Robbie Koenig Explained

Robbie Koenig
Residence:	Durban, South Africa
Birth Date:	1971 7, df=yes
Birth Place:	Durban, South Africa
Height:	5 ft. 8 in.
Turnedpro:	1992
Retired:	2005
Plays:	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Careerprizemoney:	US$944,191
Singlesrecord:	3–11
Singlestitles:	0 0 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highestsinglesranking:	No. 262 (9 November 1992)
Frenchopenresult:	Q1 (1996, 1997)
Wimbledonresult:	Q3 (1992)
Usopenresult:	Q1 (1992, 1996, 1997)
Doublesrecord:	176–210
Doublestitles:	5 3 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highestdoublesranking:	No. 28 (19 May 2003)
Australianopendoublesresult:	3R (1998, 2004)
Frenchopendoublesresult:	2R (1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005)
Wimbledondoublesresult:	3R (1998, 1999)
Usopendoublesresult:	SF (1998)
Australianopenmixedresult:	SF (2001)
Frenchopenmixedresult:	1R (1998, 1999, 2003)
Wimbledonmixedresult:	SF (2001)
Usopenmixedresult:	SF (2002)
Updated:	29 January 2022

Robert Louis Koenig (;^[1] ^[2] ^[3] born 5 July 1971) is a retired professional tennis player from South Africa who is now a tennis commentator and analyst. He won five doubles titles and reached the semifinals of the 1998 US Open men's doubles competition. Koenig works as a tennis broadcaster for a host of TV channels around the world, covering most notably the ATP Masters 1000 events, the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon (Radio) as well as the premier online tennis channel of TennisTV.com

Playing career

Koenig achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 262, notably reaching the third round of Washington in 1992. He had wins early on in his singles career over the likes of Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Felix Mantilla. Most of his success, however, came in doubles. He won 5 titles (with 6 further finals), reaching a career-high doubles ranking of World No. 28 in May 2003. As well as his US Open doubles semi-finals appearance in 1998, Koenig reached the round-of-16 twice at Wimbledon in 1998 and 1999. He was also a quarter-finalist on 3 other occasions at the US Open in 1997, 2001 and 2004. In Mixed Doubles he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2001 and the US Open in 2002.He also represented South Africa in Davis Cup on four occasions and was captained by 1985 Wimbledon finalist, Kevin Curren.

Commentating career

Koenig is known for his commentary on the ATP World Tour at their Masters 1000 events matches broadcast on Tennis Channel as well as the online tennis broadcast site TennisTV, often as part of a commentating duo alongside Jason Goodall. Often regarded as “the voice of tennis”, he is a regular at both the Australian Open and US Open. He can also be heard on Amazon Prime UK, Fox Sports in Australia, Star Sports in Asia, ESPN International as well as SuperSport in South Africa where he co-hosts during the Grand Slam events. He started commentating in 2007 for ATP Media. Koenig co-hosted and commentated on ‘The Match in Africa’ where Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal played in front of the biggest live tennis audience ever at the time.Netflix used a good deal of his commentary for their “Break Point” docu-series.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 11 (5 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (1–1)
ATP World Series (4–5)

Finals by surface
Hard (4–4)
Clay (1–2)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)

Finals by setting
Outdoors (5–5)
Indoors (0–1)

Result	W–L	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	St. Pölten, Austria	International Series	Clay	Brent Haygarth	Andrew Florent Andrei Olhovskiy	7–5, 4–6, 5–7
Loss	0–2	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	International Series	Hard	Peter Tramacchi	Jiří Novák David Rikl	2–6, 5–7
Loss	0–3	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	International Series	Hard	Marius Barnard	Justin Gimelstob Scott Humphries	3–6, 2–6
Loss	0–4	Shanghai, China	International Series	Hard	John-Laffnie de Jager	Byron Black Thomas Shimada	2–6, 6–3, 5–7
Loss	0–5	San Jose, United States	International Series	Hard	John-Laffnie de Jager	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	3–6, 6–4, [5–10]
Win	1–5	Kitzbühel, Austria	Championship Series	Clay	Thomas Shimada	Lucas Arnold Ker Álex Corretja	7–6^(7–3), 6–4
Win	2–5	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	International Series	Hard	David Adams	Raemon Sluiter Martin Verkerk	6–2, 7–5
Win	3–5	Auckland, New Zealand	International Series	Hard	David Adams	Tomáš Cibulec Leoš Friedl	7–6^(7–5), 3–6, 6–3
Loss	3–6	Barcelona, Spain	Championship Series	Clay	Chris Haggard	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	4–6, 3–6
Win	4–6	Long Island, United States	International Series	Hard	Martín Rodríguez	Martin Damm Cyril Suk	6–3, 7–6^(7–4)
Win	5–6	Washington, United States	International Series	Hard	Chris Haggard	Travis Parrott Dmitry Tursunov	7–6^(7–3), 6–1

