Peter Luczak

Peter Luczak

Country (sports)	Australia
Residence	Melbourne, Australia
Born	(1979-08-31) 31 August 1979 (age 44) Warsaw, Poland
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	2000
Retired	2012 (last match 2016)
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
College	Fresno State
Prize money	US$ 1,348,936
Singles
Career record	41–89 (Grand Slam, ATP Tour level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 64 (12 October 2009)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2003, 2006)
French Open	1R (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010)
Wimbledon	2R (2010)
US Open	1R (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010)
Doubles
Career record	23–42
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 98 (1 March 2010)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2005, 2010, 2012)
French Open	2R (2010)
Wimbledon	2R (2003)
US Open	2R (2002)
Mixed doubles
Career record	3–8
Career titles	0
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011)
Wimbledon	3R (2003)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	SF (2006)
Hopman Cup	RR (2008)
Medal record Representing  Australia Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Doubles

Peter Luczak (Polish: Łuczak,^[1] pronounced [ˈwuʈ͡ʂak]; born 31 August 1979) is a retired professional tennis player from Australia. His career-high ATP singles ranking was World No. 64, achieved in October 2009.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi, Luczak won the Gold in the doubles.

Luczak came to Australia at 9 months of age, when his parents, Eva and Kris, left Warsaw in 1980,^[2] where they settled in Melbourne. Luczak started playing tennis at the age of 5, he was introduced to the game by his Polish born father Kris.^[3] He did not have major success at junior level and was not able to receive funding from Tennis Australia nor have a major sponsor. Former AFL player Nathan Brown defeated Peter Luczak 6-3 6-4 on grass, in a Warrnambool Under 16's grass tournament. Heatherdale Club stalwart Ricky Moore claims to have beaten Luczak in around 1992 and very little thereafter. Luczak was able to gain a tennis scholarship at Fresno State,^[4] which helped his tennis development and in the process getting a degree in finance^[4] without the financial burden.

During his time at Fresno, Luczak holds the record for most career singles wins. He went 27–0 in the senior season at Fresno State before being upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.^[5]

Tennis career

Luczak turned professional in 2000 and spent the year playing on the ITF Futures and ATP Challenger Series circuit during his break from university. In 2000 he made the Futures final in Clearwater losing to Dmitry Tursunov. Luczak won 4 Futures titles in 2001 and finished the year ranked at #280.

In 2002 Luczak played exclusively ATP Challenger Series circuit where he won his first title in Granby and lost to countryman Scott Draper at Binghamton in the final. He made his Grand Slam debut in 2003 at the Australian Open where he reached the 3rd round defeating Attila Sávolt and Renzo Furlan before losing to Mario Ančić.

Continuing to focus mostly on the Challengers in 2004, Luczak won two more Challenger events in Canberra and Košice which was on his favoured clay surface. Luczak made his Davis Cup debut for Australia in 2005 against Argentina on grass, where he lost a dead rubber to Guillermo Coria, in addition to this he reached his best ever performance at ATP level where reached the semi-finals as a qualifier beating Fernando González at the Brasil Open along the way before losing to Alberto Martín^[6]

Luczak equalled his best Australian Open performance by making the third round in 2006 losing in four sets to Tommy Haas indoors as the roof was closed due to the heat rule. He represented Australia against Switzerland in Davis Cup and defeating Michael Lammer to help Australia win that tie.

In 2007 Luczak finished the season in the top 100 for the first time.^[7] He based that on winning a career best four titles on the ATP Challenger Series circuit, all of these titles came on the clay. Luczak lost to Jonas Björkman at Roland Garros in the first round after leading 2 sets to 0 and also played against Serbia in the World Group promotion tie in Belgrade where he lost to Novak Djokovic and Boris Pašanski.

After reaching his career high ranking in 2008, Luczak was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the pelvis after his loss to Jürgen Melzer at Roland Garros and was out for 14 weeks before returning to play against Chile in Davis Cup. Luczak stayed on in South America and played the Copa Petrobras series of challengers on the clay, where he won Montevideo beating Pablo Cuevas 6–3, 7–6 in the semis before getting a walkover from Nicolás Massú in the final. He won the Copa Petrobras Masters event where the best performers in the series play off where he beat Thomaz Bellucci.

He was elected to the ATP Player Council, currently comprising Roger Federer (President), Rafael Nadal (Vice President), Novak Djokovic, Michael Berrer, Yves Allegro, Eric Butorac, David Martin & Martín García.

