Argentine tennis
Encyclopedia
Tennis
in Argentina
is regulated by the Asociación Argentina de Tenis (Argentine Tennis Association), which also selects the coaches of the Argentine teams for the Davis Cup
and Federation Cup. There are many tennis courts in Argentina, and the sport, even though still considered middle- to upper-class, is practiced by many regardless of age.
Although British immigrants brought the sport to Argentina, it was not until late in the 1970s that Guillermo Vilas
' success made the sport popular, reaching second place in the 1975 ATP
ranking. He was internationally recognised and was later included in the International Tennis Hall of Fame
.
During the 1980s, José Luis Clerc
(4th), Alberto Mancini (8th) and Martín Jaite (10th) followed Vilas and kept interest in the sport alive. Argentina won the 1980 World Team Cup
beating Italy 3-0, and reached the final of the 1980 Davis Cup, losing to United States 3-1. In the 1990s it was Gabriela Sabatini
who best represented Argentine tennis, becoming an international figure on and off the court.
The boom of Argentine tennis players came in the 2000s, when many players became important in the circuit reaching high ranks. Paola Suárez
won eight Grand Slam
doubles between 2001 and 2005 and was, together with Spaniard
Virginia Ruano Pascual
, the top women's couple for three years in a row.
In 2002, José Acasuso
, Guillermo Cañas
, Lucas Arnold and Gastón Etlis
won again the World Team Cup for Argentina, this time 3-0 against Russia. Five years later, Acasuso, Juan Ignacio Chela
, Agustín Calleri
and Sebastián Prieto
won it again, this time 2-1 against Czech Republic
.
David Nalbandian
lost in the final of Wimbledon in 2002.
The 2004 French Open
saw an Argentine final between Gastón Gaudio
and Guillermo Coria
. The following year's French Open saw Mariano Puerta
reach the final.
Another example of the importance of the Argentine presence on the circuit was the August 2005 male rankings that counted five Argentine players among the top 12 (from 8th to 12th) of the ATP ranking, and three in the top ten of the Champions Race (5th, 8th and 9th). In April 2007, there were 13 Argentine male players in the ATP top 100, rivaling with the 13 Spanish, 12 French and 10 US citizens http://www.atptennis.atponline.net/es/newsandscores/news/2007/argentina_top100.asp.
The 2005 Tennis Masters Cup
, due to a series of last-minute resignations, had 4 Argentine players of the total of 8, with Gaudio
reaching semi-finals, and Nalbandian
winning the competition against #1 Roger Federer
.
This tennis in Argentina is better than the tennis in USA in the last five years.
In 2009 Juan Martin del Potro became the first Argentinian to win the US Open since Guillermo Vilas did in 1977. Del Potro defeated world number 2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets in semifinals to reach the final and eventually beat world number 1 Roger Federer in five sets. That year Del Potro reached the final of the ATP World Tour Championship.
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
is regulated by the Asociación Argentina de Tenis (Argentine Tennis Association), which also selects the coaches of the Argentine teams for the Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
and Federation Cup. There are many tennis courts in Argentina, and the sport, even though still considered middle- to upper-class, is practiced by many regardless of age.
Although British immigrants brought the sport to Argentina, it was not until late in the 1970s that Guillermo Vilas
Guillermo Vilas
Guillermo Apolinario Vilas is a retired and former World No. 2 professional tennis player from Argentina. He was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament.-Career:...
' success made the sport popular, reaching second place in the 1975 ATP
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
ranking. He was internationally recognised and was later included in the International Tennis Hall of Fame
International Tennis Hall of Fame
The International Tennis Hall of Fame is located in Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The hall of fame and honors players and contributors to the sport of tennis and includes a museum, grass tennis courts, an indoor tennis facility, and a court tennis facility.-History:The hall of fame and...
.
During the 1980s, José Luis Clerc
José Luis Clerc
José Luis Clerc is a former Argentine professional tennis player, and one of the most important Argentine players in history....
