Editing Richard Krajicek (section)

==Career==
Richard Krajicek began playing tennis at the age of four. As a youngster he won both the Dutch under-12 and the under-14 National Championships twice. His biggest achievement as a youngster was winning the Wiltshire Open in the UK after beating Steven White in straight sets in the final. He turned professional in 1989, and in 1991 won his first top-level singles title in [[Hong Kong Open (tennis)|Hong Kong]] and his first tour doubles title at the [[1991 Dutch Open (tennis)|Dutch Open]].

In 1992, the {{convert|1.95|m|ftin|abbr=off}} Dutchman reached his first [[Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam]] semi-finals at the [[Australian Open]]. He had to withdraw from this semi-final match due to a shoulder injury. The next year, he reached the semi-finals at the French Open, where he lost in four sets to the defending champion [[Jim Courier]]. Also in 1992, Krajicek made a controversial comment regarding [[equal pay for women]] in Grand Slam events, saying, "Eighty percent of the top 100 women are fat pigs who don't deserve equal pay." Later, he jokingly clarified his comments, remarking, "What I meant to say was that only 75 percent are fat pigs."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=41472006 |location=Edinburgh |work=The Scotsman |first=Stephen |last=Mcginty |title=Crowd's racket over Murray's 'sexist' quip |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605131342/http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Crowds--racket-over-Murrays.2740847.jp |archive-date=5 June 2011 |url-status=dead |date=10 January 2006}}</ref>

At the [[1996 Italian Open (tennis)|1996 Italian Open]], Krajicek reached the final, before losing in four sets to the reigning champion, [[Thomas Muster]]. At the [[1996 French Open – Men's singles|French Open]] later that year, Krajicek was the only player to take a set off the eventual champion, [[Yevgeny Kafelnikov]], during their quarterfinal match.

Coming into 1996 Wimbledon, Krajicek had never previously progressed beyond the fourth round at the tournament and had lost in the first round in the two previous years. He was seen as a player with potential, having one of the fastest serves at the time, but was not considered to be a strong contender for the title. The clear favourite was [[Pete Sampras]], who had won the title for the past three consecutive years. Despite being ranked within the world's top 16, Krajicek just missed out on the seedings for the tournament, but when seventh seed (and world No. 2) [[Thomas Muster]] pulled out shortly before the tournament due to an injury, Krajicek was declared the 17th seed and moved to Muster's place in the draw. Opinions differ, therefore, on whether he won the tournament as an unseeded player.

He beat former champion [[Michael Stich]] in the fourth round and met Sampras in the quarterfinals. By that time, he had managed to turn his notably weak slice backhand into an aggressive top-spin shot. Krajicek defeated Sampras in straight sets, becoming the only player to beat Sampras in a Wimbledon singles match in the eight-year period from 1993 until Sampras's fourth-round loss to [[Roger Federer]] in 2001. Next, he beat Australia's [[Jason Stoltenberg]] in the semi-finals, and went on to face American [[MaliVai Washington]] in the final. He won the final in straight sets to become the first Dutchman to win Wimbledon.

In 1997, Krajicek's defence of his Wimbledon title ended in the fourth round, when [[Tim Henman]] defeated him in four sets.

In 1998, Krajicek was in the Wimbledon semi-finals again, losing to [[Goran Ivanišević]] in a marathon match, 13–15 in the fifth set, with both players serving a combined 38 aces.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000816215423/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/1998/wimbledon/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com] {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000824132347/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/1998/wimbledon/news/1998/07/03/wimbledon_update_2/ sportsillustrated.cnn.com] {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> His final attempt at a Wimbledon title was in 2002, when he lost in the quarterfinals to [[Xavier Malisse]]. Krajicek beat world No. 5 [[Andre Agassi]], world No. 1 Sampras and world No. 9 [[Yevgeny Kafelnikov]] on his way to the [[1998 Eurocard Open – Singles|Stuttgart Masters]] title in November.

At the [[1999 US Open (tennis)|1999 US Open]], Krajicek lost a quarterfinal matchup to [[Yevgeny Kafelnikov]]. Despite the loss, he set several [[ATP Tour records#Miscellaneous|most aces]] records that day. In the 2000 U.S. Open, Krajicek met Sampras in the quarterfinals, winning the first set and going up 6–2 during the second-set tiebreaker, but then losing six straight points and the match.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/sports/us-open-sampras-awakes-to-stop-krajicek.html|title=U.S. OPEN; Sampras Awakes To Stop Krajicek|first=Selena|last=Roberts|date=7 September 2000|work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 2000, Krajicek was awarded the [[ATP Awards|ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award]] for his efforts to help youth in his home country.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/1213996.stm |work=BBC News |title=Award seals Kuerten's dream year |date=11 March 2001 |access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> He was named [[ATP Awards|ATP Comeback Player of the Year]] in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |author=Richard Krajicek |url=http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/players/playerpage/201551/2003 |title=Tennis – CBSSports.com Scoreboard, Schedules, Players |publisher=Sportsline.com |access-date=2 June 2012 |archive-date=9 December 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041209111311/http://www.sportsline.com/tennis/players/playerpage/201551/2003 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Krajicek retired from the professional tour in 2003. During his career, he won 17 singles titles and three doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 4 in 1999. Krajicek's Wimbledon victory over Sampras proved to be no fluke, since he ended his career with a 6–4 record against the American player.<ref>{{cite web |title=Players – Head to Head |url=http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=K214&oId=S402 |website=www.atpworldtour.com |publisher=[[Association of Tennis Professionals|ATP]]}}</ref>

Since retiring from the ATP Tour, Krajicek runs The Richard Krajicek Foundation, which builds sports facilities for children in inner-city areas in the Netherlands.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/have_your_say/3756696.stm |work=BBC News |title=Q&A: Richard Krajicek |date=1 November 2004 |access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> In 2004, Krajicek became the tournament director of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam.

In 2005, he published a book on tennis, ''Fast Balls'' (Dutch: ''Harde Ballen'').