Andrew Ilie
# Andrew Ilie

Andrew Ilie (born 18 April 1976) is a former tennis player. Ilie fled Romania at age 10 with his family, spending a year at a refugee camp in Austria before emigrating to Australia. He turned professional in 1994 and became a citizen of Australia. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. He won two ATP Tour singles titles (Coral Springs in 1998 and Atlanta in 2000), as well as five Challenger Series tournaments. Ilie reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 38 on 29 May 2000.

## Career

### Juniors

He reached the finals of the Australian Open Jrs in 1994.

### Pro Tour

Ilie never progressed past the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, but was a fan-favorite, especially in Australia. Described in 2001 by tennis writer Jon Wertheim as "an emerging cult hero", Ilie developed an avid following whenever he played at the Australian Open in Melbourne. He became well known for adventurous and occasionally outrageous shots, and by ripping his shirt in glee whenever he won a particularly important or hard-fought match. The latter ritual began at the French Open in 1999, as Ilie celebrated his first-round victory in five sets over Jonas Bjorkman, and then repeated the gesture after his second-round victory, also in five sets, over Martin Rodriguez.

The last years of Ilie's career were marred by persistent injuries, including chronic osteitis pubis, which hampered his play. Ilie retired in November 2004. Following retirement, Ilie married and settled in Hong Kong.

## Junior Grand Slam finals

### Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

| Result | Year | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Loss | 1994 | Australian Open | Hard | Ben Ellwood | 7–5, 3–6, 3–6 |

## ATP career finals

### Singles: 3 (2 titles, 1 runner-ups)

* Legend
* Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
* ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
* ATP World Tour 250 Series (2–1)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (0–0)
* Clay (2–1)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (2–1)
* Indoors (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Win | 1–0 | May 1998 | Coral Springs, United States | World Series | Clay | Davide Sanguinetti | 7–5, 6–4 |
| Win | 2–0 | Apr 2000 | Atlanta, United States | International Series | Clay | Jason Stoltenberg | 6–3, 7–5 |
| Loss | 2–1 | May 2000 | St. Polten, Austria | International Series | Clay | Andrei Pavel | 5–7, 6–3, 2–6 |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

### Singles: 8 (6–2)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (5–2)
* ITF Futures (1–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (2–0)
* Clay (4–2)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Win | 1–0 | Jul 1995 | Lillehammer, Norway | Challenger | Clay | Christian Ruud | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 2–0 | Dec 1995 | Perth, Australia | Challenger | Hard | Michael Geserer | 7–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 2–1 | Jun 1998 | Prostejov, Czech Republic | Challenger | Clay | Richard Fromberg | 2–6, 2–6 |
| Win | 3–1 | Jun 1998 | Biella, Italy | Challenger | Clay | Jean-Baptiste Perlant | 6–7, 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 4–1 | Jul 1998 | Ostend, Belgium | Challenger | Clay | Martin Rodriguez | 6–2, 6–2 |
| Loss | 4–2 | Jul 1999 | Ulm, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Younes El Aynaoui | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Win | 5–2 | Apr 2000 | Paget, Bermuda | Challenger | Clay | Michal Tabara | 4–6, 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 6–2 | Feb 2003 | USA F4, Brownsville | Futures | Hard | Doug Bohaboy | $6–7^{(4–7)},$ 6–3, 6–4 |

### Doubles: 2 (0–2)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (0–2)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (0–1)
* Clay (0–1)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)

| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Loss | 0–1 | Jul 1995 | Lillehammer, Norway | Challenger | Clay | Todd Larkham | Thomas Johansson Lars-Anders Wahlgren | 6–3, 3–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 0–2 | Oct 1999 | Tel Aviv, Israel | Challenger | Hard | Amir Hadad | Noam Behr Eyal Ran | 3–6, 2–6 |

## Performance timeline

Key :

| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

### Singles

| Tournament | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Grand Slam tournaments |||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | Q1 | Q1 | 1R | 1R | Q1 | 3R | 4R | 3R | 4R | 1R | 1R | 0 / 8 | 10–8 | 56% |
| French Open | A | A | 3R | Q3 | A | 3R | 3R | 2R | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 6 | 7–6 | 54% |
| Wimbledon | A | Q1 | A | 1R | A | A | 2R | 1R | 1R | A | A | 0 / 4 | 1–4 | 20% |
| US Open | A | Q1 | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | A | Q1 | 0 / 4 | 1–4 | 20% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–2 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 4–3 | 6–4 | 3–4 | 4–4 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0 / 22 | 19–22 | 46% |
| ATP Masters Series |||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Miami | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | 2R | Q1 | 2R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Monte Carlo | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | 2R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Hamburg | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | 3R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Rome | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Canada | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | 2R | 2R | 1R | A | A | 0 / 4 | 2–4 | 33% |
| Cincinnati | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | 0 / 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| Paris | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 2–6 | 1–3 | 4–6 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 17 | 7–17 | 29% |
