Two legends of Polish tennis are retiring this week at the BNP Paribas Sopot Open Challenger. Michał Przysiężny and Marcin Matkowski were born in an era of renaissance for Polish tennis, which is slowly coming to an end. However, with promising talents such as Hubert Hurkacz or Kamil Majchrzak (as of Monday a new addition to the ATP top 100), Polish tennis is in good hands.

“Polish Federer”

Michał Przysiężny won eight ATP Challenger Tour titles, reached a career high ranking of No. 57, and clinched an ATP 500 doubles title at the 2014 Japan Open alongside Pierre-Hugues Herbert. He was also a key player in a historic success for Polish tennis – advancing to the Davis Cup World Group in 2015. On the 20th of September that year Przysiężny defeated Norbert Gombos in the fifth match of a Davis Cup tie between Poland and Slovakia and took the country to the highest tier of that competition.

His biggest career wins include upsetting Ivan Ljubicic at 2010 Wimbledon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2014 Japan Open.

Przysiężny was a very crafty all-court player with a beautiful one-handed backhand. That shot earned him the cheesy nickname “Polish Federer,” although he is mostly known as “Ołówek” (which means pencil in Polish) due to his back in the days hairstyle resembling one a character in a cartoon had. (The show was about an enchanted pencil.)

In recent years, Przysiężny struggled with an achilles heel injury, which didn’t allow him to compete at the highest level anymore. In 2018 he was a sparring partner for Caroline Wozniacki before coming back for one last try at professional tennis.

A top doubles player

Marcin Matkowski will be remembered for his iconic partnership with Mariusz Fyrstenberg, which saw the Polish pair win fifteen titles together and participating in the year-end championships five times. A former World No. 7 in doubles, Matkowski reached a Grand Slam final at the 2011 US Open (partnering with Fyrstenberg, lost to Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner). The Pole was also an excellent mixed doubles player, coming up short in a Major title match twice (US Open 2012 with Kvita Peschke and French Open 2015 with Lucie Hradecka). He also played his part in the historic Davis Cup success, partnering with 2-time Grand Slam champion Łukasz Kubot to beat a Slovakian pair Martin/Zelenay.

Fitness was never Matkowski’s strength as he was one of the very few professional players to carry a beer belly. Nevertheless, the Pole was able to destroy his opponents with a booming serve, often capable of reaching over 230km/h, and great anticipation at the net.

Last professional tournament

Both these players chose to retire at the 2019 Sopot Open, an effort from the tournament director Mariusz Fyrstenberg. The very same tournament formed the iconic polish duo. Retiring there would put the lovely seaside tourist spot of Sopot back on the tennis map. (An ATP 250 tournament was held there from 2001 to 2007. The list of winners includes Tommy Robredo, Gael Monfils, and a maiden ATP title for Rafael Nadal.)

Przysiężny got a wild card into the main draw and found himself playing a 19-year-old compatriot. Daniel Michalski comes into the match as a big favorite, having taken down Przysiężny just over a month before at the 2019 Polish Tennis Championships 6-0, 7-5.

Once again, it wasn’t really a tight affair with Michalski just running and getting everything back as Przysiężny made a ton of errors. To be fair, he did have patches of brilliance, but was unable to consistently keep the ball in the court which is a requirement to play good tennis on a clay court.

The crowd says goodbye

Przysiężny’s last match brought the Polish tennis elite to the stands as former World no. 14 Jerzy Janowicz, 2012 Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwańska, 1978 Australian Open doubles champion Wojtek Fibak, and many others showed up to wish the Pole a great farewell.

Przysiężny mentioned in the on court interview that it’s tough to force yourself to train four hours a day when you have only one match left, and it showed as he couldn’t keep up with Michalski.

It was a touching moment as the public gave a standing ovation to Przysiężny. The announcer listed his biggest achievements, focusing on the 2015 Davis Cup World Group playoffs deciding win.

Matkowski is partnering with a three-time Challenger Tour doubles titleist Szymon Wałków. The pair was seeded fourth in a sixteen-team draw and will play Jeremy Jahn/Pedro Martinez on Wednesday.

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