Nicolas Kiefer (; born 5 July 1977) is a German former professional tennis player. He reached the semifinals of the 2006 Australian Open and won a silver medal in men's doubles with partner Rainer Schüttler at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Kiefer's career-high singles ranking was world No. 4, achieved in January 2000.
Tennis career 1995–2005 Kiefer was taken notice of as an outstanding junior. He won the Junior Australian Open, the US Open, and was a finalist and semifinalist at Wimbledon and the French Open finishing as the No. 2 junior behind Mariano Zabaleta when he was 18 in 1995. On 10 January 2000, he reached his second quarterfinal at the Australian Open and afterwards was ranked world No. 4, his highest position.
Kiefer was known to have some tennis superstitions. He was sometimes seen tapping his racquet on the corners of the court after a point,"Strange Habits of Highly Successful Tennis Players" by Christopher Clarey, 21 June 2008 in The New York Times. and, when serving, frequently asked for the ball with which he had just won a point to re-use it for the next one.
2006–2007 Kiefer became infamous for an incident on 25 January 2006, during the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. While facing Sébastien Grosjean late in the fifth set of a marathon match, Kiefer threw his racquet midpoint. Grosjean lost the point, hitting the ball into the net. Grosjean protested that the racquet distracted his shot. The umpire Carlos Bernardes said he did not believe the act was intentional and noted Grosjean had already hit the ball before the flying racquet could have had any effect on his shot. Grosjean eventually lost the fifth and final set to Kiefer. Kiefer went through to the semi-finals where he was defeated by the 2004 champion Roger Federer.
Kiefer injured his wrist while playing at the 2006 French Open, and announced his return on 5 July 2007, having fallen to the 404th position on ATP. He announced that he was "tired of waiting and anxious to start traveling again and to see his name on scoreboards". Kiefer returned at the 2007 Gerry Weber Open, losing in the first round to eventual champion Tomáš Berdych. At Wimbledon, he made the third round after defeating No.30 seed Filippo Volandri and Fabrice Santoro, both in straight sets, before losing in 4 sets (3 of which were tiebreakers) to Novak Djokovic. At Newport, however, he ended up losing in round 1. At Los Angeles, he reached the semifinals in only his 4th tournament since coming back from injury; he had to default against Radek Štěpánek, another player coming back from injury, because of an injury sustained during his quarter-final win. He also made an impressive showing at the 2007 Madrid Masters, where he beat number five seed Fernando González in the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinals to world number one Roger Federer 6–4, 6–4.
2008 His 2008 season did not start out well: he lost in the first round of the Australian Open to former world No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, first round of 2008 Indian Wells Masters to Dudi Sela, third round of 2008 Miami Masters to world No.2 Rafael Nadal, second round of 2008 Monte Carlo Masters to Philipp Kohlschreiber, first round of 2008 Rome Masters to Ferrero. His first notable result was the quarterfinals of the 2008 Hamburg Masters with victories over world No.10 Stanislas Wawrinka and world No.4 Nikolay Davydenko before losing to Andreas Seppi in three sets. He would lose in the third round of 2008 Wimbledon Championships to Nadal. During the 2008 Canada Masters, at age 31 and ranked No. 37, he made his first Masters final after 73 previous tries, previously finishing as a semifinalist at the 1999 and 2004 Canada Masters (lost to Thomas Johansson and Andy Roddick respectively) and 2007 Madrid Masters (lost to Federer). Along the way, he defeated Mardy Fish, 15th seed Mikhail Youzhny, fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko, seventh seed James Blake, and Gilles Simon; the win over Simon was especially notable because Simon had defeated world No. 1 Roger Federer in the second round. He lost to Nadal in the final in straight sets. Because of his run, he broke back into the top 20 at No. 19.
2009 In 2009, he represented Germany in the 2009 Hopman Cup with 19-year-old Sabine Lisicki. In the first match, he lost against Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, who had been six months inactive due to an injury. In the second singles match, Kiefer lost again, this time to USA's James Blake. Nevertheless, Kiefer won both of the doubles matches with Sabine Lisicki against both Australia and the United States. In the third singles match, Kiefer twisted his ankle against Slovakia's Dominik Hrbatý in the first set when Kiefer was up 3–1 and serving. This injury prevented him from participating in the 2009 Australian Open.
