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Ricardas BerankisLithuanian professional tennis player
Date of Birth: 21.06.1990
Country:  Lithuania |
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Biography of Richardas Berankis
Richardas Berankis, a Lithuanian professional tennis player, is a prominent member of the Lithuania Davis Cup team. He is the first and only Lithuanian tennis player to have entered the top 100 players according to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings as of November 29, 2010. Berankis also holds the best records among all Lithuanian tennis players. He reached the final of the ATP World Tour once at the Los Angeles Open in 2012.
Early Life and Career
Richardas Berankis was born on June 21, 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania. His mother, Elena, works at a post office, while his father, Genadijus, is a taxi driver. He has a sister named Lina, who also plays tennis. Berankis currently resides in Bradenton, Florida but occasionally visits his hometown of Vilnius.
Berankis started playing tennis at the age of two after his sister Lina took him to practice. At the age of nine, he began training with Remigijus Balzekas at the Siauliai tennis school, which was 200 km away from Vilnius. In 2004, Richardas won several prestigious junior tournaments, including the Junior Orange Bowl and Eddie Herr International Tennis Championships. In 2007, he showed promising results in all four Grand Slam junior tournaments.
Professional Career
After participating in the US Open in 2007, Berankis won the Dunlop Orange Bowl tournament and ended the year as the top-ranked junior player in the world after defeating Uladzimir Ignatik. In 2008, Berankis continued to participate in Challenger and Futures tournaments but soon transitioned to ATP tournaments.
His first professional ATP tournament was the Orange Warsaw Open, where he lost to Wayne Odesnik. In 2009, Berankis played in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open but was defeated by Matthias Bachinger. Representing the Lithuanian Davis Cup team in 2009, he won both of his matches against the Georgian Davis Cup team. However, Lithuania ultimately lost to Slovenia.
In 2010, Berankis made it to the quarterfinals of the SAP Open after defeating Robby Ginepri and Bjorn Phau but lost to Fernando Verdasco. He also won his first Challenger ATP tournament at the AEGON Trophy, defeating Go Soeda in the final. Berankis won his first Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon in 2010.
Berankis faced several injuries throughout his career, but he managed to reach a career-high ranking of 85 in November 2010. In March 2011, he represented Lithuania in the Davis Cup against Estonia and won both of his singles matches. In 2011, Berankis had one of his best performances at the Slovak Open, defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky and Lukas Rosol.
In July 2012, Berankis reached the final of the Nielsen Pro Championship but lost to John-Patrick Smith. He always wears a ring around his neck in memory of his late best friend, Aivaras Balzekas, the son of his coach Remigijus Balzekas. Richardas is fluent in Lithuanian, Russian, and English. Ironically, his surname translates to "handless" in Lithuanian.
