Rainer Schüttler

Schüttler was the runner-up at the 2003 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. He won an Olympic silver medal in doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 5 in April 2004.

Rainer Schüttler

Schüttler at the 2011 Queen's Club
ITF name	Rainer Schuettler
Country (sports)	Germany
Residence	Altstätten, Switzerland
Born	(1976-04-25) 25 April 1976 (age 48) Korbach, West Germany
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	1995
Retired	2012
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$7,407,508
Singles
Career record	327–337 (49.2%  in Grand Slam, ATP World Tour and Davis Cup main draw matches)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 5 (26 April 2004)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	F (2003)
French Open	4R (2003)
Wimbledon	SF (2008)
US Open	4R (2003)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	SF (2003)
Olympic Games	2R (2000, 2008)
Doubles
Career record	124–172 (41.9%  in Grand Slam, ATP World Tour and Davis Cup main draw matches)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 40 (11 July 2005)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2004, 2007, 2010, 2011)
French Open	QF (2007)
Wimbledon	QF (2005)
US Open	2R (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	Silver Medal (2004)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon	QF (2004)
Medal record Representing  Germany Olympic Games 2004 Athens Doubles
Last updated on: 5 February 2022.

He began playing tennis at the age of nine. He resides in Switzerland.

2003–2009

In 2003, Schüttler became the first German since Boris Becker in 1989 to advance to the fourth round at all Grand Slams. He became the first German to reach a Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since Michael Stich was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 1996. En route to the final, which he lost in straight sets to Andre Agassi, he defeated Andy Roddick who would end the season as world No 1.

In 2004, Schüttler reached his first career ATP Masters Series final in Monte Carlo by beating Gustavo Kuerten in the first round, Lleyton Hewitt in the third round, Tim Henman in the quarterfinal and Carlos Moyá in the semifinal. In the final, he lost to Guillermo Coria. That week, he would reach a career-high ranking of No. 5. Schüttler won a silver medal for Germany in men's doubles with partner Nicolas Kiefer at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. 2004 was the sixth straight year in which he finished in the ATP top 50.

Schüttler reached his first career semifinal at Wimbledon by beating Santiago Ventura, James Blake, Guillermo García López, Janko Tipsarević, and Arnaud Clément 6–3, 5–7, 7–6, 6–7, 8–6. His match with Clément was over five hours, completed in two days to reach the semifinals, in which Schuettler saved a match point at 6–5 down in the fifth set. He was defeated by eventual champion Rafael Nadal 1–6, 6–7, 4–6. His achievement was a big surprise, since he entered the tournament ranked 94th and with a streak of 13 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments without making it past the second round.

His 2009 season Schüttler started off at the Chennai Open, beating Prakash Amritraj 6–2, 4–6, 6–1. In the second round, he beat Simon Greul 6–4, 6–2, and in the quarterfinals Björn Phau, 6–2, 7–5. Unfortunately Schuettler had to withdraw from his semifinal match against Somdev Devvarman because of a wrist injury. He also withdrew from the tournament in Sydney. At the Australian Open, he was seeded 30th but lost in the first round to Israeli Dudi Sela 1–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–4. He also participated in the doubles with Lu Yen-hsun, but they were defeated by Łukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach. In the first round in Rotterdam, he lost to Mario Ančić. He played the Open 13 in Marseille, defeating Laurent Recouderc in the first round 6–1, 6–4.

He competed at the ARAG World Team Cup in Germany, helping his country reach the final, where they lost to Serbia.

In the second round at Wimbledon, though seeded 18th, he was upset by Dudi Sela, 7–6, 6–3, 6–2.[1]^{[permanent dead link]}

 

2010–2011

He reached the second round of the Australian Open defeating Sam Querrey in four sets. However he lost to Feliciano López in four sets, too. At the French Open, he again suffered a first-round exit, this time against Guillermo García López in straight sets. He reached the semifinal of the Aegon Championships at the Queens Club in London but lost to Sam Querrey in three sets 7–6, 5–7, 3–6. Despite his good form he was defeated by Denis Istomin in the second round of Wimbledon in five sets. At the quarterfinal of the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Schüttler could not manage to close out the match against Querrey despite serving for it at 5–4 and 6–5 in the deciding set. He was knocked out in the first round of the US Open losing to Benoît Paire. At the Thailand Open in Bangkok, Schüttler beat Ricardo Mello in round one for a second round berth against Ernests Gulbis. He lost 6–7, 7–6, 4–6 in a close match.

In 2010, Schüttler and his former Davis Cup companion Alexander Waske founded the Schüttler Waske Tennis-University, a tennis academy for professional tennis players.

Schüttler started the tour at the Qatar Open where he confronted Teymuraz Gabashvili in the singles, but lost 3–5, 6–7. He also played doubles with Guillermo García López confronting Marco Chiudinelli and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom they lost 1–6, 2–6. At the Australian Open, he played ninth seed Fernando Verdasco in the first round, but lost 1–6, 3–6, 2–6. He then played several Challenger series tournaments. At Wimbledon, he defeated Thomaz Bellucci in the first round, but lost to Feliciano López in the second 6–7, 7–6, 2–6, 2–6.

Schüttler officially retired in October 2012.

