Martin Willem Verkerk is a retired Dutch tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 player. As a relatively unknown player, he had a brilliant run at the French Open in 2003, reaching the final before losing to Spaniard

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

 Juan Carlos Ferrero

Juan Carlos Ferrero

Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a professional tennis player, and a former world no. 1 player, from Spain. He captured the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year, he became the 21st player to hold the world no. 1 ranking. He was also the runner-up at the 2002...

. Along the way, he beat experienced clay court players Carlos Moyà

Carlos Moyá

Carlos Moya Llompart is a retired former world no. 1 tennis player from Spain. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he helped his country win the Davis Cup. He currently resides in Switzerland...

 and Guillermo Coria

Guillermo Coria

Guillermo Sebastián Coria , nicknames include El Mago , is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina who was runner-up in the 2004 French Open...

.

Verkerk's game was based on booming serves

Serve (tennis)

A serve in tennis is a shot to start a point. A player begins a serve by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it into the diagonally opposite backside box without being stopped by the net. The ball can only touch the net on a return and will be considered good if it falls on the opposite side...

 and big backhand

Backhand

The backhand is a tennis shot in which one swings the racquet around one's body in the direction where one wants the ball to go, usually performed from the baseline or as an approach shot. The term is also used in other racquet sports, and other areas where a similar motion is employed...

s. His unexpected run at the French Open as an underdog

Underdog (competition)

An underdog is a person or group in a competition, frequently in electoral politics, sports and creative works, who is popularly expected to lose. The party, team or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the rare case where an underdog wins, the outcome is an upset. These...

 and expressive on-court antics made him very popular in the Netherlands. The final round was watched by even more households in the Netherlands than when countrymate Richard Krajicek

Richard Krajicek

Richard Peter Stanislav Krajicek is a Dutch former professional tennis player. In 1996 he won the men's singles title at Wimbledon, the only Dutch player to have done so. In the quarterfinals of that tournament he defeated Pete Sampras. This was Sampras' only singles defeat at Wimbledon between...

 won Wimbledon. However, Verkerk has not reproduced similar results since then, not reaching past the third round in subsequent Grand Slams

Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...

.

Runner-ups (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2003	French Open	Juan Carlos Ferrero Juan Carlos Ferrero Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a professional tennis player, and a former world no. 1 player, from Spain. He captured the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year, he became the 21st player to hold the world no. 1 ranking. He was also the runner-up at the 2002...	1–6, 3–6, 2–6

Wins (2)

Legend (Singles)

Grand Slam tournaments (0)

Tennis Masters Cup / ATP World Tour Finals (0)

ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0)

ATP International Series Gold / ATP World Tour 500 Series (0)

ATP International Series / ATP World Tour 250 Series (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	27 January 2003	Milan Internazionali di Lombardia The Milan Indoor is a defunct professional tennis... , Italy	Carpet (i)	Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Russia. He won two Grand Slam singles titles , four Grand Slam doubles titles, and the men's singles gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He also helped Russia win the Davis Cup in 2002...	6–4, 5–7, 7–5
2.	12 July 2004	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Fernando González Fernando González ----Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi is a professional tennis player from Chile. He is known for having one of the hardest forehands on the circuit. In Spanish he is called El Bombardero de La Reina and Mano de Piedra...	7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4

Singles performance timeline

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. Davis Cup matches are included in the statistics. This table is current through the 2007 French Open

2007 French Open

The 2007 French Open was held in Paris, France from 27 May through to 10 June 2007. Followed two weeks later, as usual, by Wimbledon in London, United Kingdom. Rafael Nadal became the first man to win the tournament 3 times consecutively since Björn Borg, 1978–81; and maintained his unbeaten run...

, which ended on 29 May 2007.

Tournament	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slams
Australian Open Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...	A	A	A	A	LQ	1R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 2	0–2
French Open	A	A	A	A	LQ	F	3R	A	A	1R	0 / 3	8–3
Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	A	0 / 2	1–2
U.S. Open U.S. Open (tennis) The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	A	A	0 / 2	1–2
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	7–4	3–3	0–0	0–0	0–1	N/A	10–9
Career Statistics
Overall Win-Loss	1–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	7–11	25–25	26–19	0–0	0–0	0–1	N/A	59–59

LQ = lost in the qualifying draw