In 2009, Luczak did not receive a wild card to the Australian Open and he lost in the last round of qualification to Wayne Odesnik. He continued his comeback from the pelvis problem on the Challenger circuit, where he made the semis in Burnie and Meknes. After falling in the second round of the Roland Garros qualification to Alexander Flock after having 5 match points. Luczak defeated Flock in the last round of qualification for the Fürth Challenger where he won the event without dropping a set in the main draw. He made the semis in Lugano losing to Stanislas Wawrinka and qualified for Båstad defeating Alberto Martín and then losing to Tommy Robredo. Luczak won the challenger in Poznań and made the semis in San Marino losing to Potito Starace. He followed that result with another Challenger title in Cordenons where he defeated Christophe Rochus and Olivier Rochus in the semi-final and the final. Luczak reached his career high ranking of # 64 on 12 October 2009.

In 2010, he competed at the Medibank International in Sydney. He defeated José Acasuso of Argentina in the first round and defeated the number 2 seed Tomáš Berdych in the second round. He faced Mardy Fish in the quarter-finals and lost. He then lost to defending champion Rafael Nadal in the first round of the Australian Open. He followed up his Australian season by competing in the 2010 Movistar Open where he reached the quarter-finals before losing to Juan Mónaco.

In 2010 at Wimbledon, Luczak hit a 148 mph serve, tying the Wimbledon record for fastest serve.

Personal life

Luczak attended the High School Mazenod College in Mulgrave from 1992 to 1997. He is married to Swedish born nobility Anna Catarina Ericsdotter Queckfeldt, grand daughter of famous Swedish Olympic bronze medalist dressage rider, Countess Maud von Rosen. Together they have a son, Sebastian Oliver Luczak born in Sweden on 4 June 2006 and a daughter Millie born in March 2009. They live on the Mornington Peninsula in Australia. Luczak and his son play cricket at the Tyabb Cricket Club, where in his first season of competitive cricket, Peter won a bowling award for Tyabb's 6th XI.

Luczak supports the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).^[8]

ATP career finals

Doubles: 2 (0–2)

Result	W-L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1.	Feb 2008	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Werner Eschauer	Agustín Calleri Luis Horna	0–6, 7–6(8–6), [10–2]
Loss	2.	Feb 2010	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Simon Greul	Sebastián Prieto Horacio Zeballos	7–6(7–4), 6–3

Futures and Challenger Singles titles (16)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	18 June 2001	Redding	Hard	Yaoki Ishii	7–5, 2–6, 6–3
2.	16 July 2001	Kansas City	Hard	Matthew Breen	6–2, 6–4
3.	6 August 2001	Godfrey	Hard	Raven Klaasen	6–3, 6–7, 7–5
4.	12 November 2001	Barmera	Grass	Peter Clarke	6–4, 1–6, 6–4
5.	8 July 2002	Granby	Hard	Alex Bogomolov Jr.	6–3, 7–6
6.	29 March 2004	Canberra	Clay	Juan Pablo Brzezicki	6–2, 6–1
7.	10 May 2004	Košice	Clay	Janko Tipsarević	7–5, 7–5
8.	31 October 2005	Caloundra	Hard	Alun Jones	7–5, 7–6
9.	26 March 2007	Fes	Clay	Yuri Schukin	6–2, 6–7, 7–6
10.	7 May 2007	Maspalomas	Clay	Santiago Ventura	6–7, 6–3, 7–5
11.	4 June 2007	Furth	Clay	Fabio Fognini	4–6, 6–2, 6–2
12.	11 June 2007	Bytom	Clay	Simone Vagnozzi	6–3, 6–3
13.	13 October 2008	Montevideo	Clay	Nicolás Massú	W/O
14.	7 June 2009	Furth	Clay	Juan Pablo Brzezicki	6–2, 6–0
15.	26 July 2009	Poznań	Clay	Yuri Schukin	3–6, 7–6(7–4), 7–6(8–6)
16.	9 August 2009	Cordenons	Clay	Olivier Rochus	6–3, 3–6, 6–1

Singles performance timeline

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peter Luczak.

• Peter Luczak at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Peter Luczak at the International Tennis Federation
• Peter Luczak at the Davis Cup
• Peter Luczak at Tennis Australia
• Luczak World Ranking history
• The Age article – Long hard road to the top