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've lost three finals before this one and I'm very happy that I won. When I got up in the morning, I knew this was going to be my day. I played my best match in a long time. I controlled the match until the end.
I have already played him three times and I knew what to expect from him. I was hanging in there waiting for my chances.
This feels great, I have been waiting so long for this day after losing my first three finals.
I should have closed the first set in the tiebreak earlier than I did, but I tried to stay positive all the way through and I think that was the difference between us.
During those finals, I was just not good enough. I knew my time would come.
That was the crucial part of the match. It gave me a lot of confidence because before that I was really nervous.
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 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 found my rhythm and am winning matches, which is the most important thing.
I don't have an explanation for today's game. I felt good going into it, but somehow things did not work out.
This year has been very, very difficult but the way that I have been feeling this week is the best I've felt since the clay court season in 2004,
When you made me a dark horse, you gave me some extra motivation.