Kenneth Carlsen

Infobox Tennis player


playername= Kenneth Carlsen
country=
residence= Monte Carlo, Monaco
datebirth= birth date and age|1973|04|17
placebirth= Copenhagen, Denmark
height= 191 cm (6 ft 3 in)
weight= 88 kg (194 lb)
turnedpro= 1992
retired= 2007
plays= Left, one-hand backhand
careerprizemoney= $2,990,980
singlesrecord= 266–288
singlestitles= 3
highestsinglesranking= No. 41 (June 7, 1993)
AustralianOpenresult= 4th round (1993)
FrenchOpenresult= 2nd round (1993, 1994)
Wimbledonresult= 3rd round (1993), (1994), (2004)
USOpenresult= 3rd round (1995)
doublesrecord= 40–62
doublestitles= 0
highestdoublesranking= No. 134 (April 5, 2004)
updated= October 22, 2007

Kenneth Carlsen (born April 17, 1973) is a former Danish professional tennis player, who was active between 1992 and 2007. Carlsen played left-handed with a one-handed backhand. His greatest asset was his powerful serve, and his game was therefore best suited to fast surfaces (grass and hardcourt). For most of his long career Carlsen was Denmark's best tennis player, and consistently among the few Danish players playing at the highest international level. He has seven times been awarded best Danish "Tennis Player of the Year" by the Danish Tennis Federation (first time in 1991, last time in 2005). [cite web|url=http://www.dtftennis.dk/default.lasso?section=18&page=46760|title=Årets Tennisspiller|work=dtftennis.dk|accessdate=2007-10-12 da icon] Two times the award went to the Danish Davis Cup team, which Kenneth Carlsen until 2003 was a central part of (having a 29–13 record in singles). [In July 2007, he made a final appearance on the Danish Davis Cup team after having announced his retirement from professional tennis.]

Career

He began playing tennis at age nine, and became in his teens one of the best juniors in the world. He finished as no. 3 in the world in 1991. He turned full-time professional in 1992, and his breakthrough as senior in a major tournament came at the Copenhagen Open where he beat Alexander Volkov (then a top-20 player) in the first round. Later that year, he reached the final in Brisbane—-only his fourth ATP tournament. His debut in the 1993 Australian Open confirmed his position among the best players in the world as he went to the fourth round. The same year he reached his career-best singles ranking as World No. 41 in June. Since 1993 he was for most of the time ranked within the Top 100 in the world. In 1994 he played the most famous match of his career when he beat Stefan Edberg in five sets at Wimbledon.

In 1996 he reached the final of the tournament that triggered his career, Copenhagen Open, but lost to Cedric Pioline. The next year he reached the final in Auckland, but this time lost to Jonas Björkman. This saw his ranking shot up 20 spots to World No. 52. After tournament victories at the Challenger level, he won his first ATP tournament in 1998 in Hong Kong beating Byron Black in the final. In 1999, Kenneth Carlsen reached the final in Newport, but lost to Chris Woodruff.

In 2000 he suffered from a serious shoulder injury, and underwent surgery twice. He did not play any tournaments that year. His recovery was relatively slow, and he could not return to professional tennis until June 2001. His long absence from the sport, however, did not seem to affect his playing negatively. In 2002 he won his second ATP tournament in Tokyo, and in 2005 he won the Regions Morgan Keegan Championship in Memphis at almost 32 years old. His resurgence saw him in June 2005 become World No. 50.

Carlsen rarely played doubles, but reached three ATP finals in his career. Copenhagen with Frederik Fetterlein in 1997 (lost to Andrei Olhovskiy/Brett Steven), Tashkent, Uzbekistan with Sjeng Schalken in 1998 (lost to Stefano Pescosolido/Laurence Tieleman), and Beijing with Michael Berrer in 2006 (lost to Mario Ančić/Mahesh Bhupathi).

He played a total of 46 Grand Slam events during his career, and he holds the record for most first-round exits, 30.

On June 27, 2007 he announced that he would retire from professional tennis, [cite web|url=http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/anden_sport/tennis/article313488.ece|title=Rørt Carlsen gjorde status|work=Ekstra Bladet|date=2007-06-27|accessdate=2007-10-12 da icon] and he played his last ATP match in first round of the Stockholm Open on October 10, 2007. [cite web|url=http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2007news/carlsen_retire.asp|title=Carlsen Retires from ATP Circuit in Stockholm|work=ATPtennis.com|date=2007-10-10|accessdate=2007-10-12] The week after, he played his final professional tennis match at a Challenger tournament in Kolding, Denmark.

ATP Wins (3) and finals (4)

Wins

Notes and references

External links

*ATP|id=C328
*DavisCupplayerlink|id=10000224
* [http://www.itftennis.com/mens/players/player.asp?player=10000224 "ITFtennis.com" player profile page for Kenneth Carlsen]