4. Martin Hromec
The second Slovakian on the list, Hromec, had an unmemorable career. He never reached the Top 200 in singles, and barely did in doubles. He was a Futures player and at first retired at 24 in 2001. Since he wasn’t breaking through, he had to make money in some other way, so he started to coach and play the German tennis Bundesliga, which financially helps out a lot of lower ranked players. He came back to play some Futures part-time, but it wasn’t of any significance. He finally ended his career in 2008, at the age of 32. Looking back on his career, his greatest win must be his stunning performance against former World No. 2 and 1998 Australian Open champion, Petr Korda. Just 2 years after his slam title, Korda was playing the last singles match of his career. Those 2 years were very turbulent, as Korda tested positive for steroids at Wimbledon and served a year-long ban. Hromec, at the time ranked No. 417 was very much an underdog in the match, but in the end, he was the winner. After splitting sets, the match went into a final set, which continued to a tiebreak. Hromec was dominant and won the final set tiebreak 7-2. Hromec is currently the coach of Martin Klizan, the Slovak No. 1. Korda’s son is following in his father’s footsteps, and played in this year’s US Open Juniors.
