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Denis Kudla ( ; born August 17, 1992) is an American tennis coach and former professional player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 53, achieved in May 2016. He had a career-high doubles ranking of No. 133, achieved in August 2018. He won nine Challenger singles and nine doubles titles in his career.
He is currently coaching Reilly Opelka.
His mother got permission to pick him up from elementary school one hour early so that they were able to go from Fairfax to the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. She used to wait for him during his two-hour practices. She drove home while he slept, and then she used to wake him up for dinner and homework.
His family moved to Arlington when he was 13 years old, where Kudla was set to matriculate at Washington-Lee High School. A schedule of six hours of tennis court time each day was going to leave no room for a traditional high school life. He was home-schooled at JTCC. He had to commute on his own to practice in College Park via the Metro, lugging two racket bags and changing trains twice during rush hour. "My parents were strict, but not crazy strict. I was never spoiled. I wanted tennis. It was always my dream." One of Kudla's favorite experiences was visiting the White House for the 2013 Easter Egg Roll as he got to meet President Barack Obama, and NFL Pro Bowlers Anquan Boldin and Adrian Peterson. Kudla worked out early in his career with trainer Greg Petrosian in Boca Raton, Florida.
In 2008 as the number one seed, he won the 16-and-under age bracket at the Orange Bowl, beating future University of Virginia tennis player, Mitchell Frank. Both players were training together at College Park. Kudla won the match, which was his first in major international competition. Kudla became the first American to win the Boys’ 16s title since Donald Young in 2003.
Kudla also participated in the 2008 BNP Paribas Showdown vs Junior A. Ore at Madison Square Garden, as they were the under-card for Roger Federer and Pete Sampras who competed against each other afterwards. Soon after, Kudla turned pro even though he had great interest from the University of Virginia as he was the 2nd ranked senior in the nation. Kudla reached a career-high combined junior ranking of world No. 3. He believes the turning point in his junior tennis career was when he came from behind to beat junior tennis prodigy Trey Hatcher of Knoxville, Tennessee 7–5, 7–6 at the Boys 12s National Hard Court Championships in 2003.
His best result was reaching the final of the 2010 US Open for boys. He won the first set, but he eventually lost against Jack Sock.
He first played an ATP Tour main-draw match six weeks later, in doubles at the 2008 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, partnering with fellow junior Junior A. Ore. The pair, a wildcard entry, lost their first-round match to Lucas Arnold Ker, and Eduardo Schwank. Two years later, he was given a wildcard for the singles main draw of the 2010 Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships and reached the second round, where he lost to fellow American Ryan Harrison.
His first tour-level doubles match win came in reaching the second round in doubles at the 2011 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas partnering Donald Young. Kudla reached the quarterfinals in singles at the 2011 Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, having knocked off big-serving Ivo Karlović in three sets, and then second seed Grigor Dimitrov. Kudla lost to qualifier Michael Yani in three sets in the quarterfinals.
Kudla played his first Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. in 2011, losing in the first round to Tobias Kamke.
In 2013 at the Australian Open he lost in the first round of qualifying to Julian Reister. Then at the French Open he qualified for the main draw before losing to Jan Hájek. At Wimbledon he again qualified for the main draw and won his first Grand Slam match against James Duckworth. He could not repeat the victory, losing to Ivan Dodig while plagued with a back injury throughout the three sets. At the 2013 US Open, he beat Jiří Veselý in four sets before losing to Tomáš Berdych.
At the 2018 Australian Open, post-qualifying, Kudla beat compatriot Steve Johnson in the first round of the tournament, and took the first two sets off of the fifth seed Dominic Thiem in the second round. Kudla made the main draw of the 2018 French Open when he beat Jürgen Zopp in the final round of qualifying. However he lost to the 26th seed Damir Džumhur in the first round. He reached his career-high doubles ranking of No. 133 on August 27, 2018.
