Jerzy Janowicz
Jerzy Filip Janowicz Jr. is a Polish former professional tennis player and current padel player. Janowicz is best known for becoming the first Polish man to reach a major semifinal, at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. Despite never winning an ATP Tour title, Janowicz obtained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 in August 2013. He also achieved a doubles best ranking of No. 47 in the same month of that year.
Having finished as runner-up at two junior major tournaments, Janowicz rose to prominence on the pro circuit leading up to and following his run to the final, as a qualifier, of the 2012 Paris Masters, during which he defeated five top-20 players such as Andy Murray and Janko Tipsarević. Despite losing to David Ferrer in the finals, he made his top-30 debut in the ATP rankings and became the highest-ranked male Polish tennis player that moment until he was surpassed by fellow countryman Hubert Hurkacz.
Janowicz was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by Polish President Bronisław Komorowski in 2013 for his achievements. Noted for his very powerful serve, Janowicz could hit at up to along with strong groundstrokes.
Coaching
Janowicz was coached by Günter Bresnik and his strength and conditioning coach is Piotr Grabia.Early life
Born in Łódź, Poland Janowicz began playing tennis at the age of five after his parents introduced him to the sport. Father Jerzy and mother Anna Szalbot were both professional volleyball players. Janowicz has named Pete Sampras as his inspiration. Every October Janowicz and his team run the annual Atlas Jerzyk Cup tennis tournament in Łódź, Poland promoting the sport to young children, ages 8 to 12 years old.Career
Juniors
Janowicz inherits his athleticism and height from his parents, who were both volleyball players. At the age of 10 or 11, his parents sold off their chain of sports stores and apartments to support their son's training, recognizing that he had a future in tennis from a young age. As a junior, Janowicz posted a 59–23 win–loss record and reached a combined ranking of No. 5 in the world in 2008.He reached the boys' singles final at the 2007 US Open and 2008 French Open, losing in straight sets to Ričardas Berankis and Yang Tsung-hua, respectively.
2012: Top 30 ATP ranking and breakthrough on ATP World Tour
Janowicz ended 2011 ranked 221 in the world. At the start of 2012 he could not play in the Australian Open due to lack of sponsorship. In February, he was the runner-up in a Challenger tournament in Wolfsburg, Germany. Later in the year, he won three Challenger tournament finals. At the French Open, he got as far as the third round of qualifying, but failed to make it into the main draw. At the Wimbledon Championships, he made it through the three rounds of qualifying to be in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, where he defeated a qualifier, Simone Bolelli, in the first round, Ernests Gulbis in the second, then lost to the 31st seed Florian Mayer in the third. At the US Open, he made it directly into a Grand Slam without having to compete in the qualifying rounds. He lost to young American wildcard Dennis Novikov.In November 2012, Janowicz qualified for the main draw of the 2012 BNP Paribas Masters, an ATP 1000 tournament. He defeated world No. 19, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the first round, the No. 14 Marin Čilić in the second and the No. 3 and Olympic gold medalist and US Open champion Andy Murray in the third. He defeated Murray in three sets, saving one match point en route. He said afterwards "This was the most unbelievable day in my life." In the quarterfinals, he defeated No. 9 Janko Tipsarević, to go on to play in the semifinals where he beat Frenchman and No. 20 Gilles Simon to reach his first ATP tour-level final. He was the first qualifier to do this since Andrei Pavel in 2003 and the first player to reach the final on his ATP World Tour Masters 1000 debut since Harel Levy in 2000. In the final, he was defeated by fourth seed David Ferrer, but afterwards said "I've got a lot of confidence right now. I learned if you have big heart and you want to do something amazing and you're going to fight for this, you have a big chance to make it." His run led him to the top 30 for the first time in his career, and he finished the year ranked No. 24, almost 200 places higher than the previous year.
2013: World No. 14 and first Grand Slam semifinal
Janowicz began his season at the Heineken Open in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was seeded fifth; however, he lost his opening match against American Brian Baker. He then competed for the first time in the main draw of the Australian Open, where he was the 24th seed, the first time he had been seeded at a Grand Slam tournament. He won his first two matches against Simone Bolelli in straight sets, and Somdev Devvarman of India, against whom he had to recover from a two-set deficit to win in five. In his third-round match, he lost to 10th seed Nicolás Almagro in straight sets.He played the Indian Wells Masters, where he reached the third round and was eventually eliminated by Richard Gasquet. He then played at the Miami Masters, where he was seeded 21st, but lost his first match in the second round to Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. At the Monte-Carlo Masters, he again lost his first match in the first round to South African, Kevin Anderson. He continued to play at the Madrid Masters, where he won his first-round match against Sam Querrey, but was eliminated in the second round by eventual semifinalist, Tomáš Berdych. He then played at the Italian Open, where he reached the quarterfinals with consecutive wins over two top-ten players, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He lost to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. Federer said: "He obviously has a big game, unconventional shot selection at times, but really fun to watch... I've got to be careful."
