Austrian tennis player
Markus Hipfl (born 26 April 1978) is a former professionaltennis player from Austria.
Hipfl had a noteworthy junior career. He won the Under-16sOrange Bowl in 1994 and was also a finalist in that year's European Championship. In 1996 he finished runner-up in the1996 US Open Boys' Singles, losing in the final to GermanDaniel Elsner.[1]
During the1999 ATP Tour, Hipfl broke into the top 100 for the first time. He made the semi-finals ofMorocco'sGrand Prix Hassan II and was a quarter-finalist at four tournaments, inSan Marino,Sankt Pölten,Sicily andMajorca.
His best performances in 2000 included being a semi-finalist at theSwedish Open and making another quarter-final appearance in the International Raiffeisen Grand Prix at Sankt Pölten.
Hipfl bettered his previous two efforts at theSankt Pölten tournament in 2001, making it into the final, which he lost to fellow wild cardAndrea Gaudenzi. He also reached quarter-finals at the2001 Copa AT&T and the2001 Estoril Open.
In 2002, he reached anotherInternational Raiffeisen Grand Prix quarter-final and was also a quarter-finalist at the2002 BellSouth Open, after which he attained his career high ranking of 63.
AtGrand Slams during his career he won a total of three matches, all in separate tournaments. His wins came againstAndrew Ilie at the1999 US Open,Nicolas Mahut in the2000 French Open andNikolay Davydenko at the2002 Australian Open. He competed in four successiveWimbledon Championships from 1999 to 2002 but on each occasion lost in the opening round by five sets. The closest he got to registering a win was in2002 when he lost 9–11 in the final set, to French qualifierNicolas Thomann, despite serving 38 aces.[2]
He took part in fiveATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments during his career, only once failing to get past the first round. In both the 2001 and 2002Monte-Carlo Masters he defeatedYevgeny Kafelnikov, the second time coming when the Russian was the third-ranked player in theATP rankings.
Hipfl also played in sevenDavis Cup ties for theAustrian team and had a 10–3 record, all in singles. In 1999, he helped Austria qualify for the following year's World Group with a straight sets win overSweden'sMagnus Gustafsson, in the fifth and decisive rubber. He had earlier upset world number 23Magnus Norman.[3]
Junior Grand Slam finals
[edit]Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
[edit]Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
[edit]| Legend |
|---|
| Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0) | | ATP World Tour Finals (0–0) | | ATP Masters Series (0–0) | | ATP Championship Series (0–0) | | ATP World Series (0–1) |
| | Finals by surface |
|---|
| Hard (0–0) | | Clay (0–1) | | Grass (0–0) | | Carpet (0–0) |
| | Finals by setting |
|---|
| Outdoors (0–1) | | Indoors (0–0) |
|
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
[edit]| Legend |
|---|
| ATP Challenger (2–6) | | ITF Futures (0–0) |
| | Finals by surface |
|---|
| Hard (0–1) | | Clay (2–5) | | Grass (0–0) | | Carpet (0–0) |
|
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|
| Win | 1–0 | Aug 1998 | Nettingsdorf, Austria | Challenger | Clay |  Clemens Trimmel | 6–2, 6–0 |
| Win | 2–0 | Dec 1998 | Guadalajara, Mexico | Challenger | Clay |  Younes El Aynaoui | 6–7, 7–6, 7–6 |
| Loss | 2–1 | Feb 1999 | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Challenger | Hard |  John Van Lottum | 6–7, 2–6 |
| Loss | 2–2 | May 1999 | Espinho, Portugal | Challenger | Clay |  Gastón Gaudio | 4–6, 1–6 |
| Loss | 2–3 | Aug 1999 | Nettingsdorf, Austria | Challenger | Clay |  Attila Sávolt | 1–6, 0–6 |
| Loss | 2–4 | Apr 2001 | Barletta, Italy | Challenger | Clay |  Félix Mantilla | 3–6, 0–1 ret. |
| Loss | 2–5 | Aug 2001 | San Marino, San Marino | Challenger | Clay |  Juan Antonio Marín | 2–6, 6–2, 6–7(3–7) |
| Loss | 2–6 | Aug 2001 | Linz, Austria | Challenger | Clay |  Jan Vacek | 6–1, 1–6, 2–6 |
| Legend |
|---|
| ATP Challenger (0–0) | | ITF Futures (0–1) |
| | Finals by surface |
|---|
| Hard (0–0) | | Clay (0–1) | | Grass (0–0) | | Carpet (0–0) |
|
Performance timeline
[edit](W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
Daniel Elsner
Andrea Gaudenzi
Ruben Bemelmans