Ričardas Berankis (; born June 21, 1990) is a Lithuanian former professional tennis player. He was the first and only Lithuanian to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ranked Lithuanian tennis player of all time. Berankis has reached two singles finals on the ATP World Tour, at the Los Angeles Open in 2012 and at the Kremlin Cup in 2017 and won one doubles title in Houston.ATP Profile He was also a prominent member of the Lithuania Davis Cup team.
Early years Berankis started playing tennis at the age of two, when his six years older sister Lina took him to her tennis practices. Berankis' first coach was Valdas Adomaitis from Jurbarkas. When Berankis was nine years old he accepted an invitation from Remigijus Balžekas to practise with him at the Šiauliai tennis school (over 200 km from Vilnius). It turned out to be a long-term partnership and friendship.
Career
Juniors In 2004, Berankis dominated the U14 circuit of the Tennis Europe Junior Tour, winning six junior events, Leeuwarden, Piešťany, Šiauliai, Köln, and two titles in Armenia. He carried that momentum into the prestigious Tennis Europe Junior Masters, Junior Orange Bowl and Eddie Herr International Tennis Championships titles at the end of the year.
In 2007, Berankis had a successful run on the ITF Junior Circuit. In Majors, Berankis reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, and the semifinals at Wimbledon. Berankis won the US Open Junior title, defeating Jerzy Janowicz in the final. Berankis also won titles at the Canadian Open Junior Championships, the Orange Bowl Tennis Championships, and defended his title at the Yucatán World Cup. As a result, Berankis finished the year as the No. 1 junior in the world.
2007: Pro beginnings In the same year, Berankis won his first (and only) Futures singles title in Albufeira, Portugal. He started the tournament from the qualifying draw and lost only one set in nine matches. Also, 16-year-old Berankis represented Lithuania at the Davis cup third group competition. He won three out of five singles matches in five ties played.
2008–2009: ATP Tour debut Berankis started the 2008 season with futures tournaments in the United States. At the one held in McAllen, Texas, he together with Sergey Betov captured a doubles title. Berankis got several wildcards to qualifying draws of ATP Challenger and World Tour tournaments (including the Miami Masters) but it took some time for him to win one. In April, Berankis qualified for the main draw of Humacao Challenger and reached the second round there. In June, Berankis won the qualification and made his first professional ATP tournament appearance at the 2008 Orange Warsaw Open. There he lost in the first round to World No. 96 Wayne Odesnik, in straight sets.
At the 2008 US Open, Berankis made his first attempt to qualify for a Grand Slam event. In the first round of the qualifying draw, after losing the first set he defeated David Marrero. In the second round, again after losing the first set he defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky, it was Berankis' first victory against a top 100 player in his career. In the final round of the qualifying draw, after winning the first set Berankis lost to Björn Phau and failed to qualify for the main event.
During the 2009 season Berankis mainly played at futures and challenger tournaments. He reached three futures finals in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Santo Domingo, but failed to win one. On the ATP Challenger tour Berankis' best result was reaching the semifinals in Qarshi and in Champaign.
Berankis competed for Lithuania in the 2009 second group of Davis Cup. In the first round tie against Georgia, he played two singles matches against George Khrikadze and Lado Chikhladze and won both of them in straight sets. Lithuania defeated Georgia 3–2 and moved to the second round to face the Slovenian team. In Slovenia, Berankis lost all three of his matches in straight sets. First, he lost to Grega Žemlja, then he together with Vadim Pinko lost a doubles match to Grega Žemlja and Andrej Kračman, on the last day, he lost a dead rubber to Janez Semrajč. Lithuania lost to Slovenia 0–5.
2010: Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon Berankis started the 2010 season by competing at the 2010 SAP Open, where he defeated Robby Ginepri in the first round, 6–7, 6–2, 6–3 15min.lt and Björn Phau in the second round 7–6, 6–3.ATP World Tour In the quarterfinals, he lost to then-world number 11 Fernando Verdasco 6–3, 7–6.ATP World Tour Berankis then failed to qualify to the 2010 Delray Beach main draw, losing in the first round in the qualifying draw.
