Edgardo Massa (born 22 March 1981 in

Formosa, Argentina Formosa () is the capital city of the Argentine province of Formosa, on the banks of the Paraguay River, opposite the Paraguayan city of Alberdi, about north from Buenos Aires, on National Route 11. The city has a population of about 234,000 ...

) is a former

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 from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, who turned professional in 1998. Massa plays right-handed, and uses a single-handed backhand.

Career

Massa who is known by the nickname "Yayo", started playing tennis at the age of 5. He was part of the same generation that produced

David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...

and

Guillermo Coria Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed ''El Mago'' (''The Magician'' in Spanish), is an Argentine retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 3 singles ranking in May 2004. Coria achieved hi ...

. Together with Nalbandian and Coria, Massa represented Argentina in the Junior Davis Cup in 1996 and 1997. As a junior, Massa won the Asunción Bowl junior, which was G1 level event, the level under the junior Grand Slams, Banana and Orange Bowls without losing where he defeated

Fernando González Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...

in the quarter finals and

Ricardo Mello Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delra ...

in the final.

1998–2000

Massa turned professional in 1998, where he started off playing

Futures tournaments The ITF World Tennis Tour (formerly known as the ''ITF Men's World Tennis Tour'', and previously ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation. ...

. His best results of the year were losing in the Peru F3 semi finals to

Luis Horna Luis Horna Biscari (; born 14 September 1980, in Lima) is a former tour professional tennis player from Peru, who turned professional in 1998. Known by his nickname "Lucho", he won 2 career singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 ...

and the quarter finals of the Resistencia to

. In 1999 Massa won his first Futures tournaments in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

defeated

Martín Vassallo Argüello Martín Miguel Vassallo Argüello (born 10 February 1980) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP singles ranking is World No. 47, achieved in April 2009 shortly after reaching the semifinals of Acapulco ...

and

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay o ...

over

Leonardo Olguín Leonardo Olguín (born 8 October 1975) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. Biography Olguín, who comes from Mendoza, had wins over Gustavo Kuerten, Magnus Norman and Nicolás Lapentti as a junior. His professional appearance ...

. Massa played a mix of Futures and Challengers, where he won two Futures events in Argentina and Paraguay, before finishing the season by qualifying for the ATP Challenger event in Buenos Aires, defeating

Agustín Calleri Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) 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. Calleri served as ...

in the quarter finals before losing to Guillermo Coria in the semi finals.

2001–2003

The 2001 season started slowly for Massa, but in September he won two consecutive Challengers in Florianópolis and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

defeating

Gastón Etlis Gastón Etlis (born 4 November 1974) is a former tennis player from Argentina. The right-hander won four career titles in doubles, and reached his highest ATP rankings of World No. 114 in singles May 2000 and World No. 17 in doubles in January ...

and

respectively, before losing to

in Guadalajara in the following week and

Marcelo Ríos Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former world No. 1 tennis player. Nicknamed ''"El Chino"'' ("The Chinese") and ''"El zurdo de Vitacura"'' ("The Lefty from Vitacura"), he became the first Latin American play ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

. Massa had a poor 2002 and returned to playing Futures events in late 2003 where he won two tournaments defeating

Carlos Berlocq Carlos Alberto Berlocq (; born February 3, 1983) is an Argentines, Argentine retired professional List of male tennis players, tennis player nicknamed ''Charly'', ''Panther'' and ''Warlocq''. His favourite surface was clay and he was last coach ...

in Chile and Diego Hartfield in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

2004–2008

2004 saw Massa make the final of the Forest Hills Challenger as a qualifier before retiring against

Juan Pablo Guzmán Juan Pablo Guzmán (born January 29, 1981) is a professional tennis player and coach from Argentina. In 2007, Guzmán won the ATP doubles title in Amersfoort Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands ...

in the final. In September Massa went on a run where he won 15 successive matches, with 14 of them won in straight sets. This run included the Szczecin Challenger where he qualified for the main draw and lost a total of 35 games in the tournament inclusive of the qualifying rounds. He followed that with a tournament victory in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

over

Tomas Behrend Tomas Ugo Behrend (born 12 December 1974) is a German former professional tennis player. His career high ATP singles ranking was World No. 74, which he attained in October 2005. His career high in doubles was World No. 43 in October 2007. Behren ...

in the final. Massa's last Challenger tournament win was in 2005 in La Serena over

Mariano Puerta Mariano Rubén Puerta (; born 19 September 1978) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 9 singles ranking in August 2005. His career highlight of reaching the final of the French Open in 2005 ...

who would go on to make the Roland Garros final in that season. Injuries have been a significant factor in Massa's career as a professional. He has suffered three shoulder operations, hip operation, a stress fracture in his right hand. In April 2005, he had an accident in attempting to evade a girl at a tournament, he fell on his right shoulder and it was broken instantly. Massa's last injury was hip problem and did not play a tournament in 2008. Massa has said the recovery is the most difficult part of all the injuries that he has suffered and hopes to retire on his own terms and not because of the injuries. Currently Massa is coaching Argentine junior Aranza Salut

Singles titles

References

External links

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Edgardo Massa world ranking history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massa, Edgardo 1981 births Living people People from Formosa, Argentina Argentine male tennis players Tennis players from Buenos Aires Tennis players at the 1999 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Argentina