Filip Polášek
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Filip Polášek (; born 21 July 1985) is an inactive Slovak professional
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player who specialises in doubles. He reached his highest doubles ranking of world No. 7 in February 2020, and has won 17 titles on the
ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
. He was forced to retire in 2013 due to health issues, but returned in 2018 and began the most successful phase of his career. Polášek won his first Grand Slam title at the 2021 Australian Open alongside Ivan Dodig, and also won the 2019 Cincinnati Masters and 2021 Indian Wells Masters, with Dodig and
John Peers John William Peers (born 25 July 1988) is an Australian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He reached a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 2 on 3 April 2017, and a singles ranking of No. 456 in June 2012. He has ...
respectively. Polášek was the first Slovak man to reach, or win a major doubles final. He also reached the semifinals at the
2019 Wimbledon Championships The 2019 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 1 July 2019 and fi ...
, 2020 Australian Open and 2021 US Open. He qualified for the ATP Finals in both
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
and
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
. Polášek has represented Slovakia in the
Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
since 2008, and also competed at the
2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
partnering Lukáš Klein.


Career


2008: First ATP titles

Polášek reached his first ATP final at the 2008 Valencia Open with partner Travis Parrott, they fell to
Máximo González Máximo González Mereira (; born July 20, 1983) is an Argentine professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 58, achieved in July 2009 and his career-high doubles ranking is World No. 10 achieved on 11 September 2023 ...
and Juan Mónaco in two tight sets 5–7, 5–7. Later that year at the Swiss Open Gsaad he won his first title with partner
Jaroslav Levinský Jaroslav Levinský (born 11 February 1981) is a former Czech professional doubles tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between ...
in three sets. In October Polášek won his second title of the year at the St. Petersburg Open with Travis Parrott.


2013: Retirement due to injury

In 2013 Polášek reached three ATP finals with partner Julian Knowle, winning the later two the Zagreb Indoors and the
Grand Prix Hassan II The Grand Prix Hassan II is an annual men's tennis tournament on the ATP Tour and is currently part of the ATP Tour 250 series. The event is played on clay courts and was held annually at the Complexe Al Amal in Casablanca, Morocco through 2015 ...
. In November 2013 Polášek retired from professional tennis at the age of 28 due to nerve issues and loose discs in his back.


2018: Return to tennis

Several years after retirement and allowing his body to heal through less strenuous activities such as coaching tennis and ski touring, Polášek hit with
Mike Bryan Michael Carl Bryan (born April 29, 1978) is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all time, Bryan was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles for a record 506 weeks ...
and started playing some club matches again, and the pain of his previous injuries didn't seem to be reoccurring. He asked to take some time off from the coaching academy he taught at and started playing some futures and then challengers. By the end of September 2019 Polášek's doubles ranking had risen to within the top 200 for the first time in five years.


2019: First Masters 1000 title and Grand Slam semifinal

Polášek claimed his first ATP title in 6 years in Kizbühel, partnering with Philipp Oswald. At Wimbledon he reached his first Grand Slam semifinal partnering with Ivan Dodig in just their second tournament together. They then went on to capture their first Masters 1000 title as a team, and Polášek's first career masters title at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati defeating Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the final 4–6, 6–4, 10–6. Polášek and Dodig then went on to take their second title as a team defeating defending champions Lukasz Kubot and
Marcelo Melo Marcelo Pinheiro Davi de Melo (; born September 23, 1983) is a Brazilian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1, which he achieved in 2 November 2015. ...
to take the China Open title in Beijing.


2020: Second Grand Slam semifinal, World No. 7 in doubles

Dodig and Polášek began their 2020 season at the Adelaide International, where they reached the final, losing to Maximo Gonzalez and
Fabrice Martin Fabrice Martin (; born 11 September 1986) is a French tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each ...
. They then reached the semifinals of the 2020 Australian Open before being defeated by
Max Purcell Max Purcell (born 3 April 1998) is an Australian professional tennis player. He has reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 40 on 16 October 2023 and a doubles ranking of No. 8 on 9 September 2024. In doubles, he won his first Gran ...
and
Luke Saville Luke Saville (born 1 February 1994) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He has had success as a doubles player where he reached his highest ranking of World No. 23 on 8 November 2021. Saville reached the final at the 2020 Austra ...
. As a result, he reached a new career-high doubles ranking of World No. 7 on 3 February 2020. After this the
ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
was suspended due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. On the tour's resumption in August at the Cincinnati Masters in New York and at the US Open they fell in the first round.


2021: Historic and first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open

Polášek and his partner Dodig reached the final of their first tournament in 2021 at the Antalya Open, where they lost to Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic. After two weeks quarantine in Australia, they reached the semifinals of the Great Ocean Road Open, where they lost out to
Jamie Murray Jamie Robert Murray (born 13 February 1986) is a British professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is a seven-time Grand Slam (tennis), major doubles champion (five in mixed doubles and two in men's doubles), a Davis Cup winne ...
and Bruno Soares. Continuing to partner with Dodig, Polášek won his first Grand Slam tournament at the
Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
defeating Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in the final. With the title he became the first Slovak male Grand Slam champion. As a result, he returned to the top 10 on 22 February 2021.


Significant finals


Grand Slam tournament finals


Doubles: 1 (1 title)


Masters 1000 finals


Doubles: 2 (2 titles)


ATP career finals


Doubles: 35 (17 titles, 18 runners-up)


Challenger and Futures finals


Singles: 3 (1–2)


Doubles: 54 (33–21)


Doubles performance timeline

''Current through the 2022 Davis Cup.''


References


External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Polasek, Filip Slovak male tennis players 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Zvolen Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for Slovakia 21st-century Slovak sportsmen