Igor Andreev

Titles Won (3) : 

(2005) Valencia, Palermo, Moscow

Igor Andreev is a professional male tennis player from Russia. Born in Moscow, he began playing tennis at the age of seven and turned professional in 2002. It was in this year that Andreev improved his ranking by more than 700 positions, winning three Futures titles. In 2003, he played his first ATP match as qualifier in Bucharest, defeating top seed Nikolay Davydenko and losing to Jose Acasuso in the second round. In Moscow, he reached his first ATP quarter final and advanced to three Challenger finals. Andreev finished in the Top 50 for the first time in 2004, highlighted by reaching his first ATP final in Gstaad, losing to world number one Roger Federer. The Russian started the year by reaching the quarter final of the first event of the season at Chennai, losing to Paradorn Srichaphan 3-6, 6-7(2). At the Australian Open, Andreev made an early first round exit to France's Olivier Patience. At Roland Garros in May, Andreev reached a career best fourth round, defeating world number four Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round before losing to Gaston Gaudio in straight sets. In his next tournament he reached his second ATP quarter final of the season at Queens Club (d. Gasquet, Agassi, Patience, l. Hewitt). Andreev reached his third quarter final of the season in July on the clay courts in Amersfoort (l. Gonzalez). At the Olympic Games in Athens, Andreev reached the third round before falling to Chile's Nicolas Massu. In the final months of the season, Andreev reached his second ATP final of the season at Bucharest, losing to Jose Acasuso 3-6, 0-6.

In 2005, Andreev won his first ATP singles title in April at Valencia, Spain which he won by defeating Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 in the final, after having taken out world number four Rafa Nadal in the quarter finals. After this match, Nadal then set on a run of an 81 match win streak on clay, lasting more than two years. Andreev made the third round at both the French Open and Wimbledon, and reached the quarter final stages at New Haven and Connecticut. In Bucharest he reached he second successive final, losing to Florent Serra 6-3, 6-4. Andreev continued his consistent form by winning the Palermo event in September 2005, beating Filippo Volandri of Italy 0-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the final. He won his third title of the season in October at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating Germany's Nicolas Kiefer 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in the final. In 2006, Andreev's season was severely disrupted by injury. Having compiled a 13-12 record he underwent left knee surgery in April. He returned in the final week of October to reach the second round at the Masters Series in Paris. He started the season well, reaching the final in Sydney and defeating Richard Gasquet and Dmitry Tursunov en route to the final where he lost to James Blake. At the Australian Open he reached the third round, losing to Dominik Hrbaty. In March he posted his best Masters Series result at Indian Wells, reaching the quarter final (l. Blake).

In 2007, Andreev made an immediate impact on his return to the ATP tour. At the French open he defeated former world number one Andy Roddick in the first round and then in-form Marcos Baghdatis in the fourth round, to make his first Grand Slam quarter final, which he lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic. After a dissapointing first round exit at Wimbledon, he bounced back to reach a back-to-back semi-final at Gstaad (l. Seppi) and quarter final at Amersfoort (l. Darcis). In July he reached his fourth ATP quarter final of the season at Sopot (l. Simon) and just two weeks later reached the same stages at New Haven (l. Karlovic). In 2008, the number two Russian finished in the Top 20 for the first time by winning a career best 43 matches and reaching two ATP finals. He also reached the quarter final stages or better on eight times, including the Masters Series in Miami (l. Berdych) and Monte Carlo (l. Davydenko). In Grand Slam play his best performance came at the US Open, reaching the fourth round, losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.