Johan Van Herck (born 24 May 1974) is a Belgian

tennis 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 ...

coach and former professional player. Van Herck first broke into the top 100 of the

ATP rankings The Pepperstone ATP rankings are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all singles and doubles tournaments. The first rankings ...

in 1996, when he made semi-finals at the

Copenhagen Open The Copenhagen Open was a men's tennis tournament on the World Championship Tennis (WCT) circuit and ATP Tour held in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was first held in February 1973 as part of the WCT tour and featured renowned players such as Ken Rosewal ...

and Italy's

Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia The Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia (''International Championships of Sicily''), also known as the Palermo Open, was a men's professional tennis tournament held annually at the Circolo Tennis Palermo in Palermo in Italy. Held from 1935 until 2 ...

. In the later he upset top seed

Félix Mantilla Botella Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

in the second round. In both 1997 and 1998, Van Herck was a semi-finalist at the Coral Springs International Tennis Championships. He had his best

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 ...

performance at the

1998 French Open The 1998 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 25 May until 7 June. It was the 102nd staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...

, where in the opening round he defeated world number four

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...

in straight sets. He then beat Spanish qualifier Jordi Mas to reach the third round, but was then eliminated by another qualifier,

Jens Knippschild Jens Knippschild (born 15 February 1975) is a former tennis player from Germany, who turned professional in 1992. In his career, he won two doubles titles (2001, Båstad and 2002, Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital ...

, despite winning the opening two sets, from which he dropped just two games. Van Herck defeated another top player in the 1999 Grand Prix Hassan II, held in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

, overcoming number one seed

Thomas Muster Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967) is an Austrian former world No. 1 tennis player. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, he won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was called "The King of Clay". In addition, he won eig ...

. He represented the Belgium Davis Cup team in nine ties during his career and had a combined 7-5 win loss record, all of his victories coming in singles rubbers. His biggest wins came against Russian

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis p ...

in 1995, Swede

Thomas Enqvist Thomas Karl Johan Enqvist (born 13 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached the final of the 1999 Australian Open – Men's singles, 1999 Australian Open and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three ATP Tou ...

in 1996 and Frenchman

Cédric Pioline Cédric Pioline (born 15 June 1969) is a French former professional tennis player who played on the professional tour from 1989 to 2002. He reached the men's singles final at the 1993 US Open and at Wimbledon in 1997. On both occasions, he was ...

in 1997. Since 2011 he has been the captain of the Belgian Davis Cup team. During his tenure, the team reached the final of the Davis Cup twice. Since 2019 he has been the captain of the Belgian Fed Cup team as well.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 13 (8–5)

Performance timeline

Singles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Herck, Johan 1974 births Living people Belgian male tennis players People from Herentals Sportspeople from Antwerp Province