Thomas Muster
His journey to the top
| Thomas Muster’s tennis talent revealed itself early in his life. At 17, he became the Austrian national tennis champion. After that, things began happening very fast – the professional athlete won numerous tournaments and soon reached the Top 10 of the worldwide tennis rankings.
1967 Thomas Muster is born in Leibnitz in southern Styria.
1984 The young Styrian wins the Austrian national tennis championships.
1985-1995 Muster has countless victories to his credit. In 1989 he becomes the first Austrian to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam tournament (the Australian Open). Soon he is in the Top 10 of the worldwide ATP rankings.
1996 The Styrian is at the apex of his career and leads the ATP world rankings.
Since 1995 Thomas Muster remains a very powerful player, winning many tournaments. However, he gradually begins to retire into private life. At the present time he has withdrawn entirely from professional sports.
Thomas Muster (* 02.10.1967)
| The former No. 1 of the world tennis rankings was born in Leibnitz in southern Styria. There Thomas Muster began to play tennis at the age of 7. His outstanding achievements earned him a place at the national centre for high-performance athletes in Vienna when he was 14.
A few days before his 17th birthday, the Styrian became the Austrian national tennis champion. A year later, Thomas Muster was in the Top 100 of the world tennis rankings. His many tournament wins quickly caused him to rise further to the top.
Resounding success
At 21, Thomas Muster was already in the Top 20 of the world rankings. He was the first Austrian to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam tournament (Australia). After that, he worked his way up to the Top 10 of the world rankings.
Setback
| In 1989, the professional tennis player suffered severe setbacks. He was hit by a drunken driver and struggled for five months to recover from his serious injuries. Back on the tennis court, he initially showed his old form (beating André Agassi and Michael Chang in the Davis Cup) and found himself placed seventh in the ATP world rankings. However, shortly afterwards he sustained a series of defeats which threw the left-handed player back to the beginning of his career.
Back to the top, one step at a time
| However, perseverance helped the Leibnitz-born athlete to rise to the top again. One of his legendary victories came in a match against the German player Michael Stich which lasted for over five hours. At the age of 28, Muster reached the apex of his career: he won a total of twelve titles including the Grand Slam tournament in Paris. Shortly afterwards, in February of 1996, he was No. 1 in the world rankings – though only for a week.
Retirement
| After further victories and top placings in the ATP rankings in the following years, the Austrian star athlete gradually made fewer headlines. In 1999, he finally retired from the tennis court. In summer of 2000, he married an Australian woman in his home country. Today he lives in Monte Carlo and Australia.