Olympic final

Doubles: 1 silver medal

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Silver	2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Nicolas Kiefer	Fernando González   Nicolás Massú	2–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(7–9), 4–6

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 runner-up

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	2003	Australian Open	Hard	Andre Agassi	2–6, 2–6, 1–6

Masters Series finals

Singles: 1 runner-up

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	2004	Monte Carlo	Clay	Guillermo Coria	2–6, 1–6, 3–6

Singles: 12 (4 titles, 8 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jan 1999	Doha, Qatar	World Series	Hard	Tim Henman	6–4, 5–7, 6–1
Loss	1–1	Apr 1999	Chennai, India	World Series	Hard	Byron Black	4–6, 6–1, 3–6
Loss	1–2	Jan 2000	Doha, Qatar	International Series	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	6–3, 5–7, 0–3 ret.
Win	2–2	Sep 2001	Shanghai, China	International Series	Hard	Michel Kratochvil	6–3, 6–4
Loss	2–3	Sep 2001	Hong Kong, Hong Kong	International Series	Hard	Marcelo Ríos	6–7(3–7), 2–6
Loss	2–4	Oct 2001	St. Petersburg, Russia	International Series	Hard (i)	Marat Safin	6–3, 3–6, 3–6
Loss	2–5	Apr 2002	Munich, Germany	International Series	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	4–6, 4–6
Loss	2–6	Jan 2003	Melbourne, Australia	Grand Slam	Hard	Andre Agassi	2–6, 2–6, 1–6
Loss	2–7	Sep 2003	Costa do Sauipe, Brazil	International Series	Hard	Sjeng Schalken	2–6, 4–6
Win	3–7	Sep 2003	Tokyo, Japan	Championship Series	Hard	Sébastien Grosjean	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Win	4–7	Oct 2003	Lyon, France	International Series	Carpet (i)	Arnaud Clément	7–5, 6–3
Loss	4–8	Apr 2004	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Masters Series	Clay	Guillermo Coria	2–6, 1–6, 3–6

Doubles: 8 (4 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2001	Stuttgart, Germany	Championship Series	Clay	Guillermo Cañas	Michael Hill   Jeff Tarango	4–6, 7–6(7–1), 6–4
Loss	1–1	Oct 2003	St. Petersburg, Russia	International Series	Hard (i)	Michael Kohlmann	Julian Knowle   Nenad Zimonjić	6–7(1–7), 3–6
Win	2–1	Jan 2005	Chennai, India	International Series	Hard	Lu Yen-hsun	Mahesh Bhupathi   Jonas Björkman	7–5, 4–6, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	2–2	Jul 2005	Gstaad, Switzerland	International Series	Clay	Michael Kohlmann	František Čermák   Leoš Friedl	6–7(6–8), 6–7(11–13)
Loss	2–3	Jun 2006	Halle, Germany	International Series	Grass	Michael Kohlmann	Fabrice Santoro   Nenad Zimonjić	0–6, 4–6
Loss	2–4	Feb 2007	San Jose, United States	International Series	Hard	Chris Haggard	Eric Butorac   Jamie Murray	5–7, 6–7(6–8)
Win	3–4	Apr 2008	Houston, United States	International Series	Clay	Ernests Gulbis	Pablo Cuevas   Marcel Granollers Pujol	7–5, 7–6(7–3)
Win	4–4	May 2008	Munich, Germany	International Series	Clay	Michael Berrer	Scott Lipsky   David Martin	7–5, 3–6, [10–8]

Singles: 14 (6–8)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0-1	Feb 1997	Lübeck, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Geoff Grant	3–6, 3–6
Win	1-1	Oct 1997	Eckental, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Petr Luxa	6–4, 6–1
Loss	1-2	Dec 1997	Bad Lippspringe, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Michael Kohlmann	6–4, 6–7, 5–7
Win	2-2	Nov 1998	Portorož, Slovenia	Challenger	Hard	Peter Wessels	6–3, 6–2
Loss	2-3	Oct 2000	Bratislava, Slovakia	Challenger	Hard	Davide Sanguinetti	5–7, 1–6
Win	3-3	Nov 2000	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Johan Settergren	7–6(7–5), 1–6, 6–1
Loss	3-4	Aug 2006	Graz, Austria	Challenger	Hard	Florian Mayer	4–6, 7–5, 2–6
Win	4-4	Nov 2006	Aachen, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Evgeny Korolev	6–3, 7–5
Win	5-4	Nov 2007	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Challenger	Hard	Sergiy Stakhovsky	7–6(7–2), 6–2
Loss	5-5	Apr 2010	Athens, Greece	Challenger	Hard	Lu Yen-hsun	6–3, 6–7(3–7), 4–6
Loss	5-6	May 2010	Rhodes, Greece	Challenger	Hard	Dudi Sela	6–7(3–7), 3–6
Loss	5-7	Mar 2011	Dallas, United States	Challenger	Hard	Alex Bogomolov Jr.	6–7(5–7), 3–6
Loss	5-8	May 2011	Cremona, Italy	Challenger	Hard	Igor Kunitsyn	2–6, 6–7(2–7)
Win	6-8	Aug 2011	Astana, Kazakhstan	Challenger	Hard	Teymuraz Gabashvili	7–6(8–6), 4–6, 6–4

Doubles: 2 (2–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 1997	Eckental, Germany	Challenger	Carpet	Lars Rehmann	Georg Blumauer   Max Mirnyi	6–4, 1–6, 6–3
Win	2–0	Jan 2007	Heilbronn, Germany	Challenger	Hard	Michael Kohlmann	Sander Groen   Michaël Llodra	walkover

Singles

Doubles

After retirement, he began his coaching career and has coached Janko Tipsarević, Sergiy Stakhovsky and Vasek Pospisil. Since November 2018, he coached former world No. 1, Angelique Kerber. In July 2019, Kerber announced they had split on social media.

In 2014 Rainer met Serbian Jovana Sesevic, whose sister Biljana is married to another former top 10 player, Janko Tipsarević. They married in 2015 and have two sons (Noah and Leon) and now mostly reside in Switzerland.