Greg_Rusedski

Greg Rusedski

Gregory "Greg" Rusedski (born September 6, 1973, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a former Canadian-British tennis player who turned professional in 1991, and played until his retirement on April 7, 2007, at the age of 33.

Rusedski was born in Canada to a British mother and a German-born father of Polish-Ukrainian descent. He was a very promising junior player in Canada in the 1980s and subsequently caused some anger in Canada when he decided to adopt British citizenship and play for Britain in 1995. Rusedski has been with partner Lucy Connor for 15 years; they married in a Roman Catholic ceremony at Douai Abbey in England in 1999. Together they have a daughter, Scarlett Mary, born January 27, 2006.

Rusedski's highest ranking on the ATP was World Number 4.

Career

Rusedski's first career singles tournament title was at the Hall of Fame Championship in Newport, Rhode Island in 1993.

Rusedski reached the singles final of the U.S. Open in 1997, where he lost to Pat Rafter in four sets, (shortly thereafter reaching his career high rank of World No. 4). He also won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Throughout the very successful 1997/8 period he was coached by Tony Pickard.

In 1998, Tim Henman eclipsed Rusedski as Britain's number one tennis player. Rusedski, however, won the Grand Slam Cup in 1999.

Rusedski was defeated in the second round of Wimbledon in 2005 by Joachim Johansson of Sweden 7–6(10), 3–6, 6–4, 7–6(5). Following that disappointment, Rusedski had a successful July. He successfully defended his title at the Hall of Fame Championship, defeating Vince Spadea in the final. This was the first time he had successfully defended a title and the third time he had won the championship. He then reached the semifinals at both the RCA Championships in Indianapolis, losing to Taylor Dent, and the Canada Masters tournament in Montreal, losing to Andre Agassi.

Towards the end of 2005, Rusedski's ranking had risen to the high thirties. A poor end to the year by Henman almost allowed Rusedski to overtake him as British number one again. But a defeat for Rusedski in the first round of the Challenger Event in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, left him ranked 38th, just one place short of regaining the British top spot. Rusedski finally reclaimed the British number one spot on May 15, 2006, overtaking Andy Murray by getting to the third round of the Rome Masters Event. But Rusedski lost the top British ranking after a first round exit at Wimbledon.

On April 7, 2007, Rusedski officially retired from tennis after partnering Jamie Murray to a doubles victory over the Netherlands in a Davis Cup match, a result which gave Great Britain a winning 3–0 lead in the tie. He announced his retirement immediately after the win, during a live interview with Sue Barker on BBC Television. Rusdeski plans to stay involved with professional tennis in his retirement, and has expressed an interest in working with the Davis Cup team and British junior players. Rusedski held the record for fastest serve at 149 miles per hour until Andy Roddick broke it.

Rusedski vs. Henman

Rusedski won more singles titles than compatriot Tim Henman, with 15 singles titles compared to Henman's 11. Neither Rusedski nor Henman ever reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Henman reached the semifinals of the French Open while Rusedski never made it past the fourth round at that tournament. Rusedski reached the final of the US Open while Henman never made it past the semifinals.

Rusedski has often been overshadowed in the press by the more popular Henman, especially at Wimbledon.

Controversies

Rusedski's career has featured some controversies. His temper has got him into trouble on several occasions. For example, at the 1999 U.S. Open, Rusedski's temper caused him to squander a lead against Todd Martin and lose the fourth round match; notable about that match was Rusedski losing 14-plus consecutive points during the fifth set. Rusedski had made derogatory comments about Henman after a loss to his fellow Briton during the 2002 season. In the 2002 U.S. Open of that year, after being dispatched by Pete Sampras in the fourth round after a gruelling 5-set match, Rusedski made unsportsmanlike comments, calling Sampras "a half-step slow", and predicted that Sampras would lose his quarterfinal to young German star Tommy Haas. Sampras however went on to win the tournament. In the 2003 Wimbledon tournament, Rusedski swore at the umpire in the second round after not being allowed to replay a point after fan interference, losing his temper and ultimately losing the match to Andy Roddick, 7–6, 7–6, 7–5.

Greg Rusedski was plagued by injuries in the last few seasons of his career. He also tested positive for nandrolone in January 2004, but was cleared of the charges in a hearing on March 10, 2004.

