Kristian Peter Pless (born 9 February 1981) is a former professional male

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 c ...

player from Denmark.

Tennis career

Juniors

Pless had an excellent junior career, winning the

1999 Australian Open The 1999 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 87th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 18 through 31 January 1999. This was the first Grand Slam ...

Boys' Singles (defeated

Mikhail Youzhny Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...

), and reaching the Boys' final at both Wimbledon (lost to

Jürgen Melzer Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Geral ...

), and the US Open (lost to

Jarkko Nieminen Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...

) the same year. He finished 1999 as the No. 1 ranked junior player in the world.

Pro tour

He turned professional in 1999, and on 28 January 2002, Kristian Pless reached his career-high

ATP ATP may refer to: Companies and organizations * Association of Tennis Professionals, men's professional tennis governing body * American Technical Publishers, employee-owned publishing company * ', a Danish pension * Armenia Tree Project, non ...

singles ranking of World No. 65. He has won tournaments at the

Futures Futures may mean: Finance *Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract *Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded * ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine Music * ''Futures'' (album), a ...

and Challenger levels, and has reached three semifinals on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organisa ...

. He suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2003, which after multiple surgery kept him out of competition for almost a year. After returning from injury in 2004, he had dropped in the rankings to World No. 846 on 24 May. Subsequently, he has gradually climbed the rankings, and after successful performances at the Challenger level in autumn 2006, he entered the Top 100 again. In January 2007, he continued his good performances as he defeated World No. 8 David Nalbandian in three sets in the first round of Chennai Open. This was Pless' first win against a Top-10 ranked player. In 2007 he also managed to take a set from tennis legend

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 their meeting in Dubai, but eventually Federer won the tie 7–6⁽²⁾, 3–6, 6–3. It was first set Federer had lost that year after he had won the Australian Open without losing a single set. In 2008 he reached two Challenger finals (in Izmir, Turkey and Rimouski, Canada), but ended the year outside of Top 100. 2009 was his last year on tour.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 20 (7–13)

Doubles: 7 (4–3)

Performance timeline

Singles

References

External links

Personal blog
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pless, Kristian 1981 births Living people Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Danish male tennis players Sportspeople from Odense Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Olympic tennis players of Denmark