Andrew Ilie (born 18 April 1976) is a former

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

. Ilie fled Romania at age 10 with his family, spending a year at a refugee camp in Austria before emigrating to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He turned professional in 1994 and became a citizen of Australia. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder. He won two

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

singles titles (

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in 1998 and

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in 2000), as well as five Challenger Series tournaments. Ilie reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 38 on 29 May 2000.

Career

Juniors

He reached the finals of the Australian Open Jrs in 1994.

Pro Tour

Ilie never progressed past the fourth round of a

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament, but was a fan-favorite, especially in Australia. Described in 2001 by tennis writer Jon Wertheim as "an emerging cult hero", Ilie developed an avid following whenever he played at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. He became well known for adventurous and occasionally outrageous shots, and by ripping his shirt in glee whenever he won a particularly important or hard-fought match. The latter ritual began at the French Open in 1999, as Ilie celebrated his first-round victory in five sets over Jonas Bjorkman, and then repeated the gesture after his second-round victory, also in five sets, over Martin Rodriguez. The last years of Ilie's career were marred by persistent injuries, including chronic

osteitis pubis Osteitis pubis is a noninfectious inflammation of the pubis symphysis (also known as the pubic symphysis, symphysis pubis, or symphysis pubica), causing varying degrees of lower abdominal and pelvic pain. Osteitis pubis was first described in pa ...

, which hampered his play. Ilie retired in November 2004. Following retirement, Ilie married and settled in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP career finals

Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 8 (6–2)

Doubles: 2 (0–2)

Performance timeline

Singles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilie, Andrew Australian expatriates in Hong Kong Australian male tennis players Australian people of Romanian descent Naturalised citizens of Australia Naturalised tennis players Olympic tennis players of Australia Tennis players from Bucharest Romanian emigrants to Australia Romanian refugees Tennis players from Melbourne Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Living people 1976 births People educated at Mentone Grammar School Australian Institute of Sport tennis players