Daniel Köllerer

Köllerer earned his first ranking points as a 16-year-old wild card entry in his first pro tournament, a Futures tournament in Austria in May, 2000, losing to No. 520 Kristian Pless in the quarterfinals. He slipped from the rankings a year later, but began to rise slowly after turning pro in 2002. A Futures championship in Jamaica in November, 2002 helped him end the year ranked No. 640 as a 19-year-old.

Köllerer's career progressed well in 2003. He gathered a few ranking points in February on the Spanish Futures circuit, losing twice to 17-year-old Nicolás Almagro. In March, he played in Italy, winning 3 of the 4 weeks while beating Oliver Marach twice, Ilija Bozoljac, and splitting with Florian Mayer, to improve his ranking to No. 384. On the Italian Futures circuit in May, he earned more points, beating Diego Hartfield twice, Santiago Ventura, and Édouard Roger-Vasselin to take his ranking to No. 348.

His first match win on an ATP Circuit event was over Stefan Koubek in Kitzbühel, before going down to Juan Ignacio Chela in three sets, taking the first. At the time, Chela was ranked 18, Koubek 66 and Köllerer number 169. Köllerer reached the third round of qualifying at the 2007 Australian Open, but lost a tight match to Brian Wilson.

In 2009 Köllerer made the quarter-finals of the Acapulco event defeating David Nalbandian in the first round. He won the Rome Challenger defeating Andreas Vinciguerra in the final, on the Thursday of that week Köllerer's mother died of cancer and "he dedicated the title win to her memory and that she would be certainly proud of me"[1]

Despite a spirited and entertaining performance, Köllerer was defeated in four sets in the third round of the US Open by the #6 seed and eventual champion, Juan Martín del Potro.