# Kristian Pless

Kristian Peter Pless (born 9 February 1981) is a former professional male tennis player from Denmark.

## Tennis career
### Juniors

Pless had an excellent junior career, winning the 1999 Australian Open Boys' Singles (defeated Mikhail Youzhny), and reaching the Boys' final at both Wimbledon (lost to Jürgen Melzer), and the US Open (lost to Jarkko Nieminen) the same year. He finished 1999 as the No. 1 ranked junior player in the world.

### Pro tour

He turned professional in 1999, and on 28 January 2002, Kristian Pless reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 65. He has won tournaments at the Futures and Challenger levels, and has reached three semifinals on the ATP Tour. He suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2003, which after multiple surgery kept him out of competition for almost a year.
After returning from injury in 2004, he had dropped in the rankings to World No. 846 on 24 May. Subsequently, he has gradually climbed the rankings, and after successful performances at the Challenger level in autumn 2006, he entered the Top 100 again. In January 2007, he continued his good performances as he defeated World No. 8 David Nalbandian in three sets in the first round of Chennai Open. This was Pless' first win against a Top-10 ranked player.
In 2007 he also managed to take a set from tennis legend Roger Federer at their meeting in Dubai, but eventually Federer won the tie 7–6$^{(2)}$, 3–6, 6–3. It was first set Federer had lost that year after he had won the Australian Open without losing a single set.
In 2008 he reached two Challenger finals (in Izmir, Turkey and Rimouski, Canada), but ended the year outside of Top 100. 2009 was his last year on tour.

## Junior Grand Slam finals
### Singles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1999 | Australian Open | Hard | Mikhail Youzhny | 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 1999 | Wimbledon | Grass | Jürgen Melzer | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 1999 | US Open | Hard | Jarkko Nieminen | 7–6, 3–6, 4–6 |

### Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Partnet | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1999 | Australian Open | Hard | Jürgen Melzer | Ladislav Chramosta Michal Navrátil | 6–7, 6–3, 6–0 |
| Loss | 1999 | French Open | Clay | Olivier Rochus | Irakli Labadze Lovro Zovko | 1–6, 6–7 |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
### Singles: 20 (7–13)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (4–11)
* ITF Futures (3–2)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (1–9)
* Clay (4–2)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (2–2)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | Apr 1999 | New Zealand F3, Christchurch | Futures | Hard | Louis Vosloo | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 1–1 | May 2000 | Austria F3, Schwaz | Futures | Clay | Scott Barron | 6–3, 7–5 |
| Win | 2–1 | Jun 2000 | Ireland F1, Dublin | Futures | Carpet | Grant Doyle | 6–3, 6–7$^{(5–7)}$, 6–1 |
| Win | 3–1 | Aug 2000 | Hungary F6, Budapest | Futures | Clay | Alexander Peya | 7–5, 6–3 |
| Loss | 3–2 | Feb 2001 | Hull, United Kingdom | Challenger | Carpet | Michael Kohlmann | 7–5, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 6–7$^{(5–7)}$ |
| Win | 4–2 | May 2001 | Edinburgh, United Kingdom | Challenger | Clay | Gorka Fraile | 6–3, 6–3 |
| Loss | 4–3 | Jun 2001 | Furth, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Germán Puentes | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 5–3 | Dec 2001 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Challenger | Hard | Ricardo Mello | 6–1, 6–1 |
| Loss | 5–4 | Jun 2004 | Poland F3, Warsaw | Futures | Clay | Dušan Karol | 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 5–5 | Aug 2005 | Belo Horizonte, Brazil | Challenger | Hard | John Paul Fruttero | 6–7$^{(4–7)}$, 6–7$^{(6–8)}$ |
| Loss | 5–6 | Oct 2005 | Southampton, United Kingdom | Challenger | Hard | Jérôme Haehnel | 2–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 5–7 | Jul 2006 | Dublin, Ireland | Challenger | Carpet | Mischa Zverev | 5–7, 6–7$^{(6–8)}$ |
| Loss | 5–8 | Oct 2006 | Nottingham, United Kingdom | Challenger | Hard | Alexander Waske | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 6–8 | Nov 2006 | Rimouski, Canada | Challenger | Carpet | Lu Yen-hsun | 6–4, 7–6$^{(7–5)}$ |
| Loss | 6–9 | Nov 2006 | Nashville, United States | Challenger | Hard | Robin Haase | 6–7$^{(9–11)}$, 3–6 |
| Win | 7–9 | Apr 2007 | Saint-Brieuc, France | Challenger | Clay | Farrukh Dustov | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Loss | 7–10 | Sep 2007 | Grenoble, France | Challenger | Hard | Nicolás Lapentti | 3–6, 5–7 |
| Loss | 7–11 | Mar 2008 | Cherbourg, France | Challenger | Hard | Thierry Ascione | 5–7, 6–7$^{(5–7)}$ |
| Loss | 7–12 | Jun 2008 | Izmir, Turkey | Challenger | Hard | Gilles Müller | 5–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 7–13 | Nov 2008 | Rimouski, Canada | Challenger | Hard | Ryan Sweeting | 4–6, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$ |

