Lukáš Rosol (; born 24 July 1985) 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. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 26, achieved on 22 September 2014.
His first notable victory was against world No. 8,
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a youn ...
, at the
2011 French Open, whom he defeated in five sets in the second round a year after Melzer had reached the semifinal. A year later, Rosol defeated world No. 2,
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 ...
, in the second round of
Wimbledon to achieve one of the biggest wins in his career. Rosol has had sustained success since then having played an integral part in the Czech Republic's
Davis Cup winning team in 2012, and winning his first tour-level title in April 2013.
Rosol also played in the longest ever ATP doubles match, alongside
Tomáš Berdych, defeating
Marco Chiudinelli and
Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round of the
2013 Davis Cup. The match was played on 2 February 2013, lasting 7 hours, 1 minute. It was the second longest ATP match of any kind, after the
Isner–Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.
Rosol announced his retirement in April 2024.
Coaching
Rosol was coached by former Czech player,
1999 US Open quarterfinalist Ctislav "Sláva" Doseděl.
Personal life
Rosol was born in
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
,
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 ...
. In November 2008, he married Czech athlete
Denisa Rosolová (née Ščerbová). In 2011, they divorced. In 2013, Rosol became engaged to news presenter Michaela Ochotská. Their son André was born in January 2015. The pair married in July 2015 and were divorced in July 2017. In 2018 Rosol entered into his third marriage with Petra Kubinová.
His surname means ''jelly'' in Czech.
Tennis career
Rosol has won eight
Challenger and seven
Futures tournaments. In April 2013, he won his first tour-level tournament, the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy
ATP World Tour 250
The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam (t ...
, and in August 2014, he won his first tour-level tournament on hard courts, the Winston-Salem Open.
2012
Rosol rose to prominence in 2012 at the
Wimbledon Championships, after having participated in the Wimbledon qualifying draw multiple times, not reaching the main draw until then. In the first round, he defeated
Ivan Dodig, then he was drawn against the two-time champion and world No. 2,
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 ...
. After losing the first set in a very close tiebreak, Rosol regrouped and broke in the first game of the second. A dominant serving performance allowed him to take the second set 6–4. Rosol's service game held up in the third set, where he capitalized on a sloppy game by Nadal and took the set 6–4. Down two sets to one, Nadal raised his level in the fourth, taking the set 6–2 and sending the match into a deciding fifth set. At this point the match was delayed by 35 minutes in order to close the
Centre Court roof. Rosol returned from the break revitalized, taking the fifth set 6–4 by striking 20 winners to two unforced errors. His groundstroke speed averaged 85 mph and peaked at 114 mph. In the final game of the match, Rosol delivered three aces and a forehand winner to close out one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam history by a score of 6–7
(9–11), 6–4, 6–4, 2–6, 6–4. He went on to lose his third-round match against
Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.
In the doubles draw, Rosol and partner
Mikhail Kukushkin defeated the British duo of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in five sets in the first round. They lost in the second round to James Cerretani and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
2013
At the
Australian Open, Rosol defeated
Jamie Baker in the first round before he lost to 13th seed
Milos Raonic in the second.
In April, he won his first
ATP Tour singles tournament with a victory in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
. He was unseeded in the tournament and beat three seeded players en route to the final: third seed
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces.
Personal lif ...
, eighth seed
Viktor Troicki and second seed
Gilles Simon. In the final, he defeated
Guillermo García López, only dropping one set throughout the entire tournament and tearfully dedicating the triumph to his father Emil, who introduced him to tennis and had died two weeks before the tournament.
At the
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, Rosol lost in the second round to
Fabio Fognini in four sets.
2014: Career-high ranking
Rosol began his 2014 season at the
Qatar Open in Doha, losing in straight sets to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
He reached the second round in the
Apia International Sydney, and the quarterfinals of the
Dubai Tennis Championships
The Dubai Tennis Championships (also known as the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for sponsorship reasons) (formerly known for sponsorship reasons as the ''Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships'' and the ''Dubai Duty Free Men's and Women's Champ ...
