Blaž Rola (born 5 October 1990) is a Slovenian

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 cov ...

player. His highest career ranking is No. 78 in singles and No. 186 in doubles. In his career, he has won nine singles and six doubles ITF Futures tournaments, five ATP Challenger in singles and eight in doubles. He represents Slovenia on the Slovenia Davis Cup team. In the 2013

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The ...

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and district governorates: Akdeniz, Mezitl ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, he won gold in singles and doubles.

Personal life

Rola was born in

Ptuj Ptuj (; german: Pettau, ; la, Poetovium/Poetovio) is a town in northeastern Slovenia that is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman ...

, the oldest Slovenian town, to father Marijan Rola and mother Majda Rola. He was four years old when he started playing tennis and when he was six he joined the Tennis Club Terme Ptuj where he spent the most of his youth. He went to High school in Ptuj. In 2010 he moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

where he studied at and competed in tennis for

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

until 2013. In January 2019 he and his fiancée Vanesa welcomed daughter Izabela. The same year he married his long term girlfriend, Slovenian blogger Vanesa Rola.

College career

He competed for

from 2010 to 2013, winning the NCAA doubles championship in 2012 and the NCAA singles championship in 2013.

Professional career

2008–2013

In 2008 he began his professional career when he performed his first tournaments in ITF Futures and

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

series. In 2010 he represented Slovenia for the first time in Davis Cup and moved to study and play tennis in United States. At 2013 Mediterranean Games he won 2 gold medals and made big progress when he reached Top 200 on ATP rankings for the first time in his career. In this period he won 9 Futures singles and 6 doubles titles and 1 title in doubles in Challenger series.

2014: Grand Slam and top 100 debut

Through qualifications he reached the main draw of Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the

2014 Australian Open The 2014 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 13 and 26 January 2014. It was the 102nd edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of even ...

. He lost in second round against

Martin Kližan Martin Kližan (; born 11 July 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. The winner of the 2006 French Open boys' singles title, Kližan turned pro in 2007 and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 24, achieved on 27 April 2 ...

. With this result he became the fifth Slovene male player to reach the main draw of any Grand Slam. In May he reached Top 100 in the ATP rankings and played in the qualifications for the 2014 French Open where her lost in the third round to James Ward. In June he played his first ATP 250 series tournament on grass. At the

2014 Aegon Championships The 2014 Aegon Championships (also known traditionally as the ''Queen's Club Championships'') was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 112th edition of those championships and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 se ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and the

2014 Aegon International The 2014 Aegon International was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 40th edition of the event for the women and the 6th edition for the men. It was classified as a WTA Premier tournament on ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...

he lost in the first round on both occasions. He played in the main draw of

2014 Wimbledon Championships The 2014 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 128th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held ...

for the first time in his career and lost 1–6, 1–6, 0–6 in the second round against

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray ...

2015: Career-high ranking

He reached a career-high ranking in singles of No. 78 on 5 January 2015.

2021: Fifth Challenger title

At the 2021 Zadar Open he won his seventh Challenger doubles title partnering his good friend

Blaž Kavčič Blaž Kavčič (born 5 March 1987) is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. He was the highest ranked Slovenian male player ever, achieving a career-high of World No. 68 in August 2012, until Aljaž Bedene began to play for Slovenia a ...

. At the 2021 Split Open he defeated Kavčič to win his fifth Challenger singles title.

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 27 (14–13)

Doubles: 22 (14–8)

Singles performance timeline

:''* ''

Record against other players

Rola's match record against those who have been ranked in the top 10. Players who have been No. 1 are in boldface *

Nicolas Almagro Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

0–1 *

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...

0–1 *

Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009. His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...

0–1 :''* .''

Davis Cup

* indicates the outcome of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rola, Blaz 1990 births Living people Ohio State Buckeyes men's tennis players Slovenian expatriates in the United States Slovenian male tennis players People from Ptuj Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Slovenia Competitors at the 2013 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in tennis