Berankis played for the Lithuanian Davis Cup team at the 2010 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II tournament. In the first round, Lithuania played against the British Davis Cup team. Berankis won his first match against Daniel Evans 6–1, 4–6, 7–6, 3–6, 6–3.Telegraph.co.uk His second match was against James Ward, whom Berankis defeated 7–6, 6–3, 6–4 and tied the series at 2–2. Lithuania advanced to the second round, winning the series 3–2.BBC News
The highest-ranked Lithuanian on the ATP World Tour played in three more Challenger and Futures tournaments before competing in the qualifying draw of the 2010 French Open. Berankis advanced to the third round of qualification, but did not manage to advance to the main draw. In the first round of qualifying, Berankis defeated Reda El Amrani 6–2, 6–4. VE.lt In the next round Berankis defeated Victor Crivoi 6–2, 3–6, 6–0. Lrytas.lt In the qualifying match for a spot in the main draw, Berankis lost to Martin Fischer 6–3, 4–6, 5–7. Balsas.lt
Berankis won his first ATP Challenger tournament at the 2010 Aegon Trophy. In the first round the Lithuanian defeated Frank Dancevic 7–5, 7–6. Lrytas.lt In the second round Berankis defeated then-world number 93 Kevin Anderson in straight sets 7–5, 6–4. 15min.lt In the quarter-finals Berankis defeated American Ryan Harrison 6–2, 6–2. In the semi-finals Berankis won over former world number 88 Adrian Mannarino 6–3, 3–6, 6–4.Nick's Picks He defeated then-world number 137 Go Soeda in the final 6–4, 6–4.Nick's Picks
Berankis played in his first Grand Slam tournament in 2010, the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. He became the first Lithuanian player to reach the Wimbledon main draw with three straight-set victories, including an upset win over Santiago Ventura in the final qualifying round. Lrytas.lt In the first round of the main draw, Berankis defeated fellow qualifier Carsten Ball 6–2, 6–0, 3–6, 7–6. Lrytas.lt In the second round Berankis lost to Feliciano López 5–7, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6. 15min.lt
Berankis then competed for the Lithuanian Davis Cup team at the 2010 Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II tournament. In the second round, Lithuania played against the Irish Davis Cup team. Berankis won his first match against James McGee 6–7, 6–4, 6–4, 6–3.RTE.ie Then he played his doubles match. Berankis' partner was Laurynas Grigelis. They easily defeated James Cluskey and Barry King 6–3, 6–3, 6–4 and ensured the victory for Lithuania.RTE.ie The series ended with the result of 3–2.
After a win in first round against American Michael Yani 6–4, 7–5, Berankis had to retire in his Lexington Challenger second-round match against American Alex Bogomolov Jr., losing 4–6, 3–4. It was later revealed that Berankis had an arm injury.
He had a couple of days of intensive physical training before he went to Canada for the Vancouver Open. In the first round Berankis defeated Andrea Collarini 6–4, 7–5. In the second round he was victorious against Gilles Müller from Luxembourg 6–4, 6–4. In the third round he overcame American Jesse Levine 6–3, 6–4. He defeated another American, Lester Cook, in the semifinal 6–3, 6–3, but lost to Dudi Sela in the final 5–7, 2–6. However, he gained 60 ranking points in the tournament.Odlum Brown Vancouver Open main draw Berankis would finish his European hard-court warmup by losing in the first round of Binghamton challenger to American Jesse Witten 4–6, 4–6.Levene, Gouldin & Thompson tennis challenger
After these challengers Berankis decided to compete in the 2010 US Open, where he qualified without dropping a set. Berankis started the Open with a four-set win over American wildcard Ryan Sweeting. After that match Berankis lost an epic five-set encounter against then-world number 13, Jürgen Melzer despite being up a break in the fifth set.
Immediately following the US Open, Berankis flew back to Lithuania where he played with the Lithuanian Davis Cup team against Slovenia. Despite winning his first singles rubber in four sets, and winning another epic five-set match in doubles partnering Grigelis, Berankis would eventually lose his second singles rubber in straight sets as Lithuania lost the match-up 2–3 and Slovenia were promoted.
Berankis would not play again until the start of November because of numerous injuries. Upon his comeback Ricardas decided to go back to the Challenger tour playing in the 2010 Bauer Watertechnology Cup challenger in Eckental and the 2010 Lambertz Open by STAWAG challenger in Aachen, but lost in the first round in both tournaments. After this Berankis would make the quarter-finals of the 2010 Ritro Slovak Open challenger in Bratislava, losing to Stefan Koubek, before going on to win the 2010 IPP Open challenger in Helsinki, beating Michał Przysiężny in the final, to finish the season on a high note, entering the top 100 for the first time and finishing the year at a career-high of 85th in the world, as well as being the youngest player in the top 100.Berankis to move into top 100
2011: Major third round on debut at the Australian Open Berankis started the year at the Brisbane International, where he went through the qualifying draw and defeated Arnaud Clément in the first round of the main draw. He lost in the second round to Florian Mayer, in three sets.
At the Australian Open, Berankis had his first direct entry to the main draw of a Grand Slam event. In the first round, he defeated local Marinko Matosevic. In the second round, Berankis won by retirement against then world No. 21 David Nalbandian. He was defeated by David Ferrer in the third round, where Berankis won only five games in three sets.
In February, Berankis played at the SAP Open, where he reached quarterfinals in singles and doubles. In the first two rounds of singles draw Berankis defeated Benjamin Becker and Donald Young, then he lost to the eventual champion Milos Raonic, in two tight sets. Berankis' next tournament was the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, where he lost to the eventual champion Andy Roddick in the first round, in three sets. In the first round of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, he again lost to the eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro, in straight sets.
At the beginning of March, Berankis came back to Europe to represent Lithuania in the Davis Cup tie against Estonia in Tallinn. He won both of his singles matches against Jaak Põldma and Jürgen Zopp, the recent one took 20 games in the fifth set and 3 hours 46 minutes in total to decide the winner. In doubles match Berankis partnering Dovydas Šakinis lost to Jürgen Zopp and Mait Künnap.