Igor Kunitsyn

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Konstantinovich and the family name is Kunitsyn.

Igor Konstantinovich Kunitsyn (Russian: И́горь Константи́нович Куни́цын, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ kʊˈnʲitsɨn]; born September 30, 1981) is a retired tennis player from Russia. He made it into the top 100 for the first time in 2006, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 35 in July 2009.^[1]

Igor Kunitsyn
Игорь Куницын

Country (sports)	Russia
Residence	Vladivostok, Russia
Born	(1981-09-30) 30 September 1981 (age 43) Vladivostok, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	1999
Retired	2013
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,861,069
Singles
Career record	89–152
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 35 (6 July 2009)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2010, 2011)
French Open	1R (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
Wimbledon	2R (2006, 2009, 2011)
US Open	3R (2011)
Doubles
Career record	65–87
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 49 (9 June 2008)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2009)
French Open	SF (2008)
Wimbledon	2R (2007, 2008)
US Open	3R (2008)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon	1R (2008)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	SF (2008)
Last updated on: 27 May 2022.

Early life

Kunitsyn was raised by his grandparents in Vladivostok, on the eastern coast of Russia when he was young. He started playing tennis at age seven.^[1]

Tennis career

Kunitsyn is arguably best known for two matches against compatriot Marat Safin. The first of which was at the 2007 Tennis Channel Open's round-robin stage. Kunitsyn had won the first set, and had an early break in the second before Safin fought back and then got a 5–3 lead. While serving for the match, Kunitsyn broke Safin and then held to get it to 5–5. The set went to a tiebreaker which Safin won. Kunitsyn was still dangerous, as he won the first three games of the third set, before losing the next four. Kunitsyn performed the same as before, and broke Safin again to get the set on equal terms. At 5–5, Kunitsyn suffered a service break and Safin ultimately won the third set 7–5. The pair met again in the final of the Kremlin Cup, an ATP tournament played in Moscow. Kunitsyn defeated the former two-time Grand Slam winner and world No. 1.

In August 2008, he made the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, beating Mischa Zverev, Fabio Fognini, and Somdev Devvarman, before losing Viktor Troicki.

In June 2009, he lost to Israeli Dudi Sela, at 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in a grass-court tune-up for Wimbledon. In Wimbledon, he defeated Wimbledon debutant wildcard Grigor Dimitrov due to retirement after suffering a knee injury, before he lost to Andy Roddick in the second round in four sets, winning the third set. Following the tournament, he reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 35 on 6 July 2009.

Heavily favored Russia was hosted by Israel in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. With Israel having won the first two matches, in what proved to be the deciding third match Israelis Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich beat Kunitsyn and Marat Safin, 6–3, 6–4, 6–7, 4–6, 6–4, in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000.^[2] Israel defeated Russia 4–1 for the win.^[3]

At the 2009 Indianapolis Tennis Championships in July, Kunistyn was beaten in the second round by 23-year-old American Wayne Odesnik.^[4]

In 2012 Wimbledon, he lost his first-round match to Go Soeda.^[5]

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Legend Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0) ATP World Tour Finals (0–0) ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0) ATP 500 Series (0–0) ATP 250 Series (1–0)

Finals by surface Hard (1–0) Clay (0–0) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Finals by setting Outdoors (0–0) Indoors (1–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 2008	Moscow, Russia	International Series	Hard	Marat Safin	7–6(8–6), 6–7(4–7), 6–3

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

Legend Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0) ATP World Tour Finals (0–0) ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0) ATP 500 Series (0–0) ATP 250 Series (1–3)

Finals by surface Hard (1–1) Clay (0–0) Grass (0–2) Carpet (0–0)

