Thiemo De Bakker life and biography

Thiemo De Bakker is a Dutch tennis player, who is currently ranked 63rd in the world, and is the top ranked Dutch tennis player.

CAREER:
De Bakker started 2010 in much the same way he finished 2009. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, after defeating the eighth seed, Rajeev Ram, and compatriot Robin Haase, he lost to Janko Tipsarević. This would boost his ranking to number 81 in the world, and gave him a high enough ranking to receive direct entrance into the 2010 Australian Open - Men's Singles. In his first Grand Slam in three years, the Dutchman was paired up against the 6th seed Andy Roddick. After a nervous first set, de Bakker regained some composure and made a contest out of it, losing the second and third set by only one break each.

De Bakker's next tournament was his first ever Masters event, the 2010 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. He started off winning his opening match against Marcos Daniel in straight sets, before advancing to the third round after beating 30th seed Janko Tipsarević where he retired just after five games of play at 3–2 first set. In the third round, he fell to eventual finalist Andy Roddick 3–6, 4–6. De Bakker played his second Masters event two weeks later the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, winning his first round match against Rajeev Ram in straight sets, before falling again to the eventual finalist, this time Tomáš Berdych with the same scoreline as in Indian Wells 3–6, 4–6.

De Bakker's next Masters event was the 2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he had to qualify this time. After defeating Eduardo Schwank, de Bakker lost to the five-time reigning champion, and world number two, Rafael Nadal. With slight nervousness on the occasion, de Bakker lost this match in less than an hour, winning only one game in two sets in a 1–6, 0–6 loss. He then appeared at the 2010 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, with good form. He took out World #58 Alejandro Falla 6–1, 6–0; followed by a 7–6(5), 6–3 victory over world #92 Daniel Gimeno-Traver. In the round of 16, he scored an impressive win over World #16 (and former World #1) Juan Carlos Ferrero 7–6(2), 3–6, 7–6(4). Before the match, Ferrero had a 18–2 record on clay for the year. He followed it up with his best career victory, with a superb performance to take out World #10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6–4, 3–6, 6–3 – his first win over a top 10 player. However, his excellent run came to an end against World #8 Robin Söderling 1–6, 4–6 in the semifinals. Thiemo rose to a career high World #50 as a result of his semifinal appearance there. Following his superb performance at Barcelona, de Bakker received a Special Exempt to enter the main draw of Rome Masters where he faced Viktor Troicki in the first round, but retired due to a groin injury.

At the 2010 French Open, he made a third round showing where he lost to an injured Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, de Bakker advanced to the third round of the men's singles tournament after defeating Colombian Santiago Giraldo in a hotly contested 6–7(4), 6–4, 6–3, 5–7, 16–14 win, followed by a more comprehensive defeat (6–0, 6–3, 6–2) of an exhausted John Isner, the winner of the longest tennis match in history, which finished on its third day of play on 24 June, before losing in the third round 6–7(5), 6–7(6), 7–6(8), 4–6 to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France. De Bakker also participated in the men's doubles tournament, in which his partner was his Dutch colleague Haase. After defeating Viktor Troicki and Christopher Kas in the first round, they lost to the Ratiwatana twins, who entered the main tournament as lucky losers, in 4 sets (4–6, 6–7(6), 6–4, 2–6). At the 2010 Pilot Pen Tennis, Thiemo reached his second ATP semi-final. Sergiy Stakhovsky defeated him by a scoreline of 6–3, 6–4.

PERSONAL:

Full name is Thiemo Carsten Jannick de Bakker
Mother Carlieke, introduced her son to tennis when she would bring him to local club and he taught himself how to play
At age six he started practising with coaches from Dutch Tennis Federation
Earned his first swimming diploma at age three and started playing at a soccer club at age four
Ruud Thijssen, father of Nicole Thijssen (played for junior Fed Cup team) was coach at his club and recognized his talent
He let Thiemo join practice even though he was still very young
Has one older (Yori) and one younger brother (Kayo)
Finished as No. 1 junior in world in 2006, capping his career with title at Wimbledon juniors (d. Gawron)
Also won four other junior titles, in Costa Rica, Australia, Italy and Great Britain
Advanced to SF at Roland Garros (l. to Bester)
Considers clay his best surface and forehand as best shot
Going into 2010 has a 4-5 career record in Davis Cup play (4-4 in singles) in four ties
Coached part-time by Rohan Goetzke, the technical director of the Dutch Tennis Federation, and mentored by Richard Krajicek
Working with Australian trainer Damian Prasad through US Open.de Bakker DEUCE Feature (Aug. 2010) 2006 -- Won first ATP World Tour match in Amersfoort (d. Benneteau)
Secured first two Future titles in Portugal on hard courts.

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