### Doubles: 7 (4–3)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (4–1)
* ITF Futures (0–2)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (2–2)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (1–0)
* Carpet (1–1)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | Apr 1999 | New Zealand F3, Christchurch | Futures | Hard | Mark Nielsen | Wynn Criswell Shaun Rudman | 2–6, 6–2, 1–6 |
| Win | 1–1 | Dec 1999 | Lucknow, India | Challenger | Grass | Paradorn Srichaphan | Martin Lee Jamie Delgado | 5–7, 6–3, 7–5 |
| Loss | 1–2 | Jun 2000 | Ireland F1, Dublin | Futures | Carpet | Jarkko Nieminen | Gilles Elseneer Jean-Michel Pequery | 6–7$^{(2–7)}$, 6–4, 3–6 |
| Win | 2–2 | Dec 2000 | Prague, Czech Republic | Challenger | Hard | Aisam Qureshi | Ivo Heuberger Ville Liukko | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 3–2 | Jul 2005 | Campos do Jordão, Brazil | Challenger | Hard | Aleksandar Vlaski | Franco Ferreiro Marcelo Melo | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 6–4 |
| Win | 4–2 | Nov 2006 | Rimouski, Canada | Challenger | Carpet | Frederik Nielsen | Jasper Smit Martijn van Haasteren | 6–2, 6–4 |
| Loss | 4–3 | Nov 2008 | Rimouski, Canada | Challenger | Hard | Michael Ryderstedt | Milos Raonic Vasek Pospisil | 7–5, 4–6, [6–10] |

## Performance timeline

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |

### Singles

| Tournament | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | SR | W–L | Win% |
| Grand Slam tournaments ||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | Q1 | 3R | 1R | A | Q3 | Q2 | 1R | Q1 | A | 0 / 3 | 2–3 | 40% |
| French Open | A | 2R | 1R | A | 1R | Q3 | 1R | 2R | A | A | 0 / 5 | 2–5 | 29% |
| Wimbledon | A | 2R | 1R | A | 1R | Q2 | 1R | 1R | Q2 | Q2 | 0 / 5 | 1–5 | 17% |
| US Open | Q2 | 2R | 2R | A | 2R | Q2 | 2R | 1R | Q2 | A | 0 / 5 | 4–5 | 44% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 3–3 | 3–4 | 0–1 | 1–3 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 18 | 9–18 | 33% |
| ATP Tour Masters 1000 ||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | A | Q2 | Q2 | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Miami | A | Q1 | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Monte Carlo | A | Q1 | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Hamburg | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | A | NMS | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Rome | A | A | Q2 | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Canada Masters | A | A | 2R | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Cincinnati | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–-0 | – |
| Stuttgart | A | Q1 | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | 0 / 0 | 0–-0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 4 | 2–4 | 33% |