He re-appeared in the 2009 Davis Cup match against Austria in which he won in the doubles match with Philipp Kohlschreiber against Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya in four sets. Kiefer also played a singles match, the fourth match, against Jürgen Melzer in which Kiefer won in straight sets and gave Germany the victory against Austria. Kiefer then participated in the 2009 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in which he beat Bobby Reynolds in straight sets in the second round, but he then lost in the third round to Andy Roddick.
In the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Kiefer beat "the magician" Fabrice Santoro in the second round. In the third round Kiefer was defeated by world No. 2 Roger Federer. At the 2009 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Kiefer lost in his first match against qualifier Andreas Beck. At the 2009 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Kiefer lost again in his first match against Juan Mónaco in straight sets. In the 2009 BMW Open Kiefer was down against Ernests Gulbis 2–6, 0–2 but eventually won in three sets. Kiefer said after the match, "Clay and me, we will never be the best of friends". Kiefer suffered from back problems which eventually made him lose against Jérémy Chardy in the next round.
At the 2009 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open he lost against Tommy Robredo. Kiefer then played the 2009 ARAG World Team Cup, in which he played the doubles matches with Mischa Zverev. They won all of their matches, and Germany reached the final, but lost against Serbia. Despite Germany losing, Kiefer won the doubles match in the final against Viktor Troicki and doubles world No. 1 Nenad Zimonjić.
Kiefer then participated at the 2009 French Open in which he beat qualifier Ilija Bozoljac in four sets. However, Kiefer lost in the second round against world No. 14 David Ferrer in five sets. Despite this loss, Kiefer claimed that he was proud that he had played up to a fifth set against one of the best tennis players of the world on clay, since clay is Kiefer's least favourite surface. The clay season had now ended, and the grass season started with Kiefer's participation in his favourite tournament, the 2009 Gerry Weber Open. In the first match, he thrashed Viktor Troicki, but retired in the second round against Jürgen Melzer when he was down 1–6 with a muscular strain in his abdomen which forced him to retire from singles and doubles, where he had reached the semifinals with Mischa Zverev.
Kiefer participated in the Wimbledon as the 33rd seed but having not fully recovered from his abdomen injury. This was reflected in his match against Fabrice Santoro, where Kiefer lost in straight sets. Kiefer then played for Germany in the 2009 Davis Cup quarterfinals against Spain. He did so in the doubles match with Mischa Zverev against Spain's Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano López. Kiefer and Zverev lost the match. In the first round of the U.S. Open, he beat Michaël Llodra in straight sets, but in the second round he lost to world No. 3 Rafael Nadal.
Major finals Olympic finals Doubles: 1 (1 silver medal) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreSilver 2004 Athens Olympics Hard Rainer Schüttler Fernando González Nicolás Massú 2–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(7–9), 4–6
Masters Series finals Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) ResultYearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 2008 Toronto, Canada Hard Rafael Nadal 3–6, 2–6
Career finals Singles: 19 (6 titles, 13 runner-ups)