At the French Open, he reached the third round, where he was eliminated in four sets by Stan Wawrinka.
At Wimbledon, he defeated Kyle Edmund, Radek Štěpánek and Nicolás Almagro for a spot in the round of 16 and Jürgen Melzer for a spot in his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal. He then beat fellow Pole Łukasz Kubot in straight sets, becoming the first Polish man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. There, he was beaten by No. 2 and eventual champion Andy Murray in four sets.
He did not reach quarterfinals in his next few tournaments, falling to Fernando Verdasco by retirement in Hamburg Open and Rafael Nadal in two tight sets at the Rogers Cup. Janowicz actually served for the first set. His next result was a straight-set loss to James Blake in the Cincinnati Open first round.
Jerzy performed disappointingly in the US Open, falling to world No. 247 Máximo González in straight sets, suffering from a back injury. His back injury caused him to withdraw from next few tournaments. He returned in October to reach the quarterfinals at the Stockholm Open, where he lost to Ernests Gulbis in three sets, a player he had beaten in the previous year's Wimbledon in a long five-set match. Then he traveled to Valencia, where he reached the quarterfinals as well, losing to eventual runner-up David Ferrer.
Janowicz's last tournament of the year was the Paris Masters, where he had made his breakthrough the previous year. He won his opening meeting with Santiago Giraldo, but did not defend points due to his loss to top seed Rafael Nadal. Janowicz finished the season at No. 21.
2014: Foot injury, and out of top 50
Janowicz was to partner Agnieszka Radwańska in the Hopman Cup, the annual international mixed-team tournament in Perth, Western Australia, but was unable to do so due to a foot injury. He was replaced in the draw by Davis Cup teammate Grzegorz Panfil. Janowicz started his season at Sydney International, where he was seeded second, but lost his first match in the second round to Alexandr Dolgopolov. At the Australian Open, he beat Jordan Thompson in the first round and Pablo Andújar in the second round, then lost to Florian Mayer in the third round. After the match, Janowicz revealed that he had been playing with a broken bone in his foot, which was diagnosed during the off season.Janowicz continued at the Open Sud de France, where he won his second-round match against Adrian Mannarino and quarterfinal match against Édouard Roger-Vasselin. He then lost in the semifinals against Richard Gasquet in a tight match.
At ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Janowicz beat the previous year's finalist Julien Benneteau in the first round and Tommy Haas in the second round. He was defeated by Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals. Janowicz was due to play at Open 13 in Marseille, where he made it to the previous year's quarterfinals, but withdrew from the event to recover from a case of sinusitis. Next, Janowicz played at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, where he lost to Alejandro Falla in the second round. Similarly, he was defeated by Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round at the Sony Open Tennis ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Miami. Additionally, he made an early exit at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, where he failed to make it past the first round, going down in straight sets against the French veteran Michaël Llodra. After early losses in Barcelona, Madrid, and Rome, Janowicz concentrated on getting ready for the French Open. At Roland Garros, Janowicz defeated Víctor Estrella Burgos and Jarkko Nieminen, then lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round.
Before Wimbledon, Janowicz played at Halle Open in Germany and at the Boodles Challenge in Buckinghamshire, England. At Wimbledon, he defeated Somdev Devvarman and Lleyton Hewitt, then lost to Tommy Robredo in five sets. This third-round loss to Robredo would mean a loss of 610 ranking points, and a significant drop in ranking, bringing him down to No. 51. Following Wimbledon, Janowicz competed at the Swedish Open in Båstad, where he was forced to retire in the first round due to a left foot injury. Subsequently, he entered the German Open Tennis Championships in Hamburg, where he was defeated by Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round.
Janowicz began his US Open Series campaign at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where he fell to Canadian wildcard Peter Polansky. At the Western & Southern Open, he defeated qualifier Teymuraz Gabashvili and Grigor Dimitrov, then lost to Julien Benneteau in the third round. After Cincinnati, Janowicz continued at Winston-Salem Open, where he defeated Carlos Berlocq, João Sousa, Édouard Roger-Vasselin, David Goffin, and Sam Querrey, then lost to Lukáš Rosol in the final despite having two championship points in the third set. Janowicz won his first career match at the US Open, defeating Dušan Lajović, then lost to 18th seed Kevin Anderson in four sets. He next participated at the Moselle Open in France, where he defeated Adrian Mannarino and Jarkko Nieminen, then lost to Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals. He continued at the China Open, where he was defeated by Andy Murray in the first round. At the Shanghai Rolex Masters, he defeated Édouard Roger-Vasselin, then lost to Andy Murray in the second round. Janowicz ended the season at the Paris Masters, where he lost a three-set match against Sam Querrey. He ended the season ranked No. 43, finishing with a top-50 ranking for the third time in succession.