Dominik Hrbatý

Dominik Hrbatý

Country (sports)	Slovakia
Residence	Bratislava, Slovakia
Born	(1978-01-04) 4 January 1978 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (Now Slovakia)
Height
Turned pro	1996
Retired	2010 (brief periods of activity 2011-2012)
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 7,065,241
Singles
Career record	359–318
Career titles	6
Highest ranking	No. 12 (18 October 2005)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (2001, 2005)
French Open	SF (1999)
Wimbledon	3R (2004)
US Open	QF (2004)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	2R (2004, 2008)
Doubles
Career record	150–211
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 14 (13 November 2000)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	F (2005)
Hopman Cup	W (2005, 2009)

Dominik Hrbatý (Slovak pronunciation: [ˈdomɪnɪk ˈɦr̩batiː]; born 4 January 1978 in Bratislava) is a professional tennis player from Slovakia. He reached the semi-finals of the 1999 French Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 12 in October 2005.

Personal life

Hrbatý was born on 4 January 1978 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. His father was an architecture engineer and his younger brother is an umpire. When he was younger, Hrbatý was European junior competitor in skiing and from the age of 11, he focused on tennis full-time.

He is married to Nelly Petrová; he proposed after Slovakia won the Hopman Cup on 10 January 2009 (with Dominika Cibulková). He also won the tournament for Slovakia in 2005 with Daniela Hantuchová. This makes Hrbatý a dual winner to move into the company of Serena Williams, James Blake, Tommy Robredo and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.

Tennis career

Hrbatý turned professional in 1996. During the year he reached six Challenger finals and achieved a 35–15 match record. He ended the year as the youngest player in the top 100.

Hrbaty is one of few players on ATP, that has positive record against Federer (2-1), Nadal(3-1), Djokovic (1-1), Murray (1-0), Berdych (2-0).

In 1997, Hrbatý won the Košice Challenger title defeating Nicolás Lapentti. He also reached his first ATP Tour final in Palermo, losing to Alberto Berasategui. His first doubles success on the Tour was reaching the final of Umag with Karol Kučera.

Hrbatý broke through for his first ATP title in 1998 in San Marino and defended his title in Košice. He continued his form into 1999 capturing his second title in Prague. His greatest breakthrough was reaching the semi-finals of Roland Garros where he defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Marcelo Ríos before falling to eventual winner, Andre Agassi.

Despite not winning a title in 2000, Hrbatý reached three finals in Monte Carlo, St. Petersburg and Brighton. During the year he helped Slovakia win the ATP World Team Championship where he had wins over Pete Sampras and Kafelnikov. While not winning a title in singles, he won the Rome Masters doubles title with Martin Damm and reached another three finals.

Hrbaty is a powerful and attacking player, he has 3–1 win record against Rafael Nadal.

2001 got off to a quick start for Hrbatý, winning in Auckland for his third ATP title. He backed up that win with a quarter-finals appearance at the Australian Open. On his way he defeated number two seed, Marat Safin. Other notable singles results were reaching the semi-finals in Dubai, Tashkent and Moscow. Hrbatý helped Slovakia back into the World Group stage in Davis Cup by defeating Nicolás Massú and Rios in 5 sets coming from two sets down in each match.

Hrbatý had an average year in 2002 where he finished out of the top 50 for the first time since 1996. He won a Challenger title in Biella. In 2003, Hrbatý made the final in Auckland losing to Gustavo Kuerten. Also made the semi-finals in Casablanca and Umag. Defeated Andy Roddick in the Davis Cup to end the American's 19-match winning streak.

Hrbatý's best season in his career to date was in 2004. He started the season with back-to-back title wins in Auckland and Adelaide. The Auckland victory was over Rafael Nadal in the final. One of only two players to have a winning career record over Nadal. Then won his sixth career title in Marseille and then made it to the final in Casablanca. He achieved one of his best wins by defeating World No. 1 Roger Federer in Cincinnati and then made it to the quarter-finals of the US Open.

In 2005, Hrbatý finished in the top 20 despite not reaching a singles final. His best results were semi-finals in Los Angeles, Metz and Basel. He had good success in the ATP Masters Series in Miami, Rome and Montreal, where he reached the quarter-finals.

Also in 2005, Hrbatý helped Slovakia reach the Davis Cup final against Croatia. He compiled a 6–1 singles record during the season. Inflicted Ivan Ljubičić's only singles loss in the final but Slovakia lost the final 2–3.

2006 was a mixed year for Hrbatý. He reached his second Tennis Masters Series title final in Paris losing to Nikolay Davydenko, which helped him finish in the top 25 in the year-end rankings. Other results were semi-finals in Los Angeles and Vienna and a quarter-finals in Beijing.

Hrbatý's form started to drop in 2007. He was plagued by an elbow injury which severely limited his play in that season.

At the 2007 U.S. Open, in doubles, he lost to Jesse Levine and Alex Kuznetsov, while pairing with Harel Levy of Israel, 6–1, 6–4.

