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Rainer has lived the dream of any young boy/girl who grew up playing and loving the sport of tennis. From starting at the age of 10 to going Pro at 18/19, getting to a Grand Slam Final, cracking the top 5 ATP Tour ranking and retiring with an amazing career behind him at they age of 36 and then becoming an Entrepreneur by buying a license for an ATP event. Rainer has lived it and been there and is sharing his thoughts, emotions and learning from his amazing tennis journey.\n\xa0Key Highlights\nTennis professional by mistake \u2013 started playing at age 10\nAt 16-17 starting to take it serious, playing ITF Junior Tournaments around the world, getting on Junior World Ranking\nHis coach, Dirk Hordorff was instrumental in taking pressure off him and setting him up for a successful transition from Junior to professional player\nMaking the ATP Ranking at the age of 18-19\nLearning from losing & winning, always look where you want to be 6 months in the future, improved ranking 11 years in a row\nDealing with losing every week (at least once)\nStarted early to learn other business beyond tennis from Coach\nToughest loss \u2013 becomes winning the Silver Medal in Doubles at the Olympics with Nicolas Kiefer later\nLearning for business from his tennis career\nTaking over the ATP World Team Cup in Duesseldorf, now ATP 250 event in Geneva, partnered with Ion Tiriac\nHis event also a Covid-19 victim and learning from this\nThoughts on tennis and the rest of the season\nLife now, German Fed Cup Captain, his own event, attending the Grand Slams, etc\n\xa0\nAbout\nRainer Sch\xfcttler is a retired German professional tennis player. As of 2019, he is the most recent male German player to reach the singles final of a Grand Slam tournament, finishing as runner-up at the\xa02003 Australian Open. Sch\xfcttler also won a silver medal in doubles at the\xa02004 Summer Olympics\xa0and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 5 in April 2004.\nHe began playing tennis at the age of nine. He resides in Switzerland.\nIn 2003, Sch\xfcttler became the first German since\xa0Boris Becker\xa0in 1989 to advance to the fourth round at all\xa0Grand Slams. He became the first German to reach a Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since\xa0Michael Stich\xa0was the runner-up at\xa0Roland Garros\xa0in 1996. En route to the final, which he lost in straight sets to\xa0Andre Agassi, he defeated\xa0Andy Roddick\xa0who would end the season as world No 1.\nIn 2004, Sch\xfcttler reached his first career\xa0ATP Masters Series\xa0final in Monte Carlo by beating\xa0Gustavo Kuerten\xa0in the first round,\xa0Lleyton Hewitt\xa0in the third round,\xa0Tim Henman\xa0in the quarterfinal and\xa0Carlos Moy\xe1\xa0in the semifinal. In the final, he lost to\xa0Guillermo Coria. That week, he would reach a career-high ranking of No. 5. Sch\xfcttler won a silver medal for Germany in men's doubles with partner\xa0Nicolas Kiefer\xa0at the\xa02004 Summer Olympics\xa0in Athens. 2004 was the sixth straight year in which he finished in the ATP top 50.\nSch\xfcttler reached his first career semifinal at Wimbledon by beating Santiago Ventura, James Blake, Guillermo Garc\xeda-L\xf3pez, Janko Tipsarevi\u0107, and Arnaud Cl\xe9ment 6\u20133, 5\u20137, 7\u20136, 6\u20137, 8\u20136. His match with Cl\xe9ment was over five hours, completed in two days to reach the semifinals, in which Schuettler saved a match point at 6\u20135 down in the fifth set. He was defeated by eventual champion Rafael Nadal 1\u20136, 6\u20137, 4\u20136. His achievement was a big surprise, since he entered the tournament ranked 94th and with a streak of 13 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments without making it past the second round.\nHis 2009 season, Sch\xfcttler started off at the Chennai Open, beating Prakash Amritraj 6\u20132, 4\u20136, 6\u20131. In the second round, he beat Simon Greul 6\u20134, 6\u20132, and in the quarterfinals Bj\xf6rn Phau, 6\u20132, 7\u20135. Unfortunately Schuettler had to withdraw from his semifinal match against Somdev Devvarman because of a wrist injury. He also withdrew from the tournament in Sydney. At the Australian Open, he was seeded 30th but lost in the first round to Israeli Dudi Sela 1\u20136, 6\u20132, 6\u20134, 6\u20134. He also parti