1. Thomas Muster was born on 2 October 1967 and is an Austrian former professional tennis player.
44 Facts About Thomas Muster
1. 2.
Thomas Muster was ranked as the world No 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
3.
Thomas Muster is the first Austrian to win a major singles title, followed by Dominic Thiem at the 2020 US Open.
4.
Thomas Muster first came to prominence when he reached the final of the French Open junior tournament and the Orange Bowl juniors tournament in 1985.
5.
Thomas Muster played his first matches at the top-level in 1984, as a junior player, at the age of 16.
6.
Thomas Muster played at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and in two tournaments on Austrian soil, the clay-court event in Kitzbuhel and the indoor carpet event in Vienna.
7.
Thomas Muster turned professional in 1985, regularly playing in Challenger tournaments throughout the year, winning in Belo Horizonte, as well as continuing to play in many top-level tournaments.
8.
Thomas Muster won his first top-level tournament at the Dutch Open in Hilversum in 1986.
9.
In 1988, Thomas Muster reached six top-level tournament finals, winning four of them, in Boston, Bordeaux, Prague and Bari.
10.
Thomas Muster's comeback continued in 1990, when he won three top-level tournaments on clay and one title on hardcourt.
11.
Thomas Muster reached the semifinals of the 1990 French Open, losing in straight sets to the eventual champion, Andres Gomez.
12.
In 1990, Thomas Muster won the Austrian Sportsman of the Year award.
13.
Thomas Muster won two more top-level tournaments in 1991, and three more in 1992, with the biggest of these titles being the 1992 Monte Carlo title, where he defeated Aaron Krickstein in the final.
14.
At both the 1992 and 1993 French Opens, Thomas Muster was defeated by the reigning French Open and Australian Open champion Jim Courier.
15.
In 1995, Thomas Muster enjoyed the best year of his career winning 12 tournaments, with 11 of those tournaments won on clay-courts.
16.
Between February and June 1995, Thomas Muster won 40 consecutive matches on clay.
17.
Thomas Muster went on to win his second Italian Open title, defeating Sergi Bruguera in the final.
18.
At the 1995 French Open, Thomas Muster won his first and only Grand Slam singles title, defeating Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the semifinals and comfortably beating 1989 champion Michael Chang in the final.
19.
Thomas Muster was the only Austrian to win a Grand Slam singles title until Dominic Thiem won the 2020 US Open.
20.
In 1995, Thomas Muster won the Austrian Sportsman of the Year award for the second time.
21.
Thomas Muster continued to rack up clay-court victories in 1996.
22.
Thomas Muster won seven tournaments, six of them titles he successfully defended after winning them the year before.
23.
In July 1996, in the final of the 1996 Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Thomas Muster defeated newly crowned French Open champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov in three straight sets.
24.
Thomas Muster held the ranking initially for just one week, and then regained it for five weeks over March and April 1996.
25.
In 1997, Thomas Muster enjoyed the best results of his career on hardcourt.
26.
Thomas Muster reached the semifinals of the 1997 Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Pete Sampras.
27.
Thomas Muster then went on to win the tournament in Dubai, defeating Goran Ivanisevic in the final.
28.
Thomas Muster played decently indoors during the fall of 1997, reaching the semifinals of the 1997 IPB Czech Indoor in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and the quarterfinals of the 1997 Paris Open.
29.
In early May 1998, Thomas Muster defeated sixth-ranked Yevgeny Kafelnikov en route to the quarterfinals of the 1998 ATP German Open in Hamburg, Germany.
30.
At the 1998 French Open, Thomas Muster scored several nice wins to reach the quarterfinals before losing to Felix Mantilla in four sets, with Mantilla getting revenge for his contentious 1998 Italian Open defeat to Thomas Muster a few weeks prior.
31.
Thomas Muster opened 1999 with a semifinal showing in Sydney before struggling over the next few months, winning just two of his 12 matches after Sydney.
32.
Thomas Muster has more match wins in Davis Cup than any other Austrian tennis player.
33.
In 2003, Thomas Muster moved back to Austria, to work as a coach and captain of the Austrian Davis Cup team.
34.
Thomas Muster has played tennis on the ATP Champions Tour.
35.
On 16 June 2010, at the age of 42, Thomas Muster announced his comeback to professional tennis.
36.
Thomas Muster went on to play in three Challenger tournaments in Kitzbuhel, Como, and Rijeka.
37.
On 13 September 2011, Thomas Muster won a second match after his comeback, in the Todi Challenger, against the fifth seeded Argentinian Leonardo Mayer.
38.
Thomas Muster then lost his next match, at the Challenger tournament in Palermo, to Alessio di Mauro.
39.
In October 2011, at the age of 44, Thomas Muster decided that he would play his last tennis match before retirement at the top-level Vienna tournament, where Thomas Muster lost to countryman, Dominic Thiem, in straight sets.
40.
However, three weeks after playing in Vienna, Thomas Muster was back again, this time in a Challenger tournament in Salzburg, playing against Dennis Blomke.
41.
Thomas Muster has the highest winning percentage of singles tournament finals of all players who reached a minimum of 25 finals.
42.
Note: Thomas Muster played no professional matches between 2000 and 2009.
43.
Thomas Muster was married to Jo Beth Taylor, an Australian television personality, from 2000 to 2005, having separated in 2002.
44.
In 2010, Thomas Muster married Caroline Ofner and they have a daughter, Maxim, born in 2009.