Jan Hájek (born 7 August 1983) is a retired male professional
tennis player from the
Czech Republic. He reached the third round of the
2007 French Open and attained a career-high
ATP singles ranking of World No. 71 in November 2006.
Career
Hajek, 2013
Hájek turned professional in 2000 and won his first
Futures event in
Negril of the same year defeating
Johan Örtegren in the final. Between 2000 and 2003 Hájek played primarily on the
Futures circuit, then after that he played some
Challenger events as well as the Futures tournaments.[1] At the end of 2005 he had won 8
Futures titles all on clay, which is his best surface.
2006 was the breakthrough season for Hájek, as he started the year ranked at 352 and then finished the season ranked at 76th in the world.[2] Hájek won his first challenger in
Barletta as a qualifier easily defeating
Stefano Galvani 6–2, 6–1 in the final. In May Hájek qualified for the challenger in
Prague before losing to compatriot
Robin Vik in the final. Hájek won three more
Challengers during the year including two major ones in
Prostějov where he got a retirement victory over
Tomáš Berdych and
Braunschweig defeated
Fernando Vicente in straight sets. He won the
Poznań Challenger without losing a set. In addition to the three Challenger titles, Hájek made his debut at Grand Slam level where he defeated
Lukáš Dlouhý in straight sets before losing to
Fernando González.
Hájek was unable to follow up the previously successful year in 2007, but he achieved his best result at Grand Slam level, where he made the third round at
Roland Garros where he defeated
Thomas Johansson and
Bohdan Ulihrach before retiring against
Marcos Baghdatis with a shoulder injury. Since then Hájek has had injury problems with the shoulder and problems with his heart.
At the beginning of 2009 Hájek started the year ranked at 474[3] and has been playing on the Challenger circuit and he has been playing qualifications and after qualifying for the main draw in
Athens he lost in the semi-finals to
Rui Machado. Hájek won the
Ostrava Challenger after qualifying defeating
Ivan Dodig 7–5, 6–1. He repeated his 2006 victory in
Prostějov this time as a qualifier defeating Belgian
Steve Darcis in the final and former top 10 player
Ivan Ljubičić in the quarter-finals. Hájek won his third challenger of the year in
Freudenstadt defeating
Laurent Recouderc in the final. He also made his debut in the Czech Davis Cup team in the semi-final tie against
Croatia where he defeated
Roko Karanušić and also played in the final losing to
Rafael Nadal. Hájek has a 1–2 record in Davis Cup singles with none of these matches being a live rubber.[4]
After ending the 2009 season ranked No. 103, Hájek made a return to the Grand Slam arena at the
2010 Australian Open, defeating
Robby Ginepri before losing to
Mikhail Youzhny. He also reached his first quarter-final on the ATP tour at
Munich losing to Youzhny again. Hájek became the first man to win the
Prostějov Challenger three times after
Radek Štěpánek had to retire from the final due to illness.[5]