Finals by setting Outdoors (0–2) Indoors (1–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jun 2006	Nottingham, Great Britain	International Series	Grass	Dmitry Tursunov	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	3–6, 2–6
Loss	0–2	Jul 2007	Newport, United States	International Series	Grass	Nathan Healey	Jordan Kerr Jim Thomas	3–6, 5–7
Loss	0–3	Oct 2009	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	250 Series	Hard	Jaroslav Levinský	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	2–6, 1–6
Win	1–3	Oct 2010	Moscow, Russia	250 Series	Hard	Dmitry Tursunov	Janko Tipsarević Viktor Troicki	7–6(10–8), 6–3

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 26 (14–12)

Legend ATP Challenger (8–8) ITF Futures (6–4)

Finals by surface Hard (11–10) Clay (3–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 1998	Belarus F1, Minsk	Futures	Carpet	Dmitriy Tomashevich	4–6, 6–7
Win	1–1	Sep 1998	Ukraine F2, Gorlovka	Futures	Clay	Kirill Ivanov-Smolensky	7–6, 6–3
Win	2–1	Sep 1999	Russia F3, Tolyatti	Futures	Hard	Artem Derepasko	6–2, 6–4
Loss	2–2	May 2000	Fergana, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Vladimir Voltchkov	6–4, 0–6, 4–6
Loss	2–3	Aug 2000	Tolyatti, Russia	Challenger	Hard	Vadim Kutsenko	4–6, 1–6
Win	3–3	Jun 2001	Italy F7, Torino	Futures	Clay	Éric Prodon	6–4, 6–1
Win	4–3	Jan 2002	USA F2, Delray Beach	Futures	Hard	Giorgio Galimberti	6–4, 6–2
Loss	4–4	Feb 2002	Croatia F1, Zagreb	Futures	Hard	Lovro Zovko	6–4, 1–6, 6–7(6–8)
Loss	4–5	Feb 2002	Croatia F2, Zagreb	Futures	Hard	Lovro Zovko	2–6, 6–3, 6–7(5–7)
Loss	4–6	Apr 2002	Uzbekistan F1, Karshi	Futures	Hard	Jimmy Wang	5–7, 4–6
Win	5–6	May 2002	Uzbekistan F4, Namangan	Futures	Hard	Tuomas Ketola	6–3, 6–3
Loss	5–7	Oct 2002	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Werner Eschauer	2–6, ret.
Loss	5–8	Feb 2003	Wrocław, Poland	Challenger	Hard	Karol Kučera	2–6, 1–6
Win	6–8	Apr 2004	Uzbekistan F2, Guliston	Futures	Hard	Ivan Cerović	7–5, 6–2
Win	7–8	May 2004	Fergana, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Prakash Amritraj	6–4, 7–5
Win	8–8	Jul 2005	Tolyatti, Russia	Challenger	Hard	Viktor Bruthans	6–1, 6–2
Win	9–8	Aug 2005	Saransk, Russia	Challenger	Clay	Boris Pashanski	7–5, 6–4
Win	10–8	Nov 2007	Shrewsbury, United Kingdom	Challenger	Hard	Igor Sijsling	6–2, 6–4
Loss	10–9	Apr 2008	Baton Rouge, United States	Challenger	Hard	Bobby Reynolds	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 5–7
Loss	10–10	May 2008	Bordeaux, France	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Schwank	2–6, 2–6
Win	11–10	Sep 2008	Donetsk, Ukraine	Challenger	Hard	Sergey Bubka	6–3, 6–3
Win	12–10	Sep 2010	Astana, Kazakhstan	Challenger	Hard	Konstantin Kravchuk	4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–3)
Loss	12–11	Nov 2010	Astana, Kazakhstan	Challenger	Hard	Ivan Dodig	4–6, 3–6
Loss	12–12	Mar 2011	San José, Costa Rica	Challenger	Hard	Giovanni Lapentti	5–7, 3–6
Win	13–12	May 2011	Cremona, Italy	Challenger	Hard	Rainer Schüttler	6–2, 7–6(7–2)
Win	14–12	Aug 2012	Karshi, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Dzmitry Zhyrmont	7–6(12–10), 6–2

Doubles: 11 (5–6)

