Karol Beck (born 3 April 1982) is a male former

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

player from

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

, who turned professional in 2001. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 36, achieved in August 2005. Beck reached the fourth round of the 2004 US Open and the quarterfinals of the 2005 Montreal Masters, defeating

Nikolay Davydenko Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...

en route to both runs.

Career

On 25 October 2004, Beck lost in the final of the

St. Petersburg Open The St. Petersburg Open (russian: Открытый Санкт-Петербург) is a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tou ...

to Mikhail Youzhny 6–2, 6–2. On 13 February 2006 the

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there ...

(ITF) announced Beck had tested positive for the beta agonist

clenbuterol Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier. It is most commonl ...

during the 2005

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

semifinal for

against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, which Slovakia won 4–1. As a consequence, the ITF suspended him from the game for two years until 31 October 200

2007

Beck finished serving his suspension and began playing again in November as an unranked player. He had to go through qualifying rounds in every tournament. Without a ranking, he chose the Tunis challenger as his first tournament to qualify in. He qualified and won his first round match to get his first ranking points. The next week, he had a wild card entry into qualifying for the Dnepropetrovsk challenger, and qualified to pick up some more points. He qualified a couple more times at challengers and futures tournaments before winning his final tournament of 2007, the Czech F6 Futures, to finish up the year at No. 581, after playing in just 5 tournaments.

2008

He began 2008 from where he left off in 2007, qualifying into and winning his first tournament, Germany's F1 Futures, to get into the top-500.

2009

Beck took part in the

2009 Wimbledon Championships The 2009 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 123rd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and was held from ...

ranked as 143rd in the world. He was a

lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw, usually when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness, injury ...

due to the withdrawal of then- World No. 1,

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...

. He was drawn against 21st seed

Feliciano López Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...

in the first round and won a thrilling five set encounter 1–6, 7–5, 6–3, 4–6, 10–8 to reach the second round of a grand slam tournament for the first time since the

2005 Australian Open The 2005 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 until 30 January 2005. Roger Federer was unsuccessful in defending his 2004 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Marat Safin ...

. In the second round, he would meet another Spaniard, this being

Nicolás Almagro Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ...

. He played another 5-setter, but, this time, he lost 4–6, 6–7, 6–3, 6–3, 5–7.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Doubles: 2 (0–2)

Challenger and Futures Finals

Singles: 32 (17–15)

Doubles: 43 (27–16)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

External links

* * *
Beck World Ranking History
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Karol 1982 births Living people Doping cases in tennis Olympic tennis players of Slovakia Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Slovak sportspeople in doping cases Slovak male tennis players People from Zvolen