Krajicek's greatest success was the 1996 triumph in the men's singles at Wimbledon , where he could win the final against MaliVai Washington as an unset player . In the course of the tournament, he also eliminated defending champion Pete Sampras .
With his height of 1.96 meters and his strong serve, the serving and volleyball player Krajicek felt particularly comfortable on fast surfaces. In his career he was able to win a total of 17 ATP tournaments, including the Masters tournaments in Stuttgart and Miami . He reached his highest world ranking position in the spring of 1999 with 4th place. He is one of the few players who was able to win at least one tournament on clay, on grass, on hard courts and indoors. Due to elbow and knee problems, he was repeatedly forced to take injury breaks. In June 2003, after a defeat by Olivier Mutis in 's-Hertogenbosch , he finally retired from his career due to persistent elbow problems, after having been injured from October 2000 to June 2002.
In 1993, he founded the Richard Krajicek Foundation , a foundation that aims to give underprivileged children better access to sport. He is still involved there today. In 2004 Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.
Controversy
Krajicek attracted the displeasure of many tennis fans in 1992 in the run-up to the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon. He had told the international press that 80% of the women playing on the WTA tour were "lazy, fat pigs". When the nine-time Wimbledon winner Martina Navrátilová then confronted him, he corrected the number to 75%. This incident was not without consequences: Richard Krajicek was caricatured by several daily newspapers with a pig nose and pig ears, during the tournament in Wimbledon he was whistled several times by the English audience until he was eliminated in the third round. Krajicek later officially apologized for the statement.
Private life
He is the son of Czech immigrants. In 1999 Krajicek married Daphne Deckers, a model and writer. His half-sister Michaëlla Krajicek is also a tennis player by profession. In 2005 he published a book called Fast Balls .
He leads the Richard Krajicek Foundation ( Richard Krajicek Foundation ), the sports facilities for children in inner cities of the Netherlands is building.
List of Krajicek's books
Een helped jaar netpost (2003) with Tino Bakker
Naar de top (2005) with Anja de Crom
Harde ballen (2005)
Honger naar de bal (2006)
All Bale Verzamelen (2007)
List of achievements
Legend
Grand Slam (1)
Tennis Masters Cup
ATP Masters Series (3)
ATP Championship Series ATP International Series Gold (5)
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Netherlands
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Hong Kong
Wally Masur
Los Angeles (1)
Antwerp
Barcelona
Karsten Braasch
Wimbledon
Daniel Vacek
Tokyo
Lionel Roux
St. Petersburg
Marc Rosset
Rome
Thomas Muster
Toronto
Thomas Enqvist
Athens
Estoril
