Kristian Pless

Kristian Peter Pless (born 9 February 1981) is a former professional male tennis player from Denmark.

Tennis career

Juniors

Pless had an excellent junior career, winning the 1999 Australian Open Boys' Singles (defeated Mikhail Youzhny), and reaching the Boys' final at both Wimbledon (lost to Jürgen Melzer), and the US Open (lost to Jarkko Nieminen) the same year. He finished 1999 as the No. 1 ranked junior player in the world.

Pro tour

He turned professional in 1999, and on 28 January 2002, Kristian Pless reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 65. He has won tournaments at the Futures and Challenger levels, and has reached three semifinals on the ATP Tour. He suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2003, which after multiple surgery kept him out of competition for almost a year.

After returning from injury in 2004, he had dropped in the rankings to World No. 846 on 24 May. Subsequently, he has gradually climbed the rankings, and after successful performances at the Challenger level in autumn 2006, he entered the Top 100 again. In January 2007, he continued his good performances as he defeated World No. 8 David Nalbandian in three sets in the first round of Chennai Open. This was Pless' first win against a Top-10 ranked player.

In 2007 he also managed to take a set from tennis legend Roger Federer at their meeting in Dubai, but eventually Federer won the tie 7–6⁽²⁾, 3–6, 6–3. It was first set Federer had lost that year after he had won the Australian Open without losing a single set.

In 2008 he reached two Challenger finals (in Izmir, Turkey and Rimouski, Canada), but ended the year outside of Top 100. 2009 was his last year on tour.

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1999	Australian Open	Hard	Template:Flagicon Mikhail Youzhny	6–4, 6–3
Loss	1999	Wimbledon	Grass	Template:Flagicon Jürgen Melzer	6–7, 3–6
Loss	1999	US Open	Hard	Template:Flagicon Jarkko Nieminen	7–6, 3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partnet	Opponents	Score
Win	1999	Australian Open	Hard	Template:Flagicon Jürgen Melzer	Template:Flagicon Ladislav Chramosta Template:Flagicon Michal Navrátil	6–7, 6–3, 6–0
Loss	1999	French Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Olivier Rochus	Template:Flagicon Irakli Labadze Template:Flagicon Lovro Zovko	1–6, 6–7

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 20 (7–13)

Legend ATP Challenger (4–11) ITF Futures (3–2)

Finals by surface Hard (1–9) Clay (4–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (2–2)

Result	W–L	Template:NsDateTemplate:Ns	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Template:Dts	New Zealand F3, Christchurch	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon Louis Vosloo	4–6, 3–6
Win	1–1	Template:Dts	Austria F3, Schwaz	Futures	Clay	Template:Flagicon Scott Barron	6–3, 7–5
Win	2–1	Template:Dts	Ireland F1, Dublin	Futures	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Grant Doyle	6–3, 6–7(5–7), 6–1
Win	3–1	Template:Dts	Hungary F6, Budapest	Futures	Clay	Template:Flagicon Alexander Peya	7–5, 6–3
Loss	3–2	Template:Dts	Hull, United Kingdom	Challenger	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Michael Kohlmann	7–5, 6–7(3–7), 6–7(5–7)
Win	4–2	Template:Dts	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	Challenger	Clay	Template:Flagicon Gorka Fraile	6–3, 6–3
Loss	4–3	Template:Dts	Furth, Germany	Challenger	Clay	Template:Flagicon Germán Puentes	4–6, 3–6
Win	5–3	Template:Dts	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Ricardo Mello	6–1, 6–1
Loss	5–4	Template:Dts	Poland F3, Warsaw	Futures	Clay	Template:Flagicon Dušan Karol	3–6, 4–6
Loss	5–5	Template:Dts	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon John Paul Fruttero	6–7(4–7), 6–7(6–8)
Loss	5–6	Template:Dts	Southampton, United Kingdom	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Jérôme Haehnel	2–6, 3–6
Loss	5–7	Template:Dts	Dublin, Ireland	Challenger	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Mischa Zverev	5–7, 6–7(6–8)
Loss	5–8	Template:Dts	Nottingham, United Kingdom	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Alexander Waske	4–6, 3–6
Win	6–8	Template:Dts	Rimouski, Canada	Challenger	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Lu Yen-hsun	6–4, 7–6(7–5)
Loss	6–9	Template:Dts	Nashville, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Robin Haase	6–7(9–11), 3–6
Win	7–9	Template:Dts	Saint-Brieuc, France	Challenger	Clay	Template:Flagicon Farrukh Dustov	6–3, 6–1
Loss	7–10	Template:Dts	Grenoble, France	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Nicolás Lapentti	3–6, 5–7
Loss	7–11	Template:Dts	Cherbourg, France	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Thierry Ascione	5–7, 6–7(5–7)
Loss	7–12	Template:Dts	Izmir, Turkey	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Gilles Müller	5–7, 3–6
Loss	7–13	Template:Dts	Rimouski, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Ryan Sweeting	4–6, 6–7(3–7)

