Andrew Ilie (born 18 April 1976) is a former
tennis player
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
. Ilie fled Romania at age 10 with his family, spending a year at a refugee camp in Austria before emigrating to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. He turned professional in 1994 and became a citizen of Australia. He
was an
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...
scholarship holder. He won two
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
singles titles (
Coral Springs
Coral Springs is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 134,394. Approximately northwest of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, it is a pri ...
in 1998 and
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
in 2000), as well as five
Challenger Series tournaments. Ilie reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 38 on 29 May 2000.
Career
Juniors
He reached the finals of the Australian Open Jrs in 1994.
Pro Tour
Ilie never progressed past the fourth round of a
Grand Slam tournament, but was a fan-favorite, especially in Australia. Described in 2001 by tennis writer Jon Wertheim as "an emerging cult hero", Ilie developed an avid following whenever he played at the
Australian Open
The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. He became well known for adventurous and occasionally outrageous shots, and by ripping his shirt in glee whenever he won a particularly important or hard-fought match.
The latter ritual began at the French Open in 1999, as Ilie celebrated his first-round victory in five sets over Jonas Bjorkman, and then repeated the gesture after his second-round victory, also in five sets, over Martin Rodriguez.
The last years of Ilie's career were marred by persistent injuries, including chronic
osteitis pubis
Osteitis pubis is a noninfectious inflammation of the pubic symphysis (also known as the pubis symphysis, symphysis pubis, or symphysis pubica), causing varying degrees of lower abdominal and pelvic pain. Osteitis pubis was first described in pat ...
, which hampered his play. Ilie retired in November 2004.
Following retirement, Ilie married and settled in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
ATP career finals
Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 8 (6–2)
Doubles: 2 (0–2)
Performance timeline
Singles
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilie, Andrew
Australian expatriates in Hong Kong
Australian male tennis players
Australian people of Romanian descent
Naturalised citizens of Australia
Naturalised tennis players
Olympic tennis players for Australia
Tennis players from Bucharest
Romanian emigrants to Australia
Romanian refugees
Tennis players from Melbourne
Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Living people
1976 births
People educated at Mentone Grammar School
Australian Institute of Sport tennis players