Brydan Klein

Brydan Klein (born 31 December 1989) is an Australian-born British professional tennis player.

He featured sporadically on the ITF Circuit throughout 2005 and 2006, winning his first title alongside Matthew Ebden in a doubles event in Traralgon in October 2006.

During that year, he also competed at Challenger level for the first time in his career.

As a junior, Klein won the 2007 Australian Open and reached a career-high top five in the ITF junior rankings.

However, Klein has struggled to make the transition onto the men's professional circuit, failing to enter the top 150 or gain entry into any Grand Slam event without being given a Wild card.

Klein competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Klein began his professional tennis career playing on the ITF Men's Circuit in various events across Australia aged just 15.

At the start of 2007, Klein competed in the Australian Open Junior Championships, and won the event after beating Jonathan Eysseric in three sets in the final.

This resulted in Klein reaching a career high juniors ranking of no. 4.

Throughout 2007, Klein began playing Futures tournaments on a much more regular basis, and secured his first singles title in Sawtell, Australia in October that year, beating Miles Armstrong 6–1, 6–3 in the final.

At the start of the following year, he received a wildcard into the main draw of the 2008 Australian Open, although lost 4–6, 5–7, 4–6 to Paul Capdeville in the opening round.

Shortly after, he returned to Futures action and earned his second singles title win in Mildura, defeating number one seed Nathan Healey in the final.

He went on to win a further two singles titles during the year, both of which coming away from Australia, in New Zealand and Belarus respectively.

Klein ended 2008 ranked no. 256, a ranking that was 350 places higher than his year-end 2007 ranking.

Klein followed the win up by securing both singles and doubles Futures victories in Mildura the following week, having also won the singles event in 2008.

He beat Matthew Ebden in the final of that tournament, before teaming up with him to win the doubles title.

Klein received wildcard entries into both the Brisbane International and the 2009 Australian Open.

A first-round loser in Brisbane, Klein acquired his first Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open against Björn Phau 6–4, 6–3, 4–6, 6–3, before falling to Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets in the second round.

Following his Australian Open efforts, Klein won the 2009 McDonald's Burnie International, the first challenger title win of his career.

He did not lose a set during the tournament, securing the title courtesy of 6–3, 6–3 victory over Grega Žemlja in the final.

Following his impressive start to 2009, Klein was called up to represent Australia at Davis Cup level, and played in Australia's 3–2 win over Thailand in a Second Round match, although lost his match to Danai Udomchoke.

He also entered the 2009 French Open, but lost in the opening qualifying round to Kevin Anderson.

Klein began to play at Challenger level and on the ATP World Tour throughout 2009 to little success, although did reach a career singles high of no. 174 when he reached the last 16 during his controversial participation at the 2009 Aegon International.

He ended 2009 by returning to playing at Futures level in Australia, with a year-end ranking of no. 200.

His 2010 campaign started slowly, with First Round qualifying defeats in Brisbane, Sydney and the 2010 Australian Open, before suffering a First Round loss in the Burnie Challenger, the tournament he had won a year earlier.

By February 2010, his ranking had dropped 200 places to outside the top 400 after failing to defend his ranking points.

Klein subsequently returned to the Futures Circuit in an attempt regain form, and was able to secure his first singles title in over a year when he defeated compatriot John Millman in three sets in Little Rock, Arkansas in April 2010.

Klein returned to Australia, and proceeded to win two further Futures titles, both of which on clay, within the space of a week in early May that year.

In the summer of 2010, he headed to North America to prepare for the 2010 US Open, and played in various Challenger tournaments as part of his preparation programme ahead of the tournament – reaching the quarter-final stage of both the Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos, California, as well as the Challenger Banque Nationale de Granby in Granby, Quebec, Canada.

Despite his extensive stay in the continent, Klein suffered a convincing 3–6, 1–6 loss to Kevin Kim in the opening qualifying round of the US Open.

During the latter stages of 2010, Klein reached four straight finals in Futures tournaments in Australia and New Zealand, but lost all four.

He ended 2010 ranked at no. 214.

Similarly to 2010, Klein's start to 2011 witnessed a number of First Round losses, including another opening round qualification defeat at the Australian Open, this time at the hands of Konstantin Kravchuk.

Klein had been banned from competing for a main draw wildcard for the event following "a string of on-court misdemeanours".

Todd Woodbridge, Tennis Australia's director of men's tennis, stated the ban was for "numerous accounts of unacceptable behaviour at tournaments both locally and internationally".

During the first three months of the year, Klein won just one main draw match from nine tournaments.

Klein ended the year ranked no. 451 in singles, a drop of over 200 places from his 2010 ranking.

He struggled for form throughout the year, and competed at Futures level for the remainder of his 2011 campaign, yielding just one singles title in Kalgoorlie, Australia, in October.

Klein remained in Europe for most of the year, and won five doubles titles during his time there – and a further three towards the latter stages of the year in Australia, all of which at Futures level.

Klein took a three-month break from the Circuit from October 2011 to late January 2012, returning to action in the qualifying draw at the 2012 McDonald's Burnie International, although was beaten by Dane Propoggia in straight sets in the second round of qualifying.