Andrew Ilie (born 18 April 1976) is a former tennis player. Ilie fled Romania at age 10 with his family, spending a year at a refugee camp in Austria before emigrating to Australia. He turned professional in 1994 and became a citizen of Australia. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.AIS at the Olympics He won two ATP Tour singles titles (Coral Springs in 1998 and Atlanta in 2000), as well as five Challenger Series tournaments. Ilie reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 38 on 29 May 2000.
Career
Juniors He reached the finals of the Australian Open Jrs in 1994.
Pro Tour Ilie never progressed past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, but was a fan-favorite, especially in Australia. Described in 2001 by tennis writer Jon Wertheim as "an emerging cult hero", Ilie developed an avid following whenever he played at the Australian Open in Melbourne. He became well known for adventurous and occasionally outrageous shots, and by ripping his shirt in glee whenever he won a particularly important or hard-fought match. The latter ritual began at the French Open in 1999, as Ilie celebrated his first-round victory in five sets over Jonas Bjorkman, and then repeated the gesture after his second-round victory, also in five sets, over Martin Rodriguez.Collins, "Ilie has things covered in opener"
The last years of Ilie's career were marred by persistent injuries, including chronic osteitis pubis, which hampered his play. Ilie retired in November 2004. Following retirement, Ilie married and settled in Hong Kong.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss1994Australian OpenHard Ben Ellwood7–5, 3–6, 3–6
ATP career finals
Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)ATP World Tour 250 Series (2–1)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (2–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (2–1)Indoors (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Coral Springs, United StatesWorld SeriesClay Davide Sanguinetti7–5, 6–4Win2–0Atlanta, United StatesInternational SeriesClay Jason Stoltenberg6–3, 7–5Loss2–1St. Polten, AustriaInternational SeriesClay Andrei Pavel5–7, 6–3, 2–6
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 8 (6–2) LegendATP Challenger (5–2)ITF Futures (1–0)Finals by surfaceHard (2–0)Clay (4–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Lillehammer, NorwayChallengerClay Christian Ruud6–3, 6–2Win2–0Perth, AustraliaChallengerHard Michael Geserer7–6, 6–4Loss2–1Prostejov, Czech RepublicChallengerClay Richard Fromberg2–6, 2–6Win3–1Biella, ItalyChallengerClay Jean-Baptiste Perlant6–7, 6–4, 6–4Win4–1Ostend, BelgiumChallengerClay Martin Rodriguez6–2, 6–2Loss4–2Ulm, GermanyChallengerClay Younes El Aynaoui6–7, 3–6Win5–2Paget, BermudaChallengerClay Michal Tabara4–6, 6–3, 6–2Win6–2USA F4, BrownsvilleFuturesHard Doug Bohaboy6–7(4–7), 6–3, 6–4
Doubles: 2 (0–2) LegendATP Challenger (0–2)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–1)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Lillehammer, NorwayChallengerClay Todd Larkham Thomas Johansson Lars-Anders Wahlgren6–3, 3–6, 3–6Loss0–2Tel Aviv, IsraelChallengerHard Amir Hadad Noam Behr Eyal Ran3–6, 2–6
Performance timeline
Singles Tournament19931994199519961997199819992000200120022003SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenQ1Q11R1RQ13R4R3R4R1R1R0 / 810–8French OpenAA3RQ3A3R3R2R1R1RA0 / 67–6WimbledonAQ1A1RAA2R1R1RAA0 / 41–4US OpenAQ1AAA1R1R1R2RAQ10 / 41–4Win–loss0–00–02–20–20–04–36–43–44–40–20–10 / 2219–22ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAAAQ1AAA1R1RAA0 / 20–2MiamiAAAQ1AA2RQ12RAA0 / 22–2Monte CarloAAAAAA1RA2RAA0 / 21–2HamburgAAAAAA1RA3RAA0 / 22–2RomeAAAAAA1RA1RAA0 / 20–2CanadaAAAAA1R2R2R1RAA0 / 42–4CincinnatiAAAAA1R1R1RAAA0 / 30–3ParisAAAAAQ1AAAAA0 / 00–0Win–loss0–00–00–00–00–00–22–61–34–60–00–00 / 177–17
References
External links