, where he lost to eventual champion
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
Indian Wells, Rosol faced reigning
Wimbledon champion
Andy Murray in the second round and was defeated in three sets after leading by a set and a break.
At
Wimbledon, he was one point from a two-set lead against Rafael Nadal in the second round, but Nadal came back to win in four sets.
At the
Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Rosol reached the final beating
Mikhail Youzhny along the way, in the final he lost in three sets to
Roberto Bautista Agut.
In August, Rosol won his second ATP title at the
Winston-Salem Open, defeating
Jerzy Janowicz
Jerzy Filip Janowicz Jr. (; born 13 November 1990) is a Polish inactive professional tennis player and padel player. Janowicz is best known for becoming the first Polish man to reach a Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major semifinal, at the 2013 ...
in three sets. Lukas moved up to a career-high ranking of No. 26 in the world, a career high, in the ATP rankings released 22 September 2014.
2015
In 2015, he was the 28th seed but lost in second round of the
Australian Open in five sets to
Dudi Sela.
At Indian Wells, he was the 27th seed and thus received a bye into the second round and defeated
Martin Kližan and
Robin Haase
Robin Haase (; born 6 April 1987) is a Dutch professional tennis player.
He reached his career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles ranking of world No. 33 in July 2012 and his highest doubles ranking of world No. 29 in May 2023 ...
to reach the fourth round, his best showing at a Masters 1000 level in his career, where he lost to
Tomáš Berdych. At Miami, he was the 26th seed and once again received a bye into the second round, where he beat qualifier and future top ten
Alexander Zverev. In the third round, he lost to
David Ferrer in straight sets.
At the
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, Rosol defeated seeded player Bautista Agut to reach the third round. He also reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal in doubles with
Radu Albot.
At
Wimbledon, Rosol defeated former No. 10 player
Ernests Gulbis to reach the second round, where he fell to
Pablo Andújar in five sets.
2016
At the
2016 Australian Open he reached the third round, his best showing in this Grand Slam in his career where he lost to
Stan Wawrinka.
In February he participated in the inaugural edition of the
Sofia Open netting the first win of the event against
Robin Haase
Robin Haase (; born 6 April 1987) is a Dutch professional tennis player.
He reached his career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles ranking of world No. 33 in July 2012 and his highest doubles ranking of world No. 29 in May 2023 ...
. He was defeated by 7th seed
Martin Kližan in the second round.
In May ranked No. 68, he reached the quarterfinals of the
2016 Geneva Open defeating
John Isner. He defeated
Andrey Kuznetsov (tennis) to reach the semifinals before losing again to top seed and eventual champion Stan Wawrinka.
2022: First Wimbledon main draw participation in 5 years
He qualified for the main draw at the
2022 Wimbledon Championships after five years of absence. It was his first main draw participation at Wimbledon since 2017.
He reached the final at the
2022 Istanbul Challenger where he lost to
Radu Albot. As a result, he moved back into the top 250 at No. 239 on 19 September 2022.
Controversies
He has had several confrontations with top-ten players including Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. He deliberately knocked over one of Nadal's water bottles at the changeover – Nadal being known to be particularly superstitious about his water bottle placement. He also shouldered Andy Murray at a changeover. Murray said later in the match, loud enough to be heard by the audience and television microphones "No-one likes you on the tour. Everybody hates you."
Performance timelines
Singles
''Current through the
2022 ATP Tour''
Doubles
ATP career finals
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
Doubles: 3 (3 titles)
Wins against top-10 players per season
*He has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Wins over top-ten players per season
Challenger and Futures/World Tennis Tour Finals
Singles: 30 (18–12)
Doubles: 50 (25–25)
References
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosol, Lukas
1985 births
Living people
Czech male tennis players
Tennis players from Brno
Olympic tennis players for the Czech Republic
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
21st-century Czech sportsmen