Diego Hipperdinger (born 17 January 1977) is an Argentine-Spanish former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. A native of Olavarría in Argentina, Hipperdinger was based in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

for much of his career. He originally competed on tour as an Argentine, before adopting Spanish nationality in the early 2000s.

Biography

Hipperdinger, who reached a career high ranking of 177 in the world, made his only

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...

main draw appearance at the 1998 Torneo Godó. In 2001 he featured in the qualifying draws for both the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. He won one Challenger title. While competing in the qualifying rounds at

Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city w ...

in 2004, Hipperdinger tested positive for cocaine and received a two-year suspension from tennis. He unsuccessfully appealed to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

(CAS) by claiming he had drunken

coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, Al ...

tea and chewed coca leaves to help with altitude sickness, while unaware that cocaine was derived from the coca plant.

Challenger titles

Singles: (1)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hipperdinger, Diego 1977 births Living people Argentine male tennis players Spanish male tennis players Doping cases in tennis Spanish sportspeople in doping cases Sportspeople from Buenos Aires Province Argentine emigrants to Spain