Richard Krajicek

Richard Krajicek is the son of Czech immigrants. In the nineties, Krajicek had a relationship with Italian actress and model Lory Del Santo,^[1] with whom he had a premature son who died of an infection after two weeks of life.^[2] In 1999, he married model, writer and hostess of Holland's Next Top Model and Benelux's Next Top Model, Daphne Deckers, with whom he lives in Muiderberg and has two children with (son and daughter).^[3] Nicknamed "de Kraai" (Dutch for "the crow") in his home country, Krajicek has, among his siblings, half-sister and also tennis professional Michaëlla Krajicek. His distant cousin is another tennis player, the American Austin Krajicek.^[4]

Krajicek is a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), a political party in the Netherlands.^[5]

Richard Krajicek began playing tennis at the age of four. As a youngster he won both the Dutch under-12 and the under-14 National Championships twice. His biggest achievement as a youngster was winning the Wiltshire Open in the UK after beating Steven White in straight sets in the final. He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title in Hong Kong and his first tour doubles title at the Dutch Open.

In 1992, the 1.95 m (6' 5") Dutchman reached his first Grand Slam semifinals at the Australian Open. He had to withdraw from this semifinal match due to a shoulder injury. The next year, he reached the semifinals at the French Open, where he lost in four sets to the defending champion Jim Courier. Also in 1992, Krajicek made a controversial comment regarding equal pay for women in Grand Slam events, saying, "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Later, he jokingly clarified his comments, remarking, "What I meant to say was that only 75 percent are fat pigs."^[6]

At the 1996 Italian Open, Krajicek reached the final, before losing in four sets to the reigning champion, Thomas Muster. At the French Open later that year, Krajicek was the only player to take a set off the eventual champion, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, during their quarterfinal match.

Coming into 1996 Wimbledon, Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round at the tournament and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He was seen as a player with potential, having one of the fastest serves at the time, but was not considered to be a strong contender for the title. The clear favourite was Pete Sampras, who had won the title for the past three consecutive years. Despite being ranked within the world's top 16, Krajicek just missed out on the seedings for the tournament, but when seventh seed (and world No. 2) Thomas Muster pulled out shortly before the tournament due to an injury, Krajicek was declared the 17th seed and moved to Muster's place in the draw. Opinions differ, therefore, on whether he won the tournament as an unseeded player.

He beat former champion Michael Stich in the fourth round and met Sampras in the quarterfinals. By that time, he had managed to turn his notably weak slice backhand into an aggressive top-spin shot. Krajicek defeated Sampras in straight sets, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993 until Sampras's fourth-round loss to Roger Federer in 2001. Next, he beat Australia's Jason Stoltenberg in the semifinals, and went on to face American MaliVai Washington in the final. He won the final in straight sets to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon.

In 1997, Krajicek's defence of his Wimbledon title ended in the fourth round, when Tim Henman defeated him in four sets.

In 1998, Krajicek was in the Wimbledon semifinals again, losing to Goran Ivanišević in a marathon match, 13–15 in the fifth set, with both players serving a combined 38 aces.[1][2] His final attempt at a Wimbledon title was in 2002, when he lost in the quarterfinals to Xavier Malisse. Krajicek beat world No. 5 Andre Agassi, world No. 1 Sampras and world No. 9 Yevgeny Kafelnikov on his way to the Stuttgart Masters title in November.

At the 1999 US Open, Krajicek lost a quarterfinal matchup to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Despite the loss, he set several most aces records that day. In the 2000 U.S. Open, Krajicek met Sampras in the quarterfinals, winning the first set and going up 6–2 during the second-set tiebreaker, but then losing six straight points and the match.^[7] In 2000, Krajicek was awarded the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award for his efforts to help youth in his home country.^[8] He was named ATP Comeback Player of the Year in 2002.^[9]

Krajicek retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won 17 singles titles and three doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 4 in 1999. Krajicek's Wimbledon victory over Sampras proved to be no fluke, since he ended his career with a 6–4 record against the American player.^[10]

Since retiring from the ATP Tour, Krajicek runs The Richard Krajicek Foundation, which builds sports facilities for children in inner-city areas in the Netherlands.^[11] In 2004, Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

In 2005, he published a book on tennis, Fast Balls (Dutch: Harde Ballen).

