Kenneth Carlsen

Kenneth Carlsen
Country (sports)  Denmark
Residence Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born (1973-04-17) 17 April 1973
Copenhagen, Denmark
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro 1992
Retired 2007
Plays Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $2,990,980
Singles
Career record 266–288 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 41 (7 June 1993)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 4R (1993)
French Open 2R (1993, 1994)
Wimbledon 3R (1993, 1994, 2004)
US Open 3R (1995)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games 3R (1996)
Doubles
Career record 40–62 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 134 (5 April 2004)

Kenneth Carlsen (born 17 April 1973) is a Danish former professional tennis player, who was active between 1992 and 2007. Carlsen played left-handed with a one-handed backhand. His greatest asset was his powerful serve, and his game was therefore best suited to fast surfaces (grass and hardcourt). For most of his long career Carlsen was Denmark's best tennis player, and consistently among the few Danish players playing at the highest international level. He was awarded as best Danish "Tennis Player of the Year" seven times by the Danish Tennis Federation (first time in 1991, last time in 2005).[1] Two times the award went to the Danish Davis Cup team, of which Kenneth Carlsen until 2003 was a central part (having a 29–13 record in singles).[2]

Career

Carlsen began playing tennis at age nine, and in his teens became one of the best juniors in the world. He finished as no. 3 in the world in 1991. He turned full-time professional in 1992, and his breakthrough as senior in a major tournament came at the Copenhagen Open where he beat top-20 player Alexander Volkov in the first round. Later that year, he reached the final in Brisbane—-only his fourth ATP tournament. His debut in the 1993 Australian Open confirmed his position among the best players in the world as he went to the fourth round. The same year he reached his career-best singles ranking as World No. 41 in June. Since 1993 he was for most of the time ranked within the Top 100. In 1994 he played the most famous match of his career when he beat Stefan Edberg in five sets at Wimbledon.

In 1996 he reached the final of the tournament that triggered his career, Copenhagen Open, but lost to Cédric Pioline. The next year he reached the final in Auckland, but this time lost to Jonas Björkman. This saw his ranking shoot up 20 spots to World No. 52. In 1999, Carlsen reached the final in Newport, but lost to Chris Woodruff.

In 2000 he suffered from a serious shoulder injury, and underwent surgery twice. As a result, he did not play any tournaments that year. His recovery was relatively slow, and he could not return to professional tennis until June 2001. His long absence from the sport, however, did not seem to affect his playing negatively. In 2002 he won his second ATP tournament in Tokyo, and in 2005 he won the Regions Morgan Keegan Championship in Memphis at almost 32 years old. His resurgence saw him in June 2005 become World No. 50.

Carlsen rarely played doubles, but reached three ATP doubles finals in his career. In Copenhagen with Frederik Fetterlein in 1997 (lost to Andrei Olhovskiy/Brett Steven), Tashkent, Uzbekistan with Sjeng Schalken in 1998 (lost to Stefano Pescosolido/Laurence Tieleman), and Beijing with Michael Berrer in 2006 (lost to Mario Ančić/Mahesh Bhupathi).

He played a total of 46 Grand Slam events during his career, and used to hold the record for most first-round exits for a long time; 30. But he was surpassed by Albert Montañés at 2014 Australian Open where he reached 31 career Grand Slam first-round exits.[3]

On June 27, 2007 he announced that he would retire from professional tennis,[4] and he played his last ATP match in first round of the Stockholm Open on October 10, 2007.[5] The week after, he played his final professional tennis match at a Challenger tournament in Kolding, Denmark.

In November 2008 Carlsen was appointed a captain of the Denmark Davis Cup team.[6] Under his guidance the Danes returned in 2011 to the Europe/Africa Zone Group I.[7]

Career finals (7)

Singles

Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 28 September 1992 Brisbane, Australia Hard France Guillaume Raoux 4–6, 6–7(10–12)
Runner-up 2. 11 March 1996 Copenhagen, Denmark Carpet France Cédric Pioline 2–6, 6–7(7–9)
Runner-up 3. 6 January 1997 Auckland, New Zealand Hard Sweden Jonas Björkman 6–7(7–9), 0–6
Winner 1. 6 April 1998 Hong Kong, Hong Kong Hard Zimbabwe Byron Black 6-2, 6–0
Runner-up 4. 5 July 1999 Newport, USA Grass United States Chris Woodruff 7–6(7–5), 4–6, 4–6
Winner 2. 30 September 2002 Tokyo, Japan Hard Sweden Magnus Norman 7–6(8–6), 6–3
Winner 3. 14 February 2005 Memphis, USA Hard Belarus Max Mirnyi 7–5, 7–5

Grand Slam performance timeline

Tournament 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Career
Australian Open 4R 2R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R - - 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R - 5-12
French Open 2R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R - - - 1R 1R 1R 1R - 2-11
Wimbledon 3R 3R 2R 1R 1R 1R - - 2R 1R 1R 3R 1R - - 8-11
US Open 1R 1R 3R 2R 2R 1R 2R - 1R 2R 2R 1R 1R - 7-12
Grand Slam W-L 6–4 3–4 5–4 1–4 1–4 0–4 1–3 0–0 1–2 1–3 1–4 2–4 0–4 0–2 0–0 22-46

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Årets Tennisspiller". dtftennis.dk (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  2. ↑ In July 2007, he made a final appearance on the Danish Davis Cup team after having announced his retirement from professional tennis.
  3. ↑ "Kenneth Carlsen har mistet sin kuriøse taber-rekord". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2015-07-08.
  4. ↑ "Rørt Carlsen gjorde status". Ekstra Bladet. 2007-06-27. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-12. (Danish)
  5. ↑ "Carlsen Retires from ATP Circuit in Stockholm". ATPtennis.com. 2007-10-10. Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  6. ↑ "Kenneth Carlsen kaptajn for Davis Cup-hold". Berlingske (in Danish). 3 November 2008. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
  7. ↑ "Davis Cup 2012: Løchte Nielsen, Pless, Kromann og Kønigsfeldt forsvarer de danske farver" (in Danish). Dansk Tennis Forbund. 2012-01-03. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
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