You may remember Cedric Marcel-Stebe of Germany. He was ranked 71 in the world in 2012 and was good enough to catch the eye of Roger Federer, who asked the lefthander to train with him in Dubai.
Stebe quit playing in early 2023 after losing at AO qualies to Stricker but has resurfaced in 2025 by playing some small ITF tournaments at age 34. He is currently ranked 1250 with a match record this year of 4-3 including a win in Oberhaching, Germany ITF $15,000 vs. the teenager Diego Dedura-Palomero 64 46 75, the now famous Spaniard who just beat Denis Shapovalov.
You have to respect the dedication and determination of a a 34 year old journeyman who is still trying to carve out an ATP career.
Stebe never won an ATP title but he did achieve a main tour match record of 32-50, good enough to earn about $1.6 million.
In his best year of 2012, Stebe defeated Lleyton Hewitt in Davis Cup 64 61 64 when the Aussie was ranked 100 in the world. Stebe told me this was the match Federer watched and provoked him to want to train with Stebe. Stebe also beat Viktor Troicki, ranked 30, in four sets at 2012 US Open.
Stebe also beat Nikolay Davydenko twice in 2011 in Hamburg and Stuttgart and Fognini in Stuttgart.
So time marches on and some players refuse to hang up their racquets. They continue to believe, and work, and aspire to accomplish the last hurrah…
Cedric Marcel-Stebe · Davis Cup · Germany · Lleyton Hewitt · Roger Federer