Legend ATP Challenger (4–4) ITF Futures (1–2)

Finals by surface Hard (4–4) Clay (0–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (1–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	May 2001	Uzbekistan F2, Andijan	Futures	Hard	Rik de Voest	Jordan Kerr Tuomas Ketola	7–5, 2–6, 1–6
Win	1–1	May 2001	Fergana, Uzbekistan	Challenger	Hard	Rik de Voest	Simon Larose Michael Tebbutt	6–1, 6–7(4–7), 6–3
Loss	1–2	Apr 2004	Uzbekistan F1, Qarshi	Futures	Hard	Dmitri Vlasov	Ivan Cerović Lazar Magdinchev	3–6, 6–2, 4–6
Win	2–2	Aug 2004	Segovia, Spain	Challenger	Hard	Vladimir Voltchkov	Daniel Muñoz de la Nava Iván Navarro	3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	2–4	Aug 2004	Bronx, United States	Challenger	Hard	Uros Vico	Huntley Montgomery Tripp Phillips	6–7(6–8), 7–6(10–8), 2–6
Loss	2–5	Sep 2004	Kyiv, Ukraine	Challenger	Clay	Yuri Schukin	Albert Portas Sergio Roitman	1–6, 1–6
Win	3–5	Sep 2004	Donetsk, Ukraine	Challenger	Hard	Uros Vico	Marco Chiudinelli Lovro Zovko	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
Win	4–5	Feb 2005	Belgrade, Serbia	Challenger	Carpet	Orest Tereshchuk	Lukáš Dlouhý Jan Vacek	walkover
Win	5–5	Apr 2005	Uzbekistan F1, Qarshi	Futures	Hard	Sergei Demekhine	Murad Inoyatov Denis Istomin	6–4, 5–7, 6–4
Loss	5–6	Jan 2008	Heilbronn, Germany	Challenger	Hard	Aisam Qureshi	Rik de Voest Bobby Reynolds	6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–5), [4–10]
Loss	5–7	Jul 2010	Braunschweig, Germany	Challenger	Clay	Yuri Schukin	Leonardo Tavares Simone Vagnozzi	5–7, 6–7(4–7)

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	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	SR	W–L	Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	Q1	Q1	Q1	A	1R	Q3	1R	2R	2R	1R	Q2	0 / 5	2–5	29%
French Open	A	A	Q1	Q2	A	A	Q2	1R	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	Q1	0 / 5	0–5	0%
Wimbledon	A	A	Q2	1R	Q2	Q2	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	1R	Q3	0 / 8	3–8	27%
US Open	Q1	A	1R	Q2	Q1	Q2	1R	2R	1R	1R	A	3R	A	Q2	0 / 6	3–6	33%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–4	0–2	1–4	1–3	4–4	0–3	0–0	0 / 24	8–24	25%
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	A	1R	1R	2R	A	A	1R	Q1	0 / 4	1–4	20%
Miami	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	1R	1R	1R	2R	A	2R	2R	A	0 / 6	3–6	33%
Monte Carlo	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q2	A	1R	Q2	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Rome	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	Q2	Q2	A	1R	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Hamburg	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Madrid	Not Held		A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	Q1	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Cincinnati	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1	50%
Shanghai	Not Held									2R	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1	50%
Paris	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	4–8	0–0	1–2	1–2	0–0	0 / 17	6–17	26%

Doubles

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	SR	W–L	Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	2R	2R	A	2R	0 / 5	3–5	38%
French Open	A	A	A	A	QF	SF	QF	A	1R	1R	0 / 5	10–5	67%
Wimbledon	Q1	A	A	A	2R	2R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 3	2–3	40%
US Open	A	A	A	A	1R	3R	1R	A	1R	A	0 / 4	2–4	33%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	4–4	7–4	4–4	1–1	0–2	1–2	0 / 17	17–17	50%
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Miami	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Cincinnati	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–4	0–0	0–0	0–0	0 / 4	0–4	0%