He finished the year 2018 with a singles high ranking of No. 63 his best year-end ranking in his career.
In January 2021, Kudla tested positive for COVID-19 during the Australian Open qualifying event in Doha. In June at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, he reached the third round as a qualifier, for the first time since 2015 when he reached the fourth round which was his best showing at any Grand Slam. He defeated 30th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in a five set match and veteran Andreas Seppi in the second round. He was eventually ousted by Novak Djokovic but not before giving a tough fight to the world No. 1 in all three sets played.
With partner Jack Sock he reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships where they lost to sixth seeded Colombians Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah.
In October 2023, he was selected again this time as the No. 2 ATP player at the 2024 United Cup as part of the US team. He qualified for the 2024 Dallas Open as a lucky loser and won his first round match against Radu Albot before losing this time to Jordan Thompson. Ranked No. 179, he also qualified for the 2024 BNP Paribas Open.
In October 2024, he was selected for the second consecutive time as the No. 2 ATP player at the 2025 United Cup as part of the team that reached again the final. Kudla and Desirae Krawczyk beat Czechs Patrik Rikl and Gabriela Knutson in straight sets in the semifinal stage. Ultimately, the United States won the United Cup title for a second time defeating Poland. Right before lifting the trophy with the USA team, Kudla announced his retirement on 4 January 2025.
| Grand Slam tournaments | |||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | 1R | Q1 | 1R | 1R | 2R | Q3 | 2R | 2R | Q2 | Q2 | 1R | 2R | Q2 | 0 / 8 | 4–8 |
| French Open | A | A | Q2 | 1R | Q1 | Q1 | 1R | Q3 | 1R | 1R | Q1 | Q2 | 1R | Q1 | Q3 | 0 / 5 | 0–5 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | Q3 | 2R | 2R | 4R | 1R | Q3 | 1R | 2R | NH | 3R | 1R | Q3 | Q1 | 0 / 8 | 8–8 |
| US Open | A | Q3 | 1R | 2R | A | 1R | 1R | Q1 | 2R | 3R | 1R | 2R | 1R | Q1 | Q1 | 0 / 9 | 5–9 |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 1–2 | 3–3 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 2–4 | 4–4 | 0–1 | 3–2 | 0–4 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 30 | 17–30 |
| National representation | |||||||||||||||||
| Summer Olympics | NH | A | NH | 1R | NH | A | NH | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | |||||||
| ATP Masters 1000 | |||||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells Masters | A | Q1 | 2R | Q1 | A | 1R | 2R | Q2 | Q1 | 1R | NH | 1R | Q2 | Q1 | 1R | 0 / 6 | 2–6 |
| Miami Open | A | A | 1R | A | Q1 | Q1 | 2R | Q1 | Q2 | 1R | NH | 2R | 3R | 1R | A | 0 / 6 | 4–6 |
| Monte-Carlo Masters | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | A | A | NH | A | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 |
| Madrid Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | 2R | A | A | Q1 | NH | A | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 |
| Italian Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q2 | A | A | Q1 | A | A | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 |
| Canadian Open | A | A | A | Q2 | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | NH | A | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 |