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Doubles: 5 (3–2)

Legend
ATP Challenger (3–2)
ITF Futures (0–0)

Finals by surface
Hard (3–1)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)

Result	W–L	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Dublin, Ireland	Challenger	Carpet	Douglas Geiwald	Sander Groen Arne Thoms	7–5, 4–6, 3–6
Win	1–1	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Hard	Oleg Ogorodov	Dave Randall Chris Woodruff	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Win	2–1	Sedona, United States	Challenger	Hard	John-Laffnie De Jager	Eric Taino Adam Peterson	6–2, 6–2
Loss	2–2	Brest, France	Challenger	Hard	John-Laffnie De Jager	Dave Randall Jack Waite	6–3, 6–7, 4–6
Win	3–2	Lexington, United States	Challenger	Hard	John-Laffnie De Jager	Paul Kilderry Jack Waite	7–6^(7–1), 7–5

Performance timelines

Singles

Tournament	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	SR	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–0
French Open	A	A	A	A	Q1	Q1	0 / 0	0–0
Wimbledon	Q3	Q1	A	A	A	Q2	0 / 0	0–0
US Open	Q1	A	A	A	Q1	Q1	0 / 0	0–0
style=text-align:left	Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0 / 0	0–0
ATP Masters Series
Miami	A	Q2	A	A	1R	A	0 / 1	0–1
Canada	A	A	A	A	Q1	A	0 / 0	0–0
Cincinnati	1R	A	Q1	A	Q3	Q1	0 / 1	0–1
style=text-align:left	Win–loss	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0 / 2	0–2

Doubles

Tournament	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	SR	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	3R	A	2R	1R	1R	2R	3R	2R	0 / 7	7–7
French Open	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	1R	A	2R	1R	2R	2R	2R	0 / 7	5–7
Wimbledon	Q2	Q1	A	A	A	1R	3R	3R	2R	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	0 / 9	6–9
US Open	A	A	A	A	A	QF	bgcolor=yellow	SF	1R	3R	QF	3R	2R	QF	3R	0 / 9	20–9
style=text-align:left	Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–2	9–4	2–3	4–3	4–4	3–4	3–4	6–4	4–4	0 / 32	38–32
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	2R	A	A	1R	1R	A	0 / 5	2–5
Miami	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	1R	1R	1R	1R	2R	1R	2R	A	0 / 7	2–7
Monte Carlo	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	A	0 / 6	3–6
Hamburg	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	1R	1R	Q2	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 5	1–5
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	A	Q1	2R	1R	A	1R	2R	A	A	0 / 4	2–4
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	QF	bgcolor=yellow	2R	A	1R	A	A	A	0 / 4	3–4
Cincinnati	A	A	A	A	Q2	A	2R	QF	1R	A	1R	1R	A	A	0 / 5	3–5
Paris	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	1R	A	2R	A	A	A	0 / 3	1–3
Madrid	Not Held	1R	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1
Stuttgart	A	A	A	A	A	A	2R	A	Q1	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1
style=text-align:left	Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–7	6–7	2–8	0–2	3–8	2–6	2–3	0–0	0 / 41	18–41

Mixed doubles

Tournament	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	SR	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	2R	bgcolor=yellow	SF	A	QF	1R	A	0 / 4	6–4
French Open	1R	1R	A	A	A	1R	A	A	0 / 3	0–3
Wimbledon	3R	1R	1R	1R	bgcolor=yellow	SF	3R	3R	1R	0 / 8	10–8
US Open	1R	2R	A	A	bgcolor=yellow	SF	A	A	A	0 / 3	4–3
style=text-align:left	Win–loss	2–3	1–3	1–2	3–2	7–2	4–3	2–2	0–1	0 / 18	20–18

Notes and References

Web site: Koenig, Goodall Preview 2013 Miami Final Murray Ferrer. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/k4vvqaUnMGY . 2021-12-21 . live. YouTube. ATPWorldTour. 2013-03-30. 2018-01-24.
Web site: Nadal Vs Federer in London Final Experts Preview. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/fa90XpF18y0 . 2021-12-21 . live. YouTube. ATPWorldTour. 2010-11-27. 2018-01-24.
Web site: Experts Debate Nadal Vs Djokovic Indian Wells Final. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/xIkFXj96oXE . 2021-12-21 . live. YouTube. ATPWorldTour. 2011-03-20. 2018-01-24.