Igor Sijsling

Igor Sijsling (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈiɡɔr ˈsɛi̯slɪŋ]; born 18 August 1987) is a Dutch professional tennis player. He is coached by Dennis Schenk. Sijsling reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 52 on 17 February 2014, and is the No. 2 ranked Dutch player on the ATP Tour. His biggest accomplishment is reaching the final of Australian Open with countryman Robin Haase in 2013, where they lost to the Bryan Brothers. In singles, he reached the third round of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships and has victories over top players including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Milos Raonic and Mikhail Youzhny.

Personal life

Sijsling grew up in Amsterdam, where his Serbian mother tried to instill her love of sports in her son. He played all kinds of sports as a young child, street football, basketball, and tennis. He even studied ballet.

He started playing tennis at the age of five with his parents, studying at the Amstelpark tennis school. By the time he was 12, tennis was clearly his sport. He was chosen for the Dutch national youth team. He won the Dutch under-18 championship twice and was runner-up at the European under-18 championships in Switzerland.