Radek Stepanek
Radek Stepanek
Radek Štěpánekis a professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 8 and best doubles ranking is World No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 event finals and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2006, as well as winning the deciding match for Czech Republic's Davis Cup winning team in 2012 and again in 2013. In doubles, he won his first major title at the 2012 Australian Open, along with Indian partner...
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth27 November 1978
CityKarvina, Czech Republic
I don't have an explanation for today's game. I felt good going into it, but somehow things did not work out.
I beat the defending champion from last year and I think that today the conditions were tough for both of us, ... It was our first match on clay so the tennis was not that pretty. But I'm pretty happy with the win because I remember the Davis Cup from last year when it was two sets all and I lost 6-0 in the fifth set, so this one was payback time.
I am surprised with what I have done but I have been pretty confident since the tournament started,
I have already played him three times and I knew what to expect from him. I was hanging in there waiting for my chances.
In the beginning of the second set, he looked to be a little tired and I felt fresh. At the time he showed he was a little tired, I was the one who controlled the game.
Whether it came early in the set or in the tiebreak, I knew it would come.
It feels great. I will remember this day forever.
Jonas played a perfect match today, ... I was caught up by his very quick playing from the beginning with his kick serves, his returns, passing shots...all of them were so powerful. He didn't let me play much, he controlled the game and played very aggressively.
I saw him playing in Queen's and know he played a couple of good matches.
That was the crucial part of the match. It gave me a lot of confidence because before that I was really nervous.
He can change the pace of the serve, he's serving high kicks, he's serving big bombs, he's serving with slice, so it's very hard to get a rhythm on the return.
He pushed hard early on and I decided to play more aggressively in the second set.
The key moment was the tiebreak. I was more aggressive and I managed to put him under a lot of pressure from the baseline.
The first set was very tough, Luis played incredible well and I wasn't close to getting a break point. I had to survive and hang in there waiting for my chances. The chance came right away in the second set, and I picked up my game and I was controlling it until the end of the match.