| Cincinnati Masters | A | A | A | Q1 | A | 1R | A | A | 1R | 1R | Q1 | A | Q1 | A | A | 0 / 3 | 0–3 |
| Shanghai Masters | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | A | NH | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | ||
| Paris Masters | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | A | Q2 | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–4 | 3–4 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0 / 19 | 7–19 |
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||||
| Tournaments | 1 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 14 | 20 | 1 | 14 | 22 | 1 | 11 | 16 | 5 | 3 | 132 | |
| Overall win–loss | 1–1 | 2–2 | 2–6 | 5–11 | 3–5 | 8–14 | 8–20 | 1–1 | 11–14 | 11–22 | 0–1 | 9–11 | 6–16 | 4–5 | 1–3 | 72–132 | |
| Year-end ranking | 496 | 276 | 137 | 114 | 121 | 69 | 131 | 174 | 63 | 113 | 114 | 105 | 106 | 163 | 267 | ||
| Grand Slam tournaments | ||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 |
| French Open | A | A | A | A | A | 2R | A | A | 1R | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 3 | 1–3 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | 1R | Q2 | A | 1R | A | Q1 | A | NH | A | QF | A | A | 0 / 3 | 3–3 |
| US Open | 1R | A | 2R | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | 3R | A | 0 / 6 | 3–6 |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–3 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 14 | 8–14 |
| {class=wikitable style=font-size:90% !Legend |
| ATP Challenger (9–12) |
| ITF Futures (2–0) |
| Hard (9–9) |
| Clay (1–0) |
| Grass (1–3) |
| Win | 1–0 | USA F26, Houston | Futures | Hard | Tyler Hochwalt | 7–5, 6–1 | |
| Win | 2–0 | USA F25, Laguna Niguel | Futures | Hard | Dennis Lajola | 6–4, 6–0 | |
| Win | 3–0 | Lexington, US | Challenger | Hard | Érik Chvojka | 5–7, 7–5, 6–1 | |
| Win | 4–0 | Charlottesville, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Alex Kuznetsov | 6–0, 6–3 | |
| Loss | 4–1 | Dallas, US | Challenger | Hard | Jürgen Melzer | 4–6, 6–2, 1–6 | |
| Win | 5–1 | Tallahassee, US | Challenger | Clay | Cedrik-Marcel Stebe | 6–3, 6–3 | |
| Loss | 5–2 | Jalisco Open, Mexico | Challenger | Hard | Gilles Müller | 2–6, 2–6 | |
| Win | 6–2 | Winnetka, US | Challenger | Hard | Farrukh Dustov | 6–2, 6–2 | |
| Loss | 6–3 | Surbiton Trophy, UK | Challenger | Grass | Matthew Ebden | 7–6(7–4), 4–6, 6–7(5–7) | |
| Win | 7–3 | Ilkley, UK | Challenger | Grass | Matthew Ebden | 6–3, 6–4 | |
| Loss | 7–4 | Tiburon, US | Challenger | Hard | Tim Smyczek | 6–1, 1–6, 6–7(7–9) | |
| Loss | 7–5 | Monterrey, Mexico | Challenger | Hard | Ernesto Escobedo | 4–6, 4–6 | |
| Loss | 7–6 | Knoxville, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Filip Peliwo | 4–6, 2–6 | |
| Win | 8–6 | Drummondville, Canada | Challenger | Hard | Benjamin Bonzi | 6–0, 7–5 | |
| Loss | 8–7 | Le Gosier, Guadeloupe | Challenger | Hard | Dušan Lajović | 4–6, 0–6 | |
| Loss | 8–8 | Dallas, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Jurij Rodionov | 5–7, 6–7(10–12) | |
| Win | 9–8 | Cary Challenger, US | Challenger | Hard | Prajnesh Gunneswaran | 3–6, 6–3, 6–0 | |
| Loss | 9–9 | Apr 2021 | Orlando Open, US | Challenger | Hard | Jenson Brooksby | 3–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 9–10 | Jun 2021 | Nottingham Open, UK | Challenger | Grass | Frances Tiafoe | 1–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 10–10 | Mar 2022 | Phoenix, US | Challenger | Hard | Daniel Altmaier | 2–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
