Illya Marchenko

Illya Marchenko is a male tennis player from Ukraine who played in the Futures and Challengers Tournaments. HE turned professional in 2005. Marchenko is known for his powerful backhand which he considers his best shot. Born on September 8, 1987 to engineer parents, he started playing at the age of 7.

The 23 year-old played on the ITF after turning pro in 2005 and reached his first Futures final a year later, winning his first Futures title in Nigeria F6. An attempt to qualify in his first ATP World Tour event ended in failure after losing to Jeremy Chardy. He reached another Futures final, this time in Russia where he was defeated by Pavel Chekhov. A few months later he reached the semi finals of the Turk Telecom Izmir Cup Challenger where he lost to Gilles Muller who eventually won the title. In August, he reached the final of the Bukhara Challenger, losing to Denis Istomin before competing in two more Challengers tournaments, reaching the QF and semi in each. It was also in 2008 when he played in his first Davis Cup tournament.

In 2009, Marchenko played his first ATP World Tour match. He won the Istanbul Challenger in August in Turkey, after defeating Florian Mayer to win his first ever Challenger title. An attempt to qualify for the first time in the main draw of the Grand Slam at the 2009 US Open failed when he lost to Marco Chiudinelli in the first round. He also reached his first ATP World tour semi at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, where he defeated Evgeny Korolev in the QF, his best ever result in any ATP tournament.

He started 2010 by qualifying for the 2010 Australian Open. In March he also qualified for the ATP World Tour Masters 1000. Marchenko started ranked at 81 in 2011 and qualified for the Australian Open, defeating Ruben Hidalgo in the first round before bowing out to Andy Murray in the second round.