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
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,
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 never expect an easy match but today it was easy... I played my best tennis with an excellent service game. I have never served eight straight aces before.
I'm in the final, I'm excited and fired-up. I felt the power and support of the crowd and I just did it.
I'm in the final, I'm excited and fired-up.
I'm satisfied with my form this week, but I'm not happy yet. I'll try for that tomorrow. I had couple of weeks off and I'm hungry to play and hungry to win.
I needed some time into the game, but in the second and third sets I played great tennis,
It was a good win but what I am aiming for is a title and not just another semi-final or final.
It's very tough to break him because he has a very big lefty serve,
During those finals, I was just not good enough. I knew my time would come.
When you made me a dark horse, you gave me some extra motivation.
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.
This feels great, I have been waiting so long for this day after losing my first three finals.
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.