Nicolas Kiefer

Nicolas Kiefer (born 5 July 1977), is a former German professional tennis player. He reached the semifinal of the 2006 Australian Open and won a Silver medal in Men's Doubles with partner Rainer Schüttler at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Kiefer's career-high singles ranking was World No. 4, achieved in January 2000.

Tennis career

1995–2005

Kiefer was taken notice of as an outstanding junior. He won the Junior Australian Open, US Open and was a finalist and semi-finalist at Wimbledon and the French Open finishing as the No. 2 junior behind Mariano Zabaleta when he was 18 in 1995.

On 10 January 2000, he reached his second quarter-final at the Australian Open and afterwards was ranked World No. 4, his highest position to date.

Nicolas has been known to have a few tennis superstitions. He is sometimes seen tapping his racquet on the corners of the court after a point, although the reasons behind this are not clear. He also, when serving, frequently asks for the ball with which he has just won a point to re-use it in the next one.