Martin Willem Verkerk (born 31 October 1978) is a retired professional Dutch

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. He reached the final of the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

in 2003 and achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 14 in September 2003. During his career he won two ATP singles titles.

Early life

Verkerk started playing

at the age of seven, playing in local tournaments and training with his parents. He played in a tennis facility in his home city of

Alphen aan den Rijn Alphen aan den Rijn (; en, "Alphen upon Rhine" or "Alphen on the Rhine") is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The city is situated on the banks of the river Oude Rijn (Old Rhine), where the r ...

, Netherlands, where his talent was discovered by local coaches, and he soon had the opportunity to train with many better players. He later won the 18 and Under Dutch title in 1995.

Career

In 2003, playing in only his third Grand Slam event and ranked 46, Verkerk reached the final of the French Open. Along the way, he beat Željko Krajan,

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and

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before overcoming experienced clay court players

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(seeded 4th) and

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(seeded 7th). In the final, he lost to

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...

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in straight sets. His unexpected run at the French Open as an

underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

and his expressive on-court antics made him popular in the Netherlands. The final was watched by even more households in the Netherlands than when his countryman

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won Wimbledon in 1996. However, hampered by various injuries and

mononucleosis Infectious mononucleosis (IM, mono), also known as glandular fever, is an infection usually caused by the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Most people are infected by the virus as children, when the disease produces few or no symptoms. In young adult ...

, Verkerk was unable to reproduce similar results during the rest of his career, never advancing beyond the third round in any subsequent Grand Slams. During his career, he won two titles and reached the quarter-finals of the 2003 Rome Masters. Verkerk played a close match against

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

at the 2003 Paris Masters, losing in three tiebreak sets after holding four match points.

Playing style

Verkerk's game was based on powerful serves and

backhand The backhand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis and pickleball, where the back of the hand precedes the palm when swinging the racket. Except in the phrase ''backhand volley'', the term refers to a groundstroke (where the ...

s. He used a single-handed backhand and his favorite surface was

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 runner-up)

ATP career finals

Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 20 (10–10)

Doubles: 7 (3–4)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Verkerk, Martin 1978 births Living people Dutch male tennis players People from Leiderdorp Sportspeople from South Holland