Background
Steve Darcis was born in Liège, Belgium, the son of Marie Agnes, a sports instructor, and Alain Darcis, a tennis coach.
Steve Darcis was born in Liège, Belgium, the son of Marie Agnes, a sports instructor, and Alain Darcis, a tennis coach.
44 in May 2008. Juniors
8 in the junior world singles rankings in May 2002 (and Number 15 in doubles). He reached the semifinals at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships Boys" singles event. Darcis competed at the 2008 Australian Open and the French Open, losing in the first round in both.
He and Olivier Rochus, however, reached the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament at the French Open.
He reached the second round at the United States Open. He reached the final of the Dutch Open again, but lost to Albert Montañéson
In 2009, Darcis played in three Grand Slam tournaments: the 2009 Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the United States Open, reaching the second round only at Wimbledon. He also reached the quarterfinals at Queens.
2010–present
Darcis qualified for the 2010 Qatar ExxonMobil Open, retiring in his third-round match against Rafael Nadal.
He failed to qualify for the Australian Open. At the 2011 French Open, Darcis advanced to the main draw as a qualifier, and in the first round pulled off a shock victory over 22nd seed Michaël Llodra. Darcis followed this up by beating Philipp Petzschner, to advance into the third round, where he was defeated by Frenchman Gaël Monfils in straight sets.
Darcis made the quarterfinals in Vienna, beating Nikolay Davydenko on the way, but was defeated by Daniel Brands.
In 2012, Darcis made the final of the Dallas Challenger tournament but lost to Jesse Levine. At Eastbourne International, he defeated Matthew Ebden, Marcos Baghdatis, and Marinko Matosevic to face Andy Roddick in the semifinals.
Darcis retired a set down at 1–3 due to a back injury. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Darcis beat Tomáš Berdych in the first round.
In the first round at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships on 24 June, Darcis defeated fifth-seeded Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
This made him the first player ever to defeat Nadal in the first round of any tennis Major. Darcis was ranked 130 places lower than Nadal. At the time, he was the lowest-ranked player ever to beat Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament.
lieutenant was announced prior to his second round match that he had withdrawn due to a shoulder injury sustained in the Nadal match.
Current through 2015 United States Open. Current through the 2012 United States Open (tennis).
He has won two Association of Tennis Professionals titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World Number. As a junior, Darcis compiled a singles win/loss record of 73–32, reaching as high as Number. 2007–2009 Darcis won his first Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour event at the Dutch Open in July 2007 and achieved his first Top 100 ranking on 26 November 2007 by winning a Challenger event in Finland. He won a second Association of Tennis Professionals event at Memphis in March 2008, defeating Robin Söderling in the final.
