Marc-Kevin Peter Goellner (born 22 September 1970) is a former professional

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

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. He won two singles titles, achieved a Bronze medal in doubles at the 1996 Summer Olympics and attained a career-high singles ranking of World No. 26 in April 1994. Goellner reached the quarterfinals of the 1997 Rome Masters, defeating top tenners

Richard Krajicek Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek ( cz, Krajíček; born 6 December 1971) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. In 1996, he won the men's singles title at Wimbledon, and remains the only Dutch player to have won a major singles title. I ...

and Albert Costa en route.

Personal life

The son of a German diplomat, Goellner lived in Rio de Janeiro,

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Sydney as a youngster before moving to Germany in 1986. The surname of his Family is ''Göllner'', but since most languages don´t use

Umlaut (linguistics) In linguistics, umlaut (from German "sound alternation") is a sound change in which a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term ''umlaut'' was originally coined in connection with the study of Germanic languages, ...

, the brazil authorities wrote ''Goellner'' in his birth certificate.

Tennis career

In 1990, he suffered two torn ligaments in his left foot, which almost ended his tennis career before it had begun. He turned professional in 1991. 1993 provided some of the most significant highlights of Goellner's career. He captured his first top-level singles title at

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, defeating

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. ...

in the final. He also won his first tour doubles title in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, partnering David Prinosil. Goellner and Prinosil were also the men's doubles runners-up at the French Open that year. And Goellner was a member of the German team which won the 1993

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 orga ...

, winning important singles rubbers in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. In 1996, Goellner won a second top-level singles title at

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the r ...

. He represented Germany at the 1996 Summer Olympics in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

, where he was defeated in the first round of the singles competition by Sweden's

Thomas Enqvist Thomas Karl Johan Enqvist (born 13 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached the final of the 1999 Australian Open and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three Masters titles. He has a career high ATP world ...

, and won a Bronze Medal in the doubles competition at Stone Mountain Park, partnering Prinosil. During his career, Goellner won a total of two top-level singles titles and four tour doubles titles. His career-high rankings were World No. 26 in singles (in 1994), and World No. 25 in doubles (in 1998). His best singles performance at a Grand Slam event came at the French Open in 1993, where he reached the fourth round before losing to Andrei Medvedev. His career prize money earnings totalled US$2,700,215. He was one of the first players to wear baseball caps reversed. Goellner retired from the professional tour in 2004.

ATP career finals

Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 15 (4 titles, 11 runner-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures Finals

Singles: 5 (3–2)

Doubles: 6 (3–3)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goellner, Marc-Kevin German male tennis players German people of Brazilian descent Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players of Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany 1970 births Living people Olympic medalists in tennis Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (city)