(4th), Alberto Mancini (8th) and Martín Jaite (10th) followed Vilas and kept interest in the sport alive. Argentina won the 1980 World Team Cup
World Team Cup
The World Team Cup is the international team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals . The tournament has been contested annually since 1978 and is generally considered to be second most prestigious men's team competition in tennis after the Davis Cup.Every year, the eight nations...
beating Italy 3-0, and reached the final of the 1980 Davis Cup, losing to United States 3-1. In the 1990s it was Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is a former professional Argentine tennis player. She was one of the leading players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s...
who best represented Argentine tennis, becoming an international figure on and off the court.
The boom of Argentine tennis players came in the 2000s, when many players became important in the circuit reaching high ranks. Paola Suárez
Paola Suárez
Paola Suárez was a top 10 tennis player in the early 2000s. She gained prominence in 2004 by reaching the finals of nine straight WTA doubles tournaments, and by reaching the singles semifinals of the French Open tournament, held in Paris."La Negra" Suárez began playing professional tennis at the...
won eight Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
doubles between 2001 and 2005 and was, together with Spaniard
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Virginia Ruano Pascual
Virginia Ruano Pascual
Virginia Ruano Pascual is a Spanish professional female tennis player. She was born in Madrid, Spain.She has won three career singles titles but she has been more successful in doubles where she has won 43 titles, including 10 Grand Slam titles Between 2002...
, the top women's couple for three years in a row.
In 2002, José Acasuso
José Acasuso
José Javier "Chucho" Acasuso is a professional male tennis player from Argentina. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he favours clay. He is known for his strong serve and his hard groundstrokes off both sides...
, Guillermo Cañas
Guillermo Cañas
Guillermo Ignacio Cañas , often referred to as Willy Cañas, is a retired Argentine professional tennis player. He was born in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, and named after Argentine tennis star Guillermo Vilas. His highest singles ranking was 8th . After retirement Cañas took on coaching, he...
, Lucas Arnold and Gastón Etlis
Gastón Etlis
Gastón Etlis is a former tennis player from Argentina. He is Jewish.In January 2005 Etlis was ranked No.17 in doubles....
won again the World Team Cup for Argentina, this time 3-0 against Russia. Five years later, Acasuso, Juan Ignacio Chela
Juan Ignacio Chela
Juan Ignacio Chela is a professional male tennis player from Argentina. Like most Argentine players he is comfortable on Clay courts and owns all six of his career titles on the surface...
, Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri Shaal is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is Gordo which means Fat in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay....
and Sebastián Prieto
Sebastián Prieto
Sebastián Prieto is a professional tennis player from Argentina.Primarily a doubles specialist, Prieto has won 9 doubles titles in his career. He began playing for the Argentina Davis Cup team in 1999....
won it again, this time 2-1 against Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
.
David Nalbandian
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian is an Argentine professional tennis player and former world no. 3. He was runner-up at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and the winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.-Biography:...
lost in the final of Wimbledon in 2002.
The 2004 French Open
2004 French Open
The 2004 French Open was the 103rd edition of the tournament. Gastón Gaudio became the first men's Open Era Grand Slam title winner to save match points in the final; the last time that had happened was 70 years earlier. Gaudio also became the first Argentine man since Guillermo Vilas to win a...
saw an Argentine final between Gastón Gaudio
Gastón Gaudio
Gastón Norberto Gaudio is a former tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP ranking was World No. 5 in 2005...
and Guillermo Coria
Guillermo Coria
Guillermo Sebastián Coria , nicknames include El Mago , is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina who was runner-up in the 2004 French Open...
. The following year's French Open saw Mariano Puerta
Mariano Puerta
Mariano Ruben Puerta is a former Argentine professional male tennis player best known for making the final of the French Open in 2005, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets.-Career:...
reach the final.
Another example of the importance of the Argentine presence on the circuit was the August 2005 male rankings that counted five Argentine players among the top 12 (from 8th to 12th) of the ATP ranking, and three in the top ten of the Champions Race (5th, 8th and 9th). In April 2007, there were 13 Argentine male players in the ATP top 100, rivaling with the 13 Spanish, 12 French and 10 US citizens http://www.atptennis.atponline.net/es/newsandscores/news/2007/argentina_top100.asp.