Singles: 1 (title) edit

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1996	Wimbledon	Grass	MaliVai Washington	6–3, 6–4, 6–3

Masters Series finals edit

Singles: 6 (2–4) edit

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1996	Rome	Clay	Thomas Muster	2–6, 4–6, 6–3, 3–6
Loss	1997	Stuttgart	Carpet (i)	Petr Korda	6–7(6–8), 2–6, 4–6
Loss	1998	Canada (Toronto)	Hard	Patrick Rafter	6–7(3–7), 4–6
Win	1998	Stuttgart	Carpet (i)	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–4, 6–3, 6–3
Win	1999	Key Biscayne	Hard	Sébastien Grosjean	4–6, 6–1, 6–2, 7–5
Loss	1999	Stuttgart	Carpet (i)	Thomas Enqvist	1–6, 4–6, 7–5, 5–7

Singles: 26 (17–9) edit

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Category	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Apr 1991	Hong Kong, UK	World Series	Hard	Wally Masur	6–2, 3–6, 6–3
Loss	1–1	Apr 1992	Tokyo, Japan	Championships Series	Hard	Jim Courier	4–6, 4–6, 6–7(3–7)
Win	2–1	Aug 1992	Los Angeles, U.S.	World Series	Hard	Mark Woodforde	6–4, 2–6, 6–4
Win	3–1	Nov 1992	Antwerp, Belgium	World Series	Carpet (i)	Mark Woodforde	6–2, 6–2
Loss	3–2	Feb 1993	Stuttgart, Germany	Championships Series	Carpet (i)	Michael Stich	6–4, 5–7, 6–7(4–7), 6–3, 5–7
Win	4–2	Aug 1993	Los Angeles, U.S.	World Series	Hard	Michael Chang	0–6, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–5)
Win	5–2	Apr 1994	Barcelona, Spain	Championships Series	Clay	Carlos Costa	6–4, 7–6(8–6), 6–2
Win	6–2	Jun 1994	Rosmalen, Netherlands	World Series	Grass	Karsten Braasch	6–3, 6–4
Win	7–2	Oct 1994	Sydney, Australia	Championships Series	Hard (i)	Boris Becker	7–6(7–5), 7–6(9–7), 2–6, 6–3
Win	8–2	Feb 1995	Stuttgart, Germany	Championships Series	Carpet (i)	Michael Stich	7–6(7–4), 6–3, 6–7(6–8), 1–6, 6–3
Win	9–2	Mar 1995	Rotterdam, Netherlands	World Series	Carpet (i)	Paul Haarhuis	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss	9–3	Aug 1995	New Haven, U.S.	Championships Series	Hard	Andre Agassi	6–3, 6–7(2–7), 3–6
Loss	9–4	May 1996	Rome, Italy	Super 9	Clay	Thomas Muster	2–6, 4–6, 6–3, 3–6
Win	10–4	Jul 1996	Wimbledon, UK	Grand Slam	Grass	MaliVai Washington	6–3, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	10–5	Aug 1996	Los Angeles, U.S.	World Series	Hard	Michael Chang	4–6, 3–6
Win	11–5	Mar 1997	Rotterdam, Netherlands	World Series	Carpet (i)	Daniel Vacek	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–5)
Win	12–5	Apr 1997	Tokyo, Japan	Championships Series	Hard	Lionel Roux	6–2, 3–6, 6–1
Win	13–5	Jun 1997	Rosmalen, Netherlands	World Series	Grass	Guillaume Raoux	6–4, 7–6(9–7)
Loss	13–6	Oct 1997	Stuttgart, Germany	Super 9	Carpet (i)	Petr Korda	6–7(6–8), 2–6, 4–6
Win	14–6	Feb 1998	St. Petersburg, Russia	World Series	Carpet (i)	Marc Rosset	6–4, 7–6(7–5)
Loss	14–7	Aug 1998	Toronto, Canada	Super 9	Hard	Patrick Rafter	6–7(3–7), 4–6
Win	15–7	Nov 1998	Stuttgart, Germany	Super 9	Hard (i)	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–4, 6–3, 6–3
Win	16–7	Mar 1999	London, UK	Championships Series	Carpet (i)	Greg Rusedski	7–6(8–6), 6–7(5–7), 7–5
Win	17–7	Mar 1999	Miami, U.S.	Super 9	Hard	Sébastien Grosjean	4–6, 6–1, 6–2, 7–5
Loss	17–8	Nov 1999	Stuttgart, Germany	Super 9	Hard (i)	Thomas Enqvist	1–6, 4–6, 7–5, 5–7
Loss	17–9	Jun 2000	Halle, Germany	International Series	Grass	David Prinosil	3–6, 2–6

Singles

List of books written by Richard Krajicek:^[12]

• Een half jaar netpost (2003) with Tino Bakker
• Naar de top (2005) with Anja de Crom
• Harde ballen (2005)
• Honger naar de bal (2006)
• Alle ballen verzamelen (2007)

• Richard Krajicek at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Richard Krajicek at the International Tennis Federation
• Richard Krajicek at the Davis Cup
• Richard Krajicek Foundation
• Sunday Times article 14 February 2010