Robbie Koenig

Robbie Koenig
Country (sports) South Africa
ResidenceDurban, South Africa
Born (1971-07-05) 5 July 1971 (age 52)
Durban, South Africa
Height5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Turned pro1992
Retired2005
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize moneyUS$944,191
Singles
Career record3–11
Career titles0
0 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest rankingNo. 262 (9 November 1992)
Grand Slam singles results
French OpenQ1 (1996, 1997)
WimbledonQ3 (1992)
US OpenQ1 (1992, 1996, 1997)
Doubles
Career record176–210
Career titles5
3 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest rankingNo. 28 (19 May 2003)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open3R (1998, 2004)
French Open2R (1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005)
Wimbledon3R (1998, 1999)
US OpenSF (1998)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian OpenSF (2001)
French Open1R (1998, 1999, 2003)
WimbledonSF (2001)
US OpenSF (2002)
Last updated on: 29 January 2022.

Robert Louis Koenig (/ˈkoʊnɪɡ/ KOH-nig;[1][2][3] born 5 July 1971) is a retired professional tennis player from South Africa who is now a tennis commentator and analyst. He won five doubles titles and reached the semifinals of the 1998 US Open men's doubles competition. Koenig works as a tennis broadcaster for a host of TV channels around the world, covering most notably the ATP Masters 1000 events, the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon (Radio) as well as the premier online tennis channel of TennisTV.com

Playing career

Koenig achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 262, notably reaching the third round of Washington in 1992. He had wins early on in his singles career over the likes of Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Felix Mantilla. Most of his success, however, came in doubles. He won 5 titles (with 6 further finals), reaching a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 28 in May 2003. As well as his US Open doubles semi-finals appearance in 1998, Koenig reached the round-of-16 twice at Wimbledon in 1998 and 1999. He was also a quarter-finalist on 3 other occasions at the US Open in 1997, 2001 and 2004. In Mixed Doubles he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2001 and the US Open in 2002. He also represented South Africa in Davis Cup on four occasions and was captained by 1985 Wimbledon finalist, Kevin Curren.

Commentating career

Koenig is known for his commentary on the ATP World Tour at their Masters 1000 events matches broadcast on Tennis Channel as well as the online tennis broadcast site TennisTV, often as part of a commentating duo alongside Jason Goodall. Often regarded as “the voice of tennis”, he is a regular at both the Australian Open and US Open. He can also be heard on Amazon Prime UK, Fox Sports in Australia, Star Sports in Asia, ESPN International as well as SuperSport in South Africa where he co-hosts during the Grand Slam events. He started commentating in 2007 for ATP Media. Koenig co-hosted and commentated on ‘The Match in Africa’ where Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal played in front of the biggest live tennis audience ever at the time. Netflix used a good deal of his commentary for their “Break Point” docu-series.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 11 (5 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (1–1)
ATP World Series (4–5)
Finals by surface
Hard (4–4)
Clay (1–2)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (5–5)
Indoors (0–1)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 May 1999 St. Pölten, Austria International Series Clay South Africa Brent Haygarth Australia Andrew Florent
Russia Andrei Olhovskiy 		7–5, 4–6, 5–7
Loss 0–2 Feb 2000 Dubai, United Arab Emirates International Series Hard Australia Peter Tramacchi Czech Republic Jiří Novák
Czech Republic David Rikl 		2–6, 5–7
Loss 0–3 Sep 2000 Tashkent, Uzbekistan International Series Hard South Africa Marius Barnard United States Justin Gimelstob
United States Scott Humphries 		3–6, 2–6
Loss 0–4 Sep 2001 Shanghai, China International Series Hard South Africa John-Laffnie de Jager Zimbabwe Byron Black
Japan Thomas Shimada 		2–6, 6–3, 5–7
Loss 0–5 Feb 2002 San Jose, United States International Series Hard South Africa John-Laffnie de Jager Zimbabwe Wayne Black
Zimbabwe Kevin Ullyett 		3–6, 6–4, [5–10]
Win 1–5 Jul 2002 Kitzbühel, Austria Championship Series Clay Japan Thomas Shimada Argentina Lucas Arnold Ker
Spain Álex Corretja 		7–6(7–3), 6–4
Win 2–5 Sep 2002 Tashkent, Uzbekistan International Series Hard South Africa David Adams Netherlands Raemon Sluiter
Netherlands Martin Verkerk 		6–2, 7–5
Win 3–5 Jan 2003 Auckland, New Zealand International Series Hard South Africa David Adams Czech Republic Tomáš Cibulec
Czech Republic Leoš Friedl 		7–6(7–5), 3–6, 6–3
Loss 3–6 Apr 2003 Barcelona, Spain Championship Series Clay South Africa Chris Haggard United States Bob Bryan
United States Mike Bryan 		4–6, 3–6
Win 4–6 Aug 2003 Long Island, United States International Series Hard Argentina Martín Rodríguez Czech Republic Martin Damm
Czech Republic Cyril Suk 		6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Win 5–6 Aug 2004 Washington, United States International Series Hard South Africa Chris Haggard United States Travis Parrott
Russia Dmitry Tursunov 		7–6(7–3), 6–1