The 2005 Tennis Masters Cup
2005 Tennis Masters Cup
The 2005 Tennis Masters Cup was a tennis tournament played on indoor carpet courts. It was the 36th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 31st edition of the year-end doubles championships, and was part of the 2005 ATP Tour...
, due to a series of last-minute resignations, had 4 Argentine players of the total of 8, with Gaudio
Gastón Gaudio
Gastón Norberto Gaudio is a former tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP ranking was World No. 5 in 2005...
reaching semi-finals, and Nalbandian
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian is an Argentine professional tennis player and former world no. 3. He was runner-up at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and the winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.-Biography:...
winning the competition against #1 Roger Federer
Roger Federer
Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...
.
This tennis in Argentina is better than the tennis in USA in the last five years.
In 2009 Juan Martin del Potro became the first Argentinian to win the US Open since Guillermo Vilas did in 1977. Del Potro defeated world number 2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets in semifinals to reach the final and eventually beat world number 1 Roger Federer in five sets. That year Del Potro reached the final of the ATP World Tour Championship.
Famous Argentine tennis players
- Men
- Guillermo VilasGuillermo VilasGuillermo Apolinario Vilas is a retired and former World No. 2 professional tennis player from Argentina. He was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament.-Career:...
- José Luis ClercJosé Luis ClercJosé Luis Clerc is a former Argentine professional tennis player, and one of the most important Argentine players in history....
- Horacio de la PeñaHoracio de la PeñaHoracio de la Peña, born August 1, 1966 and nicknamed "el Pulga" , is a tennis coach and a former tennis player from Argentina, who reached a top singles world rank of 31 during his career....
- Martín JaiteMartín JaiteMartín Jaite is an Argentine right-handed former top-10 professional tour tennis player.Jaite's ATP highest tour ranking was World # 10, which he achieved in the summer of 1990, and he won a total of 12 titles and $1,873,881 in tour prize money during his career.Jaite's playing style leveraged his...
- Franco DavínFranco DavínFranco Davín is a tennis coach and a former tennis player from Argentina. He currently coaches fellow countryman Juan Martín del Potro, and was the captain of the Argentine Davis Cup team...
- David NalbandianDavid NalbandianDavid Pablo Nalbandian is an Argentine professional tennis player and former world no. 3. He was runner-up at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships and the winner of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2005.-Biography:...
- Guillermo CoriaGuillermo CoriaGuillermo Sebastián Coria , nicknames include El Mago , is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina who was runner-up in the 2004 French Open...
- Gastón GaudioGastón GaudioGastón Norberto Gaudio is a former tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP ranking was World No. 5 in 2005...
- Mariano PuertaMariano PuertaMariano Ruben Puerta is a former Argentine professional male tennis player best known for making the final of the French Open in 2005, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets.-Career:...
- Juan Martín del PotroJuan Martin Del PotroJuan Martín del Potro is an Argentine professional tennis player. Del Potro achieved a top-10 ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time on October 6, 2008. In January 2010, he reached a career-high ranking of world no. 4...
- Guillermo Vilas
- Women
- Gisela DulkoGisela DulkoGisela Dulko is an Argentine female tennis player, who will, as of 4 July 2011, be ranked World No. 51 in singles and No. 4 in doubles. Although she enjoyed a modest success in singles, reaching No. 26 on November 21, 2005, and winning four WTA Tour titles, her speciality has been doubles, where...
- Gabriela SabatiniGabriela SabatiniGabriela Beatriz Sabatini is a former professional Argentine tennis player. She was one of the leading players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s...
- Paola SuárezPaola SuárezPaola Suárez was a top 10 tennis player in the early 2000s. She gained prominence in 2004 by reaching the finals of nine straight WTA doubles tournaments, and by reaching the singles semifinals of the French Open tournament, held in Paris."La Negra" Suárez began playing professional tennis at the...
- Gisela Dulko