Frank Dancevic
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| Country |  Canada |
|
| Residence | Niagara Falls, Ontario | |
| Date of birth | September 26, 1984 | |
| Place of birth | Niagara Falls, Ontario | |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | |
| Weight | 79 kg (175 lb) | |
| Turned pro | 2003 | |
| Plays | Right-handed; | |
| Career prize money | $690,743 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 35-52 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 65 (September 10, 2007) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 1st (2008) | |
| French Open | 1st (2008) | |
| Wimbledon | 2nd (2007) | |
| US Open | 1st(2007) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 10-16 | |
| Career titles: | 0 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 175 (January 28, 2008) | |
Frank Russell Dancevic (Croatian: Frank Russell Dančević) (born 26 September 1984 in Niagara Falls, Ontario) is a professional touring and Canadian Davis Cup tennis player. He is currently the country's top singles player at World No. 111 in the ATP Rankings and No. 144 in the 2008 ATP Race. He returned to play in May after a three month layoff due to injury.
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[edit] ATP Tour career
The right-handed Dancevic turned pro in 2003 and reached his career high singles ranking in September 2007 at World No. 65. He is the highest ranked men's Canadian singles player since Daniel Nestor was ranked World No. 61 in September of 1999. The highest ranking ever achieved by a Canadian is World No. 46, by Andrew Sznajder in September of 1989.
Dancevic's career record in full-fledged ATP events (International Series or higher) is 34-48 to date. His best tournament result to date has been winning the 2003 Granby and Lexington, and the 2006 Waikoloa and Granby Challenger Series events. He has reached the second round in seventeen of twenty-eight International Series events he has contested.
[edit] 2006
He entered a grand slam event, by qualifying for the regular draw of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships [1] and was defeated in the first round by Radek Štěpánek in straight sets. He opened the year by winning the Challenger event in Waikoloa and the following week reached the final of the Challenger in Besancon. In May, Frank reached the final of the Atlanta challenger and then in June won his first round match at Queen's over Kenneth Carlsen before losing to Andy Roddick 6–2, 4–6, 3–6.
Dancevic won the Granby Challenger in July and in August reached the second round of the Canada Masters for the first time in five attempts. Although the top seed for qualifying for the U.S. Open he failed to make the main draw.
[edit] 2007
Dancevic began 2007 going 1–2 in round robin matches at the Next Generation Adelaide International International Series event. He opened the 2007 Australian Open with a straight sets win over Victor Hanescu and lost in the second round to #19 seed Lleyton Hewitt in four sets. He then lost in the second round of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors to Marcos Baghdatis after a straight sets win over Alexander Waske. Dancevic lost in the first round of the next three Internationa Series events he appeared in in San Jose, Memphis, and Las Vegas, losing to Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, and Igor Kunitsyn respectively. He then reached the second round at the ATP Masters Series Indian Wells, defeating Waske again and losing to Fernando González. Dancevic then dropped down to the challenger circuit, reaching the finals in Bermuda, the second round in Naples, Florida, and losing in the first round at Tunica Resorts and Forest Hills.
Dancevic went 3–3 for the grass court season. He defeated Sergio Roitman in reaching the second round at Queen's Club. He lost in the final round of qualifying in 2007 but reached the main draw as a lucky loser (with the withdrawal of Mario Ancic). He reached the second round defeating World No. 60 Stefan Koubek 6–2 6–4 6–2 and then losing to No. 25 David Nalbandian 2–6 3–6 7–5 3–6. He then reached the second round of the Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships, defeating Kevin Kim in the first round 6–3 6–3 (in 2006, he defeated the same player in the same round at this same tournament by almost the same score, 6–4 6–3). He then lost to eventual champion Fabrice Santoro 7–6 3–6 4–6.
In July at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, Dancevic defeated World No. 46 Benjamin Becker 6–4 6–3, marking Dancevic's first defeat of a top 50 player. He has followed that with a victory over No. 54 Juan Martin del Potro, 3–6 7–6(5) 6–4. He then defeated Igor Kunitsyn in a rain-delayed match that finished almost 9 hours after it began, 6–4 7–6 (3). He has become the first Canadian to reach the semifinals (and quarterfinals, too) of a top-level ATP tournament since Sebastien Lareau did so in February 2001. He followed that up with the biggest win of his career to date, by far, beating World No. 5 Andy Roddick 6–4 7–6(1), to reach the finals. He became the first Canadian to reach an ATP final since Greg Rusedski did so in 1995 (before Rusedski changed his citizenship to that of Great Britain.) He then lost in the finals to No. 3 seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 4–6 5–7.
Dancevic has continued his elevated play into August, defeating del Potro again, Wayne Odesnik, and World No. 35 Fernando Verdasco to reach the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup where he lost to World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, 6–4 2–6 3–6. This effort raised his ranking to World No. 67, his highest ranking to date. He played his first U.S. Open in 2007, and lost a hard-fought three-set match to former World No. 1 and 2000 U.S. Open Champion Marat Safin, the 25th seed. Competing in the main draw having come through qualifying, where as in 2006 he was the top seed, Dancevic lost to Safin 5–7, 6–7, 6–7, despite serving for the second set up 5–3 and the third set, up 6–5 in the tiebreak.
Dancevic's form has taken a slight dip in autumn, as he reached secund round of the Thailand Open, lost in the first round of Japan Open Tennis, and in the second round of the Stockholm Open to top seed James Blake 2–6, 3–6.
[edit] 2008
Dancevic's ranking allowed him to enter directly into the 2008 Australian Open main draw, where in his first round match against #24 seed Jarkko Nieminen he came back from being down 2 sets to love to level at 2 sets apiece before losing the fifth 1–6. He has been out of action since January with a facet joint strain of the thoracic spine. Since returning to play in May he has struggled, going 1-1 in two different Challenger tournaments in Morocco (on clay) before losing in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II International Series tourney. Dancevic's ranking was good enough however to gain entry into the main draw of the 2008 French Open, which marked the first time a Canadian had done so since Daniel Nester in 1999. He lost however in the first round in 4 sets to unheralded Miguel Angel Lopez Jaen.
[edit] Davis Cup
In Davis Cup, Dancevic has a 10 and 11 win-lose record in 13 ties, 8-11 in singles play and 2–0 in doubles. His effort over Voltchkov was not enough to see Canada through to the World Group for 2006 as the Canadians fell 2–3 to Belarus in their September 2005 World Group play-off tie. In 2003 however, Dancevic's win over Flavio Saretta in the deciding 5th match saw Canada defeat Brazil and enter the World Group for only the second time. They subsequently lost to the Netherlands in the 2004 World Group as Dancevic went down to both Sjeng Schalken and Martin Verkerk, both matches going four sets.
[edit] Personal
Dancevic's paternal grandparents were born in Slavonia, Croatia. His mother is Québécoise, from Rouyn-Noranda[2].
