Jiří Novák (; born 22 March 1975) is a Czech former 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. He was born in

Zlín Zlín (in 1949–1989 Gottwaldov; ; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 75,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Zlín Region and it lies on the Dřevnice River. It is known as an industrial centre. The development of the modern city ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

but resides nowadays in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

Career

Novák turned professional in 1993 and won seven singles and 18 doubles titles during his career, winning $7,614,063 in prize money. For six years, he was the highest-ranked male Czech tennis player in the ATP rankings. On October 21, 2002, Novák reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 5. He retired in 2007. Novák was the first player to face

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

at Wimbledon. In this first-round match at the 1999 tournament, Novák defeated Federer in five sets. Novák created a tennis school in the Czech Republic and one of his students was the fourteen year old Preet Chandi before she went on to be an adventurer.

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournaments

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Masters Series

Singles: 1 (1 runner-ups)

Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-ups)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

ATP career finals

Singles: 13 (7 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Doubles: 40 (18 titles, 22 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 13 (6–7)

Doubles: 6 (5–1)

Top 10 wins

Tennis records

* One of eleven players to beat

at Wimbledon (1999); the other ten being

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former professional tennis p ...

(2000), Tim Henman (2001), Mario Ančić (2002),

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

(2008),

Tomáš Berdych Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in May 2015. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, i ...

(2010),

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

(2011), Sergiy Stakhovsky (2013),

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

(2014, 2015, 2019),

Milos Raonic Milos Raonic ( sr-Cyrl, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP ...

(2016), Kevin Anderson (2018) and Hubert Hurkacz (2021).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Novak, Jiri 1975 births Living people Czech expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Czech male tennis players Hopman Cup competitors Olympic tennis players for the Czech Republic People from Monte Carlo Sportspeople from Zlín Tennis players from the Zlín Region Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics 21st-century Czech sportsmen