Igor Konstantinovich Kunitsyn (; born September 30, 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He made it into the top 100 for the first time in 2006, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 35 in July 2009.

Early life Kunitsyn was raised by his grandparents in Vladivostok, on the eastern coast of Russia when he was young. He started playing tennis at age seven.

Tennis career Kunitsyn is arguably best known for two matches against compatriot Marat Safin. The first of which was at the 2007 Tennis Channel Open's round-robin stage. Kunitsyn had won the first set, and had an early break in the second before Safin fought back and then got a 5–3 lead. While serving for the match, Kunitsyn broke Safin and then held to get it to 5–5. The set went to a tiebreaker which Safin won. Kunitsyn was still dangerous, as he won the first three games of the third set, before losing the next four. Kunitsyn performed the same as before, and broke Safin again to get the set on equal terms. At 5–5, Kunitsyn suffered a service break and Safin ultimately won the third set 7–5. The pair met again in the final of the Kremlin Cup, an ATP tournament played in Moscow. Kunitsyn defeated the former two-time Grand Slam winner and world No. 1.

In August 2008, he made the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, beating Mischa Zverev, Fabio Fognini, and Somdev Devvarman, before losing Viktor Troicki.

In June 2009, he lost to Israeli Dudi Sela, at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in a grass-court tune-up for Wimbledon. In Wimbledon, he defeated Wimbledon debutant wildcard Grigor Dimitrov due to retirement after suffering a knee injury, before he lost to Andy Roddick in the second round in four sets, winning the third set. Following the tournament, he reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 35 on 6 July 2009.

Heavily favored Russia was hosted by Israel in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. With Israel having won the first two matches, in what proved to be the deciding third match Israelis Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich beat Kunitsyn and Marat Safin, 6–3, 6–4, 6–7, 4–6, 6–4, in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000."Netanyahu: Davis Cup team has filled nation with pride", The Jerusalem Post, 7/11/09, accessed 7/11/09 Israel defeated Russia 4–1 for the win.

At the 2009 Indianapolis Tennis Championships in July, Kunistyn was beaten in the second round by 23-year-old American Wayne Odesnik.

In 2012 Wimbledon, he lost his first-round match to Go Soeda.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 title) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–0)ATP 250 Series (1–0)Finals by surfaceHard (1–0)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (0–0)Indoors (1–0)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Moscow, RussiaInternational SeriesHard Marat Safin7–6(8–6), 6–7(4–7), 6–3

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–0)ATP 250 Series (1–3)Finals by surfaceHard (1–1)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–2)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (0–2)Indoors (1–1)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Nottingham, Great BritainInternational SeriesGrass Dmitry Tursunov Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram3–6, 2–6Loss0–2Newport, United StatesInternational SeriesGrass Nathan Healey Jordan Kerr Jim Thomas3–6, 5–7Loss0–3Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia250 SeriesHard Jaroslav Levinský Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski2–6, 1–6Win1–3Moscow, Russia250 SeriesHard Dmitry Tursunov Janko Tipsarević Viktor Troicki7–6(10–8), 6–3

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 26 (14–12) LegendATP Challenger (8–8)ITF Futures (6–4)Finals by surfaceHard (11–10)Clay (3–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–1)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0–1Belarus F1, MinskFuturesCarpet Dmitriy Tomashevich4–6, 6–7Win1–1Ukraine F2, GorlovkaFuturesClay Kirill Ivanov-Smolensky7–6, 6–3Win2–1Russia F3, TolyattiFuturesHard Artem Derepasko6–2, 6–4Loss2–2Fergana, UzbekistanChallengerHard Vladimir Voltchkov6–4, 0–6, 4–6Loss2–3Tolyatti, RussiaChallengerHard Vadim Kutsenko4–6, 1–6Win3–3Italy F7, TurinFuturesClay Éric Prodon6–4, 6–1Win4–3USA F2, Delray BeachFuturesHard Giorgio Galimberti6–4, 6–2Loss4–4Croatia F1, ZagrebFuturesHard Lovro Zovko6–4, 1–6, 6–7(6–8)Loss4–5Croatia F2, ZagrebFuturesHard Lovro Zovko2–6, 6–3, 6–7(5–7)Loss4–6Uzbekistan F1, KarshiFuturesHard Jimmy Wang5–7, 4–6Win5–6Uzbekistan F4, NamanganFuturesHard Tuomas Ketola6–3, 6–3Loss5–7Seoul, South KoreaChallengerHard Werner Eschauer2–6, ret.Loss5–8Wrocław, PolandChallengerHard Karol Kučera2–6, 1–6Win6–8Uzbekistan F2, GulistonFuturesHard Ivan Cerović7–5, 6–2Win7–8Fergana, UzbekistanChallengerHard Prakash Amritraj6–4, 7–5Win8–8Tolyatti, RussiaChallengerHard Viktor Bruthans6–1, 6–2Win9–8Saransk, RussiaChallengerClay Boris Pashanski7–5, 6–4Win10–8Shrewsbury, United KingdomChallengerHard Igor Sijsling6–2, 6–4Loss10–9Baton Rouge, United StatesChallengerHard Bobby Reynolds3–6, 7–6(7–3), 5–7Loss10–10Bordeaux, FranceChallengerClay Eduardo Schwank2–6, 2–6Win11–10Donetsk, UkraineChallengerHard Sergey Bubka6–3, 6–3Win12–10Astana, KazakhstanChallengerHard Konstantin Kravchuk4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–3)Loss12–11Astana, KazakhstanChallengerHard Ivan Dodig4–6, 3–6Loss12–12San José, Costa RicaChallengerHard Giovanni Lapentti5–7, 3–6Win13–12Cremona, ItalyChallengerHard Rainer Schüttler6–2, 7–6(7–2)Win14–12Karshi, UzbekistanChallengerHard Dzmitry Zhyrmont7–6(12–10), 6–2

