Kristian Peter Pless (born 9 February 1981) is a former professional male tennis player from Denmark.
Tennis career Juniors Pless had an excellent junior career, winning the 1999 Australian Open Boys' Singles (defeated Mikhail Youzhny), and reaching the Boys' final at both Wimbledon (lost to Jürgen Melzer), and the US Open (lost to Jarkko Nieminen) the same year. He finished 1999 as the No. 1 ranked junior player in the world.
Pro tour He turned professional in 1999, and on 28 January 2002, Kristian Pless reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 65. He has won tournaments at the Futures and Challenger levels, and has reached three semifinals on the ATP Tour. He suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2003, which after multiple surgery kept him out of competition for almost a year.
After returning from injury in 2004, he had dropped in the rankings to World No. 846 on 24 May. Subsequently, he has gradually climbed the rankings, and after successful performances at the Challenger level in autumn 2006, he entered the Top 100 again. In January 2007, he continued his good performances as he defeated World No. 8 David Nalbandian in three sets in the first round of Chennai Open. This was Pless' first win against a Top-10 ranked player.
In 2007 he also managed to take a set from tennis legend Roger Federer at their meeting in Dubai, but eventually Federer won the tie 7–6(2), 3–6, 6–3. It was first set Federer had lost that year after he had won the Australian Open without losing a single set.
In 2008 he reached two Challenger finals (in Izmir, Turkey and Rimouski, Canada), but ended the year outside of Top 100. 2009 was his last year on tour.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups) ResultYearTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1999Australian OpenHard Mikhail Youzhny6–4, 6–3Loss1999WimbledonGrass Jürgen Melzer6–7, 3–6Loss1999US OpenHard Jarkko Nieminen7–6, 3–6, 4–6
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up) ResultYearTournamentSurfacePartnetOpponentsScoreWin1999Australian OpenHard Jürgen Melzer Ladislav Chramosta Michal Navrátil6–7, 6–3, 6–0Loss1999French OpenClay Olivier Rochus Irakli Labadze Lovro Zovko1–6, 6–7
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 20 (7–13) LegendATP Challenger (4–11)ITF Futures (3–2)Finals by surfaceHard (1–9)Clay (4–2)Grass (0–0)Carpet (2–2)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss0–1New Zealand F3, ChristchurchFuturesHard Louis Vosloo4–6, 3–6Win1–1Austria F3, SchwazFuturesClay Scott Barron6–3, 7–5Win2–1Ireland F1, DublinFuturesCarpet Grant Doyle6–3, 6–7(5–7), 6–1Win3–1Hungary F6, BudapestFuturesClay Alexander Peya7–5, 6–3Loss3–2Hull, United KingdomChallengerCarpet Michael Kohlmann7–5, 6–7(3–7), 6–7(5–7)Win4–2Edinburgh, United KingdomChallengerClay Gorka Fraile6–3, 6–3Loss4–3Furth, GermanyChallengerClay Germán Puentes4–6, 3–6Win5–3Rio de Janeiro, BrazilChallengerHard Ricardo Mello6–1, 6–1Loss5–4Poland F3, WarsawFuturesClay Dušan Karol3–6, 4–6Loss5–5Belo Horizonte, BrazilChallengerHard John Paul Fruttero6–7(4–7), 6–7(6–8)Loss5–6Southampton, United KingdomChallengerHard Jérôme Haehnel2–6, 3–6Loss5–7Dublin, IrelandChallengerCarpet Mischa Zverev5–7, 6–7(6–8)Loss5–8Nottingham, United KingdomChallengerHard Alexander Waske4–6, 3–6Win6–8Rimouski, CanadaChallengerCarpet Lu Yen-hsun6–4, 7–6(7–5)Loss6–9Nashville, United StatesChallengerHard Robin Haase6–7(9–11), 3–6Win7–9Saint-Brieuc, FranceChallengerClay Farrukh Dustov6–3, 6–1Loss7–10Grenoble, FranceChallengerHard Nicolás Lapentti3–6, 5–7Loss7–11Cherbourg, FranceChallengerHard Thierry Ascione5–7, 6–7(5–7)Loss7–12Izmir, TurkeyChallengerHard Gilles Müller5–7, 3–6Loss7–13Rimouski, CanadaChallengerHard Ryan Sweeting4–6, 6–7(3–7)
Doubles: 7 (4–3) LegendATP Challenger (4–1)ITF Futures (0–2)Finals by surfaceHard (2–2)Clay (0–0)Grass (1–0)Carpet (1–1)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1New Zealand F3, ChristchurchFuturesHard Mark Nielsen Wynn Criswell Shaun Rudman2–6, 6–2, 1–6Win1–1Lucknow, IndiaChallengerGrass Paradorn Srichaphan Martin Lee Jamie Delgado5–7, 6–3, 7–5Loss1–2Ireland F1, DublinFuturesCarpet Jarkko Nieminen Gilles Elseneer Jean-Michel Pequery6–7(2–7), 6–4, 3–6Win2–2Prague, Czech RepublicChallengerHard Aisam Qureshi Ivo Heuberger Ville Liukko6–4, 6–4Win3–2Campos do Jordão, BrazilChallengerHard Aleksandar Vlaski Franco Ferreiro Marcelo Melo7–6(7–5), 6–4Win4–2Rimouski, CanadaChallengerCarpet Frederik Nielsen Jasper Smit Martijn van Haasteren6–2, 6–4Loss4–3Rimouski, CanadaChallengerHard Michael Ryderstedt Milos Raonic Vasek Pospisil7–5, 4–6, [6–10]
Performance timeline
Singles Tournament2000200120022003200420052006200720082009SRW–LWin%Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAQ13R1RAQ3Q21RQ1A0 / 32–3French OpenA2R1RA1RQ31R2RAA0 / 52–5WimbledonA2R1RA1RQ21R1RQ2Q20 / 51–5US OpenQ22R2RA2RQ22R1RQ2A0 / 54–5Win–loss0–03–33–40–11–30–01–31–40–00–00 / 189–18ATP Tour Masters 1000Indian WellsAAQ2Q2AAA1RAA0 / 10–1MiamiAQ11RAAAAAAA0 / 10–1Monte CarloAQ12RAAAAAAA0 / 11–1HamburgAAAAAAAQ1ANMS0 / 00–0RomeAAQ2AAAAAAA0 / 00–0Canada MastersAA2RAAAQ1AAA0 / 11–1CincinnatiAAQ1AAAQ1AAA0 / 00–-0StuttgartAQ1Not Held0 / 00–-0Win–loss0–00–02–30–00–00–00–00–10–00–00 / 42–4
See also List of Denmark Davis Cup team representatives
References
External links Personal blog