Jan Kodeš (born 1 March 1946) is a Czech former tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles events in the early 1970s.
His greatest success was achieved on the clay courts of the French Open played at the Stade Roland Garros.
He won the singles title there in 1970, beating Željko Franulović in the final in straight sets, and again in 1971, this time defeating Ilie Năstase in the final in four sets.
He also won Wimbledon on grass in 1973, although 13 of the top 16 players, and 81 players in total, did not play the tournamentWimbledon: The Official History of the Championships.
Barrett, John.
Collins Willow 2011  that year because of a boycott over the banning from Wimbledon of Nikola Pilić by the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF).
Kodeš beat home favorite Roger Taylor in the semifinals in five sets and Alex Metreveli in the final in three straight sets.
Kodeš never played the Australian Open but he was twice the runner-up at the US Open, in 1971, losing to Stan Smith, and 1973 when he lost in five sets to John Newcombe.
He reached his highest ATP ranking of world No. 5 in September 1973.
During the open era, he won a total of nine top-level singles titles and 17 doubles titles.
Kodeš was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 2013, he received the Czech Fair Play Award from the Czech Olympic Committee.
He is an economics graduate of the Prague University.
Career statistics
Grand Slam finals: 5 (3 titles, 2 runner-ups)
Grand Slam singles performance timeline
1 Start of the Open Era.
1968 French Open counts as 0 wins, 0 losses.
Fernando Gentil received a walkover in the first round, after Kodeš withdrew, does not count as a Kodeš loss (nor a Gentil win).
Open era finals
Singles (9 titles, 19 runner-ups)
Doubles (17 titles, 24 runner-ups)
At results above are not shown wins and runner-ups from 1965 to 1969, such as tournaments in Santiago, Viňa del Mar, São Paulo, Lyon, Cannes, Luxembourg, Split, Varna, Plovdiv, Paris (Racing Club) or International championships of Czechoslovakia in Bratislava.
The draws of players were always minimum 32 players, same as at contemporary ATP Tour events, but they are not listed in ATP Annuals, since ATP was founded at 1972.
References
Further reading
Jan Kodes, with Petr Kolar, A Journey to Glory from behind the Iron Curtain, New Chapter Press, Chicago, 2010, External links