Doubles: 11 (5–6) LegendATP Challenger (4–4)ITF Futures (1–2)Finals by surfaceHard (4–4)Clay (0–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (1–0)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Uzbekistan F2, AndijanFuturesHard Rik de Voest Jordan Kerr Tuomas Ketola7–5, 2–6, 1–6Win1–1Fergana, UzbekistanChallengerHard Rik de Voest Simon Larose Michael Tebbutt6–1, 6–7(4–7), 6–3Loss1–2Uzbekistan F1, QarshiFuturesHard Dmitri Vlasov Ivan Cerović Lazar Magdinchev3–6, 6–2, 4–6Win2–2Segovia, SpainChallengerHard Vladimir Voltchkov Daniel Muñoz de la Nava Iván Navarro3–6, 6–3, 6–2Loss2–4Bronx, United StatesChallengerHard Uros Vico Huntley Montgomery Tripp Phillips6–7(6–8), 7–6(10–8), 2–6Loss2–5Kyiv, UkraineChallengerClay Yuri Schukin Albert Portas Sergio Roitman1–6, 1–6Win3–5Donetsk, UkraineChallengerHard Uros Vico Marco Chiudinelli Lovro Zovko3–6, 6–3, 6–4Win4–5Belgrade, SerbiaChallengerCarpet Orest Tereshchuk Lukáš Dlouhý Jan VacekwalkoverWin5–5Uzbekistan F1, QarshiFuturesHard Sergei Demekhine Murad Inoyatov Denis Istomin6–4, 5–7, 6–4Loss5–6Heilbronn, GermanyChallengerHard Aisam Qureshi Rik de Voest Bobby Reynolds6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–5), [4–10]Loss5–7Braunschweig, GermanyChallengerClay Yuri Schukin Leonardo Tavares Simone Vagnozzi5–7, 6–7(4–7)

Performance timelines

Singles Tournament20002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013SRW–LWin%Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAAQ1Q1Q1A1RQ31R2R2R1RQ20 / 52–5French OpenAAQ1Q2AAQ21RA1R1R1R1RQ10 / 50–5WimbledonAAQ21RQ2Q22R1R1R2R1R2R1RQ30 / 83–8US OpenQ1A1RQ2Q1Q21R2R1R1RA3RAQ20 / 63–6Win–loss0–00–00–10–10–00–01–21–40–21–41–34–40–30–00 / 248–24ATP World Tour Masters 1000Indian WellsAAAAAQ1A1R1R2RAA1RQ10 / 41–4MiamiAAAAAQ11R1R1R2RA2R2RA0 / 63–6Monte CarloAAAAAAAQ2A1RQ2AAA0 / 10–1RomeAAAQ1AAQ2Q2A1RAAAA0 / 10–1HamburgAAAQ1AAAAAAAAAA0 / 10–1MadridNot HeldAAAAAAA1RAQ1AA0 / 10–1CanadaAAAAAAAAA1RAAAA0 / 10–1CincinnatiAAAQ1AAAAA2RAAAA0 / 11–1ShanghaiNot Held2RAAAA0 / 11–1ParisAAAAAAAAAAA2RAA0 / 10–1Win–loss0–00–00–00–00–00–00–10–20–24–80–01–21–20–00 / 176–17

Doubles Tournament2003200420052006200720082009201020112012SRW–LWin%Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAAA1R1R2R2RA2R0 / 53–5French OpenAAAAQFSFQFA1R1R0 / 510–5WimbledonQ1AAA2R2R1RAAA0 / 32–3US OpenAAAA1R3R1RA1RA0 / 42–4Win–loss0–00–00–00–04–47–44–41–10–21–20 / 1717–17ATP World Tour Masters 1000Indian WellsAAAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1MiamiAAAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1CanadaAAAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1CincinnatiAAAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1Win–loss0–00–00–00–00–00–00–40–00–00–00 / 40–4

References

External links

Kunitsyn World Ranking History