| Loss | 10–11 | May 2022 | Surbiton Trophy, UK | Challenger | Grass | Jordan Thompson | 5–7, 3–6 |
| Win | 11–11 | Sep 2023 | Columbus, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Alexis Galarneau | 6–2, 6–1 |
| Loss | 11–12 | Knoxville, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Alex Michelsen | 5–7, 6–4, 2–6 |
| {class=wikitable style=font-size:90% !Legend |
| ATP Challenger (9–6) |
| ITF Futures (2–4) |
| Hard (8–8) |
| Clay (3–1) |
| Grass (0–1) |
| Loss | 0–1 | USA F24, Laguna Niguel | Futures | Hard | Raymond Sarmiento | Ryan Harrison Michael Venus | 2–6, 4–6 | |
| Loss | 0–2 | USA F28, Niceville | Futures | Clay | Sekou Bangoura | Tigran Martirosyan Artem Sitak | 4–6, 5–7 | |
| Win | 1–2 | USA F11, Orange Park | Futures | Clay | Andrea Collarini | Mitchell Frank Junior A. Ore | 7–6(8–6), 6–3 | |
| Win | 2–2 | USA F12, Tampa | Futures | Clay | Junior A. Ore | Clayton Almeida Blake Strode | 4–6, 6–3, 10–8 | |
| Loss | 2–3 | USA F27, Mansfield | Futures | Hard | Andrea Collarini | Dimitar Kutrovsky Joshua Zavala | 3–6, 2–6 | |
| Loss | 2–4 | USA F29, Niceville | Futures | Hard | Andrea Collarini | Robbye Poole Erling Tveit | 6–7(4–7), 2–6 | |
| Win | 3–4 | Maui, US | Challenger | Hard | Yasutaka Uchiyama | Daniel Kosakowski Nicolas Meister | 6–3, 6–2 | |
| Win | 4–4 | Winnetka, US | Challenger | Hard | Thanasi Kokkinakis | Evan King Raymond Sarmiento | 6–2, 7–6(7–4) | |
| Win | 5–4 | Monterrey, Mexico | Challenger | Hard | Evan King | Jarryd Chaplin Ben McLachlan | 6–7(4–7), 6–4, 10–2 | |
| Loss | 5–5 | Las Vegas, US | Challenger | Hard | Bjorn Fratangelo | Brian Baker Matt Reid | 1–6, 5–7 | |
| Loss | 5–6 | Surbiton Trophy, UK | Challenger | Grass | Treat Huey | Marcus Daniell Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi | 3–6, 6–7(0–7) | |
| Win | 6–6 | Binghamton, US | Challenger | Hard | Daniel Nguyen | Jarryd Chaplin Luke Saville | 6–3, 7–6(7–5) | |
| Win | 7–6 | Columbus, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Dominik Köpfer | Luke Bambridge David O'Hare | 7–6(8–6), 7–6(7–3) | |
| Loss | 7–7 | Stockton, US | Challenger | Hard | Miķelis Lībietis | Brydan Klein Joe Salisbury | 2–6, 4–6 | |
| Win | 8–7 | Charlottesville, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Danny Thomas | Jarryd Chaplin Miķelis Lībietis | 6–7(4–7), 1–4 ret. | |
| Loss | 8–8 | Newport Beach, US | Challenger | Hard | Treat Huey | James Cerretani Leander Paes | 4–6, 5–7 | |
| Win | 9–8 | Tallahassee, US | Challenger | Clay | Robert Galloway | Enrique López Pérez Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan | 6–3, 6–1 | |
| Win | 10–8 | Indian Wells, US | Challenger | Hard | Thai-Son Kwiatkowski | Sebastian Korda Mitchell Krueger | 6–3, 2–6, 10–6 | |
| Win | 11–8 | Phoenix, US | Challenger | Hard | Treat Huey | Oscar Otte Jan-Lennard Struff | 7–6(12–10), 3–6, 10–6 | |
| Loss | 11–9 | Fairfield, US | Challenger | Hard | Vasil Kirkov | Evan King Reese Stalder | 5–7, 3–6 | |
| Loss | 11–10 | Charlottesville, US | Challenger | Hard (i) | Thai-Son Kwiatkowski | John-Patrick Smith Sem Verbeek | 6–3, 3–6, 5–10 |
| Loss | 2010 | US Open | Hard | Jack Sock | 6–3, 2–6, 2–6 |
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