Grand Slam singles finals

Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1997	U.S. Open	Patrick Rafter	6–3, 6–2, 4–6, 7–5

Masters Series singles finals

Win (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1998	Paris	Pete Sampras	6–3, 7–6, 6–4

Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1998	Indian Wells	Marcelo Ríos	6–3, 6–7(15), 7–6(4), 6–4

ATP Tour titles (18)

Singles (15)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 1993	Newport, U.S.	Grass	Javier Frana	7–5, 6–7, 7–6
2.	April 1995	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Lars Rehmann	6–4, 3–1
3.	Oct 1996	Beijing, China	Hard	Martin Damm	7–6, 6–4
4.	June 1997	Nottingham, Great Britain	Grass	Karol Kučera	6–4, 7–5
5.	Oct 1997	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet	Mark Philippoussis	6–3, 7–6, 7–6
6.	Feb 1998	Antwerp, Belgium	Hard	Marc Rosset	7–6, 3–6, 6–1, 6–4
7.	Oct 1998	Paris, France	Carpet (I)	Pete Sampras	6–4, 7–6, 6–3
8.	Sep 1999	Grand Slam Cup, Germany	Carpet	Tommy Haas	6–3, 6–4, 6–7, 7–6
9.	Oct 1999	Vienna, Austria	Carpet	Nicolas Kiefer	6–7, 2–6, 6–3, 7–5, 6–4
10.	Feb 2001	San José, USA	Hard	Andre Agassi	6–3, 6–4
11.	Jan 2002	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Jérôme Golmard	6–7, 6–4, 7–5
12.	Aug 2002	Indianapolis, USA	Hard	Félix Mantilla	6–7, 6–4, 6–4
13.	June 2003	Nottingham, Great Britain	Grass	Mardy Fish	6–3, 6–2
14	July 2004	Newport, USA	Grass	Alexander Popp	7–6, 7–6
15.	July 2005	Newport, USA	Grass	Vincent Spadea	7–6, 2–6, 6–4

Doubles (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	1996	Bournemouth, Great Britain	Hard	Marc-Kevin Goellner	Rodolphe Gilbert and Nuno Marques	6–3 7–6
2.	1999	London, Great Britain	Carpet	Tim Henman	Byron Black and Wayne Ferreira	6–3 7–6

ATP Tour runner-ups (14)

Singles (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	25 October, 1993	Beijing, China	Carpet	Michael Chang	7–6, 6–7, 6–4
2.	22 May, 1995	Coral Springs, U.S.	Clay	Todd Woodbridge	6–4, 6–2
3.	3 February, 1997	Zagreb, Croatia	Carpet	Goran Ivanišević	7–6, 4–6, 7–6
4.	17 February, 1997	San Jose, U.S.	Hard (i)	Pete Sampras	3–6, 5–0, ret.
5.	8 September, 1997	U.S. Open, New York	Hard	Patrick Rafter	6–3, 6–2, 4–6, 7–5
6.	13 October, 1997	Vienna, Austria	Carpet	Goran Ivanišević	3–6, 6–7, 7–6, 6–2, 6–3
7.	9 February, 1998	Split, Croatia	Carpet	Goran Ivanišević	7–6, 7–6
8.	16 March, 1998	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Marcelo Ríos	6–3, 6–7, 7–6, 6–4
9.	5 October, 1998	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Jan Siemerink	6–4, 6–4
10.	1 March, 1999	London, England	Carpet	Richard Krajicek	7–6, 6–7, 7–5
11.	30 August, 1999	Boston, U.S.	Hard	Marat Safin	6–4, 7–6
12.	18 October, 2004	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Nikolay Davydenko	3–6, 6–3, 7–5

Doubles (2)

1994 Vienna with Alex Antonisch, lost to Mike Bauer, U.S. and David Rikl, Czech Republic
1995 Copenhagen with Guillaume Raoux, lost to Mark Keil, U.S. and Peter Nyborg, Sweden

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997	1996	1995	1994	1993
Australian Open	-	2R	1R	-	3R	4R	-	2R	3R	1R	1R	3R	1R	-
French Open	1R	1R	-	1R	-	2R	1R	4R	1R	1R	2R	-	3R	-
Wimbledon	1R	2R	2R	2R	4R	4R	1R	4R	1R	QF	2R	4R	2R	1R
US Open	1R	1R	1R	1R	3R	3R	2R	4R	3R	F	1R	1R	1R	-

Media career

Rusedski has written a column for tabloid newspaper The Sun. He has also worked for the television channel British Eurosport, providing analysis during the station's coverage of the Australian Open in 2003 and 2007 and of the 2007 French Open. During the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, Rusedski was both a commentator and an analyst for the BBC. He also has done some acting, appearing in an episode of Miss Marple as a tennis star. In 2008, he has appeared as a contestant on the reality TV shows Dancing On Ice and Beat the Star. Sky Sports contracted him to provide analysis for the 2008 US Open alongside former British tennis player Annabel Croft.