Doubles: 7 (4–3)

Legend ATP Challenger (4–1) ITF Futures (0–2)

Finals by surface Hard (2–2) Clay (0–0) Grass (1–0) Carpet (1–1)

Result	W–L	Template:NsDateTemplate:Ns	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Template:Dts	New Zealand F3, Christchurch	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon Mark Nielsen	Template:Flagicon Wynn Criswell Template:Flagicon Shaun Rudman	2–6, 6–2, 1–6
Win	1–1	Template:Dts	Lucknow, India	Challenger	Grass	Template:Flagicon Paradorn Srichaphan	Template:Flagicon Martin Lee Template:Flagicon Jamie Delgado	5–7, 6–3, 7–5
Loss	1–2	Template:Dts	Ireland F1, Dublin	Futures	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Jarkko Nieminen	Template:Flagicon Gilles Elseneer Template:Flagicon Jean-Michel Pequery	6–7(2–7), 6–4, 3–6
Win	2–2	Template:Dts	Prague, Czech Republic	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Aisam Qureshi	Template:Flagicon Ivo Heuberger Template:Flagicon Ville Liukko	6–4, 6–4
Win	3–2	Template:Dts	Campos do Jordão, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Aleksandar Vlaski	Template:Flagicon Franco Ferreiro Template:Flagicon Marcelo Melo	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Win	4–2	Template:Dts	Rimouski, Canada	Challenger	Carpet	Template:Flagicon Frederik Nielsen	Template:Flagicon Jasper Smit Template:Flagicon Martijn van Haasteren	6–2, 6–4
Loss	4–3	Template:Dts	Rimouski, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Michael Ryderstedt	Template:Flagicon Milos Raonic Template:Flagicon Vasek Pospisil	7–5, 4–6, [6–10]

Performance timeline

Singles

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	SR	W–L	Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	Q1	3R	1R	A	Q3	Q2	1R	Q1	A	0 / 3	2–3	Template:Tennis win percentage
French Open	A	2R	1R	A	1R	Q3	1R	2R	A	A	0 / 5	2–5	Template:Tennis win percentage
Wimbledon	A	2R	1R	A	1R	Q2	1R	1R	Q2	Q2	0 / 5	1–5	Template:Tennis win percentage
US Open	Q2	2R	2R	A	2R	Q2	2R	1R	Q2	A	0 / 5	4–5	Template:Tennis win percentage
Win–loss	0–0	3–3	3–4	0–1	1–3	0–0	1–3	1–4	0–0	0–0	0 / 18	9–18	Template:Tennis win percentage
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells	A	A	Q2	Q2	A	A	A	1R	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	Template:Tennis win percentage
Miami	A	Q1	1R	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	Template:Tennis win percentage
Monte Carlo	A	Q1	2R	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1	Template:Tennis win percentage
Hamburg	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	A	NMS	0 / 0	0–0	Template:Tennis win percentage
Rome	A	A	Q2	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–0	Template:Tennis win percentage
Canada Masters	A	A	2R	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1	Template:Tennis win percentage
Cincinnati	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–-0	Template:Tennis win percentage
Stuttgart	A	Q1	Not Held								0 / 0	0–-0	Template:Tennis win percentage
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	2–3	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0 / 4	2–4	Template:Tennis win percentage

See also

• List of Denmark Davis Cup team representatives

External links

• Personal blog Template:In lang
• Template:ATP
• Template:ITF
• Template:Davis Cup player

Template:S-endTemplate:Australian Open boys' singles championsTemplate:Australian Open boys' doubles champions