Robbie Koenig ( ;
born 5 July 1971) is a retired 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
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
who is now a tennis commentator and analyst. He won five doubles titles and reached the semifinals of the
1998 US Open men's doubles competition. Koenig works as a tennis broadcaster for a host of TV channels around the world, covering most notably the
ATP Masters 1000 events, the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon (Radio) as well as the premier online tennis channel of TennisTV.com
Playing career
Koenig achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 262, notably reaching the third round of
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
in 1992. He had wins early on in his singles career over the likes of Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Felix Mantilla. Most of his success, however, came in doubles. He won 5 titles (with 6 further finals), reaching a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 28 in May 2003. As well as his
US Open doubles semi-finals appearance 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 frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
, Koenig reached the round-of-16 twice at
Wimbledon 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 frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
and
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...
. He was also a quarter-finalist on 3 other occasions at the
US Open in
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
,
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...
and
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
. In Mixed Doubles he reached the semi-finals of the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...
and
Wimbledon in 2001 and the
US Open in 2002.
He also represented South Africa in Davis Cup on four occasions and was captained by 1985 Wimbledon finalist,
Kevin Curren
Kevin Melvyn Curren (born 2 March 1958) is a South African former professional tennis player. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1 ...
.
Commentating career
Koenig is known for his commentary on the ATP World Tour at their
Masters 1000 events matches broadcast on
Tennis Channel
Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game of ...
as well as the online tennis broadcast site TennisTV, often as part of a commentating duo alongside
Jason Goodall
Jason Goodall (born 23 January 1967) is an international sports broadcaster, specialising in tennis commentary and analysis. He is also a tennis coach who has worked with some of the best players in the world and is a former British number two ...
. He has been assigned to commentate at the Australian Open and US Open. He can also be heard on Fox Sports in Australia, Star Sports in Asia, ESPN International as well as SuperSport in South Africa where he co-hosts during the
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
events.
ATP career finals
Doubles: 11 (5 titles, 6 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Doubles: 5 (3–2)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Mixed doubles
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koenig, Robbie
1971 births
Living people
South African people of British descent
Sportspeople from Durban
South African expatriates in the United States
South African male tennis players
Tennis commentators
White South African people