clay	Boris Becker	Yevgeny Kafelnikov David Rikl	6–7, 5–7
12.	1995	Milan, Italy	Carpet	Karel Nováček	Boris Becker Guy Forget	2–6, 4–6
13.	1995	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Cyril Suk	Olivier Delaître Jeff Tarango	6–1, 3–6, 2–6
14.	1996	Indianapolis, USA	Hard	Cyril Suk	Jim Grabb Richey Reneberg	6–7, 6–4, 4–6

Singles performance timeline [edit]

Doubles performance timeline [edit]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Petr Korda at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Petr Korda at the International Tennis Federation
• Sunday Times article 30 August, 2009

Preceded by John McEnroe

ATP Champions Tour Year-End No.1 2002

Succeeded by John McEnroe