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Doubles: 5 (3–2)

Legend
ATP Challenger (3–2)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (3–1)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Oct 1992 Dublin, Ireland Challenger Carpet Sweden Douglas Geiwald Netherlands Sander Groen
Germany Arne Thoms 		7–5, 4–6, 3–6
Win 1–1 Nov 1996 Aachen, Germany Challenger Hard Uzbekistan Oleg Ogorodov United States Dave Randall
United States Chris Woodruff 		6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Win 2–1 Oct 1997 Sedona, United States Challenger Hard South Africa John-Laffnie De Jager United States Eric Taino
United States Adam Peterson 		6–2, 6–2
Loss 2–2 Oct 1997 Brest, France Challenger Hard South Africa John-Laffnie De Jager United States Dave Randall
United States Jack Waite 		6–3, 6–7, 4–6
Win 3–2 Aug 2001 Lexington, United States Challenger Hard South Africa John-Laffnie De Jager Australia Paul Kilderry
United States Jack Waite 		7–6(7–1), 7–5

Performance timelines

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Tournament 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
French Open A A A A Q1 Q1 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Wimbledon Q3 Q1 A A A Q2 0 / 0 0–0  – 
US Open Q1 A A A Q1 Q1 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 0 0–0  – 
ATP Masters Series
Miami A Q2 A A 1R A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Canada A A A A Q1 A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Cincinnati 1R A Q1 A Q3 Q1 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Win–loss 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–0 0 / 2 0–2 0%

Doubles

Tournament 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A A 3R A 2R 1R 1R 2R 3R 2R 0 / 7 7–7 50%
French Open A A A A A A 2R 1R A 2R 1R 2R 2R 2R 0 / 7 5–7 42%
Wimbledon Q2 Q1 A A A 1R 3R 3R 2R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R 0 / 9 6–9 40%
US Open A A A A A QF SF 1R 3R QF 3R 2R QF 3R 0 / 9 20–9 69%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 3–2 9–4 2–3 4–3 4–4 3–4 3–4 6–4 4–4 0 / 32 38–32 54%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A A A A A 1R 2R 2R A A 1R 1R A 0 / 5 2–5 29%
Miami A A A A A Q1 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R A 0 / 7 2–7 22%
Monte Carlo A A A A A A A 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R A 0 / 6 3–6 33%
Hamburg A A A A A A 2R 1R 1R Q2 1R 1R A A 0 / 5 1–5 17%
Rome A A A A A A Q1 2R 1R A 1R 2R A A 0 / 4 2–4 33%
Canada A A A A A A 1R QF 2R A 1R A A A 0 / 4 3–4 43%
Cincinnati A A A A Q2 A 2R QF 1R A 1R 1R A A 0 / 5 3–5 38%
Paris A A A A A A 1R A 1R A 2R A A A 0 / 3 1–3 25%
Madrid Not Held 1R A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Stuttgart A A A A A A 2R A Q1 A A A A A 0 / 1 1–1 50%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 3–7 6–7 2–8 0–2 3–8 2–6 2–3 0–0 0 / 41 18–41 31%

Mixed doubles

Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A 2R SF A QF 1R A 0 / 4 6–4 60%
French Open 1R 1R A A A 1R A A 0 / 3 0–3 0%
Wimbledon 3R 1R 1R 1R SF 3R 3R 1R 0 / 8 10–8 56%
US Open 1R 2R A A SF A A A 0 / 3 4–3 57%
Win–loss 2–3 1–3 1–2 3–2 7–2 4–3 2–2 0–1 0 / 18 20–18 53%

References

  1. ^ ATPWorldTour (30 March 2013). "Koenig, Goodall Preview 2013 Miami Final Murray Ferrer". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2018 – via YouTube.
  2. ^ ATPWorldTour (27 November 2010). "Nadal Vs Federer in London Final Experts Preview". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2018 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ ATPWorldTour (20 March 2011). "Experts Debate Nadal Vs Djokovic Indian Wells Final". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2018 – via YouTube.

External links