At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, Hrbatý lost to his good friend and former doubles partner Federer in the first round, 6–3, 6–2, 6–2. Hrbatý sat immediately next to Federer and had an amicable conversation with him during the last changeover of the match, telling Federer that this may be Hrbatý's last Wimbledon and that, as a joke, this has been the first victory for Federer in a match against him and leads him 2–1 in head to head.

In 2010, Hrbaty announced his retirement as he became a father for the first time. He and Alex Corretja remain the only players to have a winning record over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

In 2012, Hrbaty temporarily returned to professional tennis by playing in the qualifying tournament for the 2012 Heineken Open. He won his first round of qualifying by beating Pere Riba in straight sets 6–4, 6–2.

Major finals

ATP Masters 1000 finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2000	Monte Carlo	Clay	Cédric Pioline	3–6, 6–7(3–7), 6–7(6–8)
Runner-up	2006	Paris	Carpet (i)	Nikolay Davydenko	1–6, 2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 1 (1–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2000	Miami	Hard	Martin Damm	Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde	6–3, 6–4
Winner	2000	Rome	Clay	Martin Damm	Wayne Ferreira Yevgeny Kafelnikov	6–4, 4–6, 6–3

Career finals

Singles: 13 (6–7)

Wins (6)

Legend (Singles) Grand Slam (0) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (0) ATP Tour (6)

Titles by Surface Hard (5) Clay (1) Grass (0) Carpet (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	10 August 1998	San Marino	Clay	Mariano Puerta	6–2, 7–5
2.	26 April 1999	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Sláva Doseděl	6–2, 6–2
3.	8 January 2001	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Francisco Clavet	6–4, 2–6, 6–3
4.	5 January 2004	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	6–4, 6–0
5.	12 January 2004	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Rafael Nadal	4–6, 6–2, 7–5
6.	23 February 2004	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Robin Söderling	4–6, 6–4, 6–4

Runner-ups (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	29 September 1997	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	4–6, 2–6
2.	17 April 2000	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Cédric Pioline	4–6, 6–7(3–7), 6–7(6–8)
3.	6 November 2000	St. Petersburg, Russia	Hard (i)	Marat Safin	6–2, 4–6, 4–6
4.	20 November 2000	Brighton, United Kingdom	Hard (i)	Tim Henman	2–6, 2–6
5.	6 January 2003	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Gustavo Kuerten	3–6, 5–7
6.	17 May 2004	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Santiago Ventura	3–6, 6–1, 4–6
7.	30 October 2006	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Nikolay Davydenko	1–6, 2–6, 2–6

Performance timeline

Singles

Tournament	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	SR	W–L
Australian Open	A	4R	1R	1R	1R	QF	4R	1R	3R	QF	4R	3R	A	2R	A	0 / 11	21–11
French Open	A	1R	3R	SF	2R	2R	1R	2R	2R	1R	3R	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 12	13–12
Wimbledon	A	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	3R	2R	1R	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 12	4–12
US Open	A	1R	2R	1R	4R	2R	3R	2R	QF	4R	1R	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 12	15–12
Win–Loss	0–0	3–4	3–4	5–4	5–4	6–4	5–4	2–4	9–4	8–4	5–4	2–4	0–3	1–1	0–0	0 / 48	54–48
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics	A	NH			1R	NH			2R	NH			2R	NH		0 / 3	2–3
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters	A	1R	1R	A	2R	1R	1R	1R	3R	2R	3R	2R	A	A	A	0 / 10	3–10
Miami Masters	A	4R	2R	QF	4R	3R	1R	1R	3R	QF	2R	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 12	15–12
Monte Carlo Masters	A	1R	A	1R	F	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	A	A	A	0 / 10	8–10
Rome Masters	A	A	A	2R	QF	1R	A	2R	1R	QF	2R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 8	9–8
Hamburg Masters	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	1R	2R	3R	2R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 10	4–10
Canada Masters	A	A	A	A	A	2R	1R	A	1R	QF	2R	3R	A	A	A	0 / 6	7–6
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	2R	A	2R	3R	3R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 7	6–7
Madrid Masters (Stuttgart)	A	A	A	2R	2R	1R	A	A	2R	3R	2R	A	A	A	A	0 / 6	4–6
Paris Masters	A	A	A	1R	2R	2R	2R	2R	2R	3R	F	A	A	A	A	0 / 8	9–8
Career Statistics
Titles	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	6
Overall Win–Loss	0–2	27–23	34–29	38–32	44–29	31–30	23–29	26–26	42–26	43–26	32–28	10–21	5–9	4–7	0–1	359–318
Year End Ranking	78	40	46	21	17	36	51	61	14	18	21	136	253	141	417	$7,068,735

External links

• Dominik Hrbatý at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Dominik Hrbatý at the Davis Cup
• Hrbaty World Ranking History

Awards
Preceded by Mark Philippoussis	ATP Newcomer of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Julián Alonso
Preceded by Elena Kaliská	Sportsperson of Slovakia 2005	Succeeded by Radoslav Židek