Steve Darcis during farewell tour in the final of Eckental
Actually, Steve Darcis is already on farewell tour. As part of his home tournament in Antwerp two weeks ago, the 35-year-old Belgian announced that he would end his professional tennis career after the Australian Open 2020.
by Florian Heer from Eckental
last edit:
Nov 03, 2019, 10:26 am
Darcis will, however, before the first Grand Slam tournament of the coming season, the colors of his home country at the Davis Cup Finals represented at the end of November in Madrid. To keep in shape, the number 181 in the world reported for the ATP Challenger tournament in Eckental. Now he is in the final: After a 6: 2, 6: 4 success on Saturday afternoon over the young South African Lloyd Harris Darcis has reached his third final at the International German Indoor Championships. Already in 2014 and 2016, the only 1.75 big Belgian was in the final. Three years ago he won the title on the carpet in Eckental.
"The surface here is very fast and only a few points decide on victory and defeat," says Darcis, whose experience on the ground in the House of Sports can be seen as an advantage. Again and again he skillfully uses the backhand slice to disturb the playing rhythm of his opponent.
Darcis has denied 247 tour-level matches ever since he made his way into professional tennis at the age of 19. He was able to celebrate two triumphs on the ATP Tour. In 2017, he reached his highest position in the ATP world ranking with 38th place, but missed the entire past season due to an elbow injury.
Always in memory for his Wimbledon victory over Nadal
He probably became known to the broad tennis audience at the latest through his first-round win over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 2013. Darcis, then number 138 in the world, was the player with the lowest ranking position so far, defeating the Spaniard in a Grand Slam tournament. "There have been some good matches in my career, of course, but this is definitely one of my best", Darcis likes to recall the success.
Increasing shoulder problems finally brought the fighter to the decision to hang up his bat in the near future. "I made another comeback at Wimbledon this year, but unfortunately I had some physical as well as mental problems. I feel that I can no longer call my best. I hope to be able to experience a nice career end now. "
Before this will finally be the case after the ATP Cup and the Happy-Slam in Melbourne next year, Darcis could end his Challenger career with his 11th title win. In the final on Sunday Darcis meets Jiri Vesely. The strong Czech defeated in the semifinals the Russian Evgeny Karlovskiy in three sets.