Irakli Labadze ( ka, ირაკლი ლაბაძე, tr, ; born June 9, 1981) is a Georgian retired professional

tennis 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 ...

player. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 42, which he attained in July 2004. He was the first Georgian player to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon as a qualifier.

Career

Juniors

Labadze had a successful junior career, notably reaching the final of the

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

boys' singles in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

and losing to future World No.1

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

. Together with

Lovro Zovko Lovro Zovko (born 18 March 1981) is a former professional tennis player from Croatia. Tennis career Juniors As a junior Zovko reached as high as No. 9 in the world rankings in 1998 (and No. 10 in doubles). Pro tour Early in 2000 and 2001, Zov ...

he won the 1999 French Open boys' doubles.

Pro tour

Labadze's most successful appearance at a Grand Slam event came at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, where he reached the fourth round. After eliminating Gastón Gaudio and Mardy Fish, he was defeated by the eventual runner-up

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

in three sets. It was to be his last appearance in the singles main draw at a major championship. Labadze's best result in Masters 1000 tournaments was reaching the semifinals of the 2004 Indian Wells Masters. After defeating

Carlos Moyá Carlos Moyá Llompart (; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Moyá won 20 ATP Tour-level singles tit ...

and James Blake, he lost to Tim Henman in straight sets.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 18 (10–8)

Doubles: 14 (6–8)

Performance timeline

Singles

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Labadze, Irakli 1981 births Living people French Open junior champions Male tennis players from Georgia (country) Tennis players from Tbilisi Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles