Ričardas Berankis (; born June 21, 1990) is a Lithuanian professional tennis player. He is the first and only Lithuanian to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ranked Lithuanian tennis player of all time. Berankis has reached two finals on the ATP World Tour, at the Los Angeles Open in 2012 and Kremlin Cup in 2017. He is also a prominent member of the Lithuania Davis Cup team.
Tennis career
Early career
Berankis started playing tennis at the age of two, when his six years older sister Lina took him to her tennis practices. Berankis' first coach was Valdas Adomaitis from Jurbarkas. When Berankis was nine years old he accepted an invitation from Remigijus Balžekas to practise with him at the Šiauliai tennis school (over 200 km from Vilnius). It turned out to be a long term partnership and friendship.
In 2004, Berankis dominated the U14 circuit of the Tennis Europe Junior Tour, winning six junior events, Leeuwarden, Piestany, Siauliai, Köln, and two titles in Armenia. He carried that momentum into the prestigious Tennis Europe Junior Masters, Junior Orange Bowl and Eddie Herr International Tennis Championships titles at the end of the year.
In 2007, Berankis had a successful run on the ITF Junior Circuit. In grand slams, Berankis reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, and the semifinals at Wimbledon. Berankis won the US Open Junior title, defeating Jerzy Janowicz in the final. Berankis also won titles at the Canadian Open Junior Championships, the Orange Bowl Tennis Championships, and defended his title at the Yucatán World Cup. As a result, Berankis finished the year as the No. 1 junior in the world.
In the same year, Berankis won his first (and only) Futures singles title in Albufeira, Portugal. He started the tournament from the qualifying draw and lost only one set in nine matches. Also, 16-year-old Berankis represented Lithuania at the Davis cup third group competition. He won three out of five singles matches in five ties played.
2008
Berankis started the season with futures tournaments in the United States. At the one held in McAllen, Texas, he together with Sergey Betov captured a doubles title. Berankis got several wild cards to qualifying draws of ATP Challenger and World Tour tournaments (including the Miami Masters) but it took some time for him to win one. In April, Berankis qualified for the main draw of Humacao Challenger and reached the second round there. In June, Berankis won the qualification and made his first professional ATP tournament appearance at the Orange Warsaw Open. There he lost in the first round to World No. 96 Wayne Odesnik, in straight sets.
At the US Open, Berankis made his first attempt to qualify for a Grand Slam event. In the first round of the qualifying draw, after losing the first set he defeated David Marrero. In the second round, again after losing the first set he defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky, it was Berankis' first victory against a top 100 player in his career. In the final round of the qualifying draw, after winning the first set Berankis lost to Björn Phau and failed to qualify for the main event.
2009
During the 2009 season Berankis mainly played at futures and challenger tournaments. He reached three futures finals in Stuttgart, Istanbul and Santo Domingo, but failed to win one. On the ATP Challenger tour Berankis' best result was reaching the semifinals at the Qarshi and Champaign challengers.
Berankis competed for Lithuania in the second group of Davis Cup. In the first round tie against Georgia, he played two singles matches against George Khrikadze and Lado Chikhladze and won both of them in straight sets. Lithuania defeated Georgia 3–2 and moved to the second round to face the Slovenian team. In Slovenia, Berankis lost all three of his matches in straight sets. First, he lost to Grega Žemlja, then he together with Vadim Pinko lost a doubles match to Grega Žemlja and Andrej Kračman, on the last day, he lost a dead rubber to Janez Semrajč. Lithuania lost to Slovenia 0–5.
2010: Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon
Berankis started the 2010 season by competing at the 2010 SAP Open, where he defeated Robby Ginepri in the first round, 6–7, 6–2, 6–3 and Björn Phau in the second round 7–6, 6–3. In the quarterfinals, he lost to then-world number 11 Fernando Verdasco 6–3, 7–6. Berankis then failed to qualify to the 2010 Delray Beach main draw, losing in the first round in the qualifying draw.