He became the first German to reach a Grand Slam final, at the Australian Open, since Michael Stich was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 1996.

En route to the final, which he lost in straight sets to Andre Agassi, he defeated Andy Roddick who would end the season as world No 1.

Schüttler won a silver medal for Germany in men's doubles with partner Nicolas Kiefer at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Schüttler reached his first career semifinal at Wimbledon by beating Santiago Ventura, James Blake, Guillermo García López, Janko Tipsarević, and Arnaud Clément 6–3, 5–7, 7–6, 6–7, 8–6.

He competed at the ARAG World Team Cup in Germany, helping his country reach the final, where they lost to Serbia.

At the French Open, he again suffered a first-round exit, this time against Guillermo García López in straight sets.

He reached the semifinal of the Aegon Championships at the Queens Club in London but lost to Sam Querrey in three sets 7–6, 5–7, 3–6.

At the quarterfinal of the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles, Schüttler could not manage to close out the match against Querrey despite serving for it at 5–4 and 6–5 in the deciding set.

He also played doubles with Guillermo García López confronting Marco Chiudinelli and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom they lost 1–6, 2–6.

[1] In 2014 Rainer met Serbian Jovana Sesevic, whose sister Biljana is married to another former top 10 player, Janko Tipsarević.