Legend Grand Slam (0–0) Tennis Masters Cup (0–0) ATP Masters Series (0–1) ATP International Series Gold (1–3) ATP Tour (5–9)
ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Sep 1997 Toulouse, France Hard (i) Mark Philippoussis 7–5, 5–7, 6–4Loss 1–1 Oct 1997 Singapore, Singapore Carpet Magnus Gustafsson 6–4, 3–6, 3–6Loss 1–2 Feb 1999 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard Jérôme Golmard 4–6, 2–6Win 2–2 Apr 1999 Tokyo, Japan Hard Wayne Ferreira 7–6(7–5), 7–5Win 3–2 Jun 1999 Halle, Germany Grass Nicklas Kulti 6–3, 6–2Win 4–2 Sep 1999 Tashkent, Uzbekistan Hard George Bastl 6–4, 6–2Loss 4–3 Oct 1999 Vienna, Austria Carpet Greg Rusedski 7–6(7–5), 6–2, 3–6, 5–7, 4–6Win 5–3 Feb 2000 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7–5, 4–6, 6–3Win 6–3 Oct 2000 Hong Kong, China Hard Mark Philippoussis 7–6(7–4), 2–6, 6–2Loss 6–4 Oct 2001 Moscow, Russia (1) Carpet (i) Yevgeny Kafelnikov 4–6, 5–7Loss 6–5 Jun 2002 Halle, Germany (1) Grass Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6–2, 4–6, 4–6Loss 6–6 Jun 2003 Halle, Germany (2) Grass Roger Federer 1–6, 3–6Loss 6–7 Feb 2004 Memphis, United States Hard Joachim Johansson 6–7(5–7), 3–6Loss 6–8 Mar 2004 Scottsdale, United States Hard Vince Spadea 5–7, 7–6(7–5), 3–6Loss 6–9 Jul 2004 Indianapolis, United States Hard Andy Roddick 2–6, 3–6Loss 6–10 Jul 2004 Los Angeles, United States Hard Tommy Haas 6–7(6–8), 4–6Loss 6–11 Oct 2005 Moscow, Russia (2) Carpet (i) Igor Andreev 7–5, 6–7(3–7), 2–6Loss 6–12 Oct 2005 St. Petersburg, Russia Carpet (i) Thomas Johansson 4–6, 2–6Loss 6–13 Jul 2008 Toronto, Canada Hard Rafael Nadal 3–6, 2–6
Doubles (3 titles, 1 runner-up)
Legend Grand Slam (0–0) Olympics (0–1) Tennis Masters Cup (0–0) ATP Masters Series (0–0) ATP International Series Gold (1–0) ATP Tour (3–0)
ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 Oct 1998 Ostrava, Czech Republic Carpet David Prinosil David Adams Pavel Vízner 6–4, 6–3Win 2–0 Jul 2002 Los Angeles, United States Hard Sébastien Grosjean Justin Gimelstob Michaël Llodra 6–4, 6–4Win 3–0 Sep 2003 Tokyo, Japan Hard Justin Gimelstob Mark Merklein Scott Humphries 6–7(6–8), 6–3, 7–6(7–4)Loss 3–1 Aug 2004 Olympics, Athens, Greece Hard Rainer Schüttler Fernando González Nicolás Massú 2–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(7–9), 4–6
Performance timeline
Singles Tournament1995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010SRW–LGrand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenA1RAQF3RQF2R1RA1R1RSFA1RAA0 / 1016–10French OpenAQ11R2R1R1R1R1R2R2R4R3RAA2RA0 / 119–10WimbledonQ2AQF3R2R1R4R3R1R1R3RA3R3R1R1R0 / 1318–13US OpenAAA3R3RQF1R1R2R4R4RA2R1R2RA0 / 1117–11Win–loss0–00–14–29–45–48–44–42–42–34–48–37–23–22–32–30–10 / 4560–44Year-end championshipTennis Masters CupDid not qualifySFDid not qualify0 / 12–2ATP Masters SeriesIndian Wells MastersAAA3R3R1R3R2R2R1RQF2RA1R3RA0 / 1112–11Miami MastersAA2R3RQF2R2R1R1RQF2R4RA3R3RA0 / 1216–12Monte Carlo MastersAAA2RAA1R1RA2R2R3RA2R1RA0 / 86–8Rome MastersAAQ1A3RA3R1RA1R2R2RA1R1RA0 / 86–8Hamburg MastersQ21R2R1RAA3R1R1R1R2R2RAQF1RQ10 / 118–11Canada MastersAAA3RSF2R2R1RASF3RA2RF1RA0 / 1020–10Cincinnati MastersAAA1R3R1R3R2RA2R2RA2RA1RA0 / 98–9Madrid Masters1R2RQF2R2RA1RAAA1RASF1RAA0 / 99–9Paris MastersAAA2RAA1RAAA1RA1R2RAA0 / 52–5Win–loss0–11–25–39–813–61–410–92–71–310–79–96–56–412–82–70–00 / 8387–83National representationOlympic GamesNHANot Held1RNot Held3RNot Held3RNH0 / 35–3Davis CupAAAQF1RAQF1RPOPOPO1RAQFQFA0 / 710–11Career statisticsTitles00103200000000006Finals002052111420010019Year-end ranking20612832356204272582122484938116722
Top 10 wins Season1995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010TotalWins0033102230241140035