Ernesto "Neto" Escobedo III ( ; , born July 4, 1996) is a Mexican-American professional tennis player who has won four

ATP Challenger The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

titles.

Personal life

Escobedo began playing tennis at the age of 4. His father Ernesto Jr. briefly played professional tennis, and his aunt

Xóchitl Escobedo Xóchitl Escobedo (born September 17, 1968) is a retired female tennis player from Mexico, who represented her native country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. She reached a career-high singles ranking on November 20, 1989, when ...

was a Top 300 player who competed in the 1988 Olympics. He is of Mexican descent. Escobedo's cousin

Emilio Nava Emilio Nava (born 2 December 2001) is an American professional tennis player. Nava has a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 173 achieved on 19 September 2022. He reached two finals of the Boys' Singles Grand Slam tournaments, losing to Loren ...

is also a professional tennis player.

Career

2016: Grand Slam debut, U.S. Open second round, multiple Challenger titles, Top 200 debut

Escobedo reached his first

final at

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 GaWC a ...

in April 2016 to advance him to a career-high ranking inside the top 300. With that success, he became the seventh American teenager to reach a Challenger final in the previous seven months. He won his first career ATP match at the Aegon Open in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

against top 100 player

Diego Schwartzman Diego Sebastián Schwartzman (, ; born 16 August 1992) is an Argentine professional tennis player. He has won four ATP singles titles and reached his career-high singles ranking of world 8 in October 2020. As a clay court specialist, his be ...

shortly before turning 20 years old. The next month, he won his first Challenger title at Lexington over fellow up-and-coming American

Frances Tiafoe Frances Tiafoe Jr. ( ; born January 20, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has ranked Tiafoe as high as world No. 17 in singles, on October 10, 2022, and world No. 160 in doubles, on No ...

. With this victory, he also won the 2016 US Open Wild Card Challenge to earn a wild card into the main draw of the final grand slam of the year. Escobedo put this wild card to good use by defeating

Lukáš Lacko Lukáš Lacko (; born 3 November 1987) is a former professional Slovak tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is World No. 44, achieved in January 2013. Tennis career Juniors As a junior Lacko compiled a singles win–loss record ...

in the first round to crack the Top 200 for the first time and record his first career grand slam match win. Towards the end of the season, Escobedo returned to

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

where he had made the semifinals the previous year, and defended his points by winning the title over

Denis Kudla Denis Kudla ( ; born August 17, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. A product of the Junior Tennis Champions Center, he has won eight Challenger singles titles and nine Challenger doubles titles in his career. His career-high ATP ...

2017: Australian Open second round, Masters 1000 debut, Top 100

To start the year, Escobedo continued to improve upon his success from 2016. He qualified for the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

and then won his first round match against fellow NextGen player

Daniil Medvedev Daniil Sergeyevich Medvedev (russian: Даниил Сергеевич Медведев; born 11 February 1996) is a Russian professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 7 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and was ...

. The following month, he was awarded a wild card into the

Abierto Mexicano Telcel The Mexican Open (currently sponsored by Telcel and HSBC Mexico, HSBC and called the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC) is a men's professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts, and usually held annually in late February at ...

, an ATP 500 event in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

. At this tournament, he again won first round match over fellow American Stefan Kozlov. In March, Escobedo was able to qualify for his first Masters event at the

2017 Miami Open The 2017 Miami Open presented by Itaú (also known as 2017 Miami Masters) was a professional men and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 32nd edition of the Miami Open, and part of the Masters 1000 category on th ...

, where he upset No. 43 Dan Evans to break through into the top 100 of the ATP rankings. To start the clay court season, Escobedo played at the

U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships The U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships is an annual ATP Tour tennis tournament that started in 1910. It is the last remaining ATP World Tour-level tournament in the United States to be played on clay courts. The tournament began in 1910 when the ...

in Houston and reached his first career ATP quarterfinal and semifinal, climbing to a then career-high ranking of No. 73 with this success. His tournament was highlighted by a quarterfinal win over No. 2 seed and fellow American

John Isner John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers e ...

. Escobedo was part of the NextGen players that included many fellow Americans such as

and

Taylor Fritz Taylor Harry Fritz (born October 28, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on October 10, 2022, and a doubles ranking of w ...

who were considered the best young prospects to become the next generation of tennis stars.

2018: First top 10 win

In February, Escobedo was able to qualify for the

in Acapulco. He defeated top-ranked American

Jack Sock Jack Sock (born September 24, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. He has won four career ATP singles titles and 17 doubles titles, and has career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles (on 20 November 2017) and world No. 2 in dou ...

in the first round for his first Top 10 win, continuing his success at tournaments in Mexico. In March, Escobedo was given a wildcard for the first time to the main draw of the 2018 Indian Wells Masters where he defeated compatriot

, before falling to the 28th seed

Feliciano López Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...

2020–2021: Return to U.S. Open second round in 4 years and to Masters 1000 in 3 years

After the suspension of the 2020 season due to COVID, Escobedo returned to the 2020 US Open as an alternate, where he defeated Kamil Majchrzak in the first round. In March 2021, Escobedo qualified for the

2021 Miami Open The 2021 Miami Open was a professional hardcourt tennis tournament played from March 23 to April 4, 2021, on the grounds of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The 36th edition of the Miami Open, it was a Masters 1000 event on the 202 ...

and defeated

Paolo Lorenzi Paolo Lorenzi (; born 15 December 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player. Lorenzi was coached by Claudio Galoppini. Tennis career Lorenzi reached his first ATP World Tour final at the age of 32, in São Paulo. Here, at the 2014 B ...

in the first round before losing to 16th seed

Dušan Lajović Dušan Lajović ( sr-cyrl, Душан Лајовић; born 30 June 1990) is a Serbian professional tennis player. Lajović has won one singles and two doubles titles on the ATP Tour. On 29 April 2019, Lajović reached his career-high singles rank ...

2022: Fourth Challenger title

Escobedo won the title at the 2022 Bendigo International Challenger in Australia, his first in three years.

2023

In January of 2023, Escobedo stopped representing the United States in favor of representing Mexico in tournaments.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 11 (4–7)

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Singles performance timeline

''Current through the

2023 Australian Open The 2023 Australian Open was a Grand Slam level tennis tournament held at Melbourne Park, from 16–29 January 2023. It was the 111th edition of the Australian Open, the 55th in the Open Era, and the first major of the year. The tournament consi ...

.''

Record against other players

Record against top 10 players

Escobedo's match record against those who have been

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

in the top 10. Players who have been No. 1 are in boldface. *

1–0 *

Denis Shapovalov Denis Viktorovich Shapovalov (born 15 April 1999) is a Canadian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 10 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) which he first achieved in September 2020. He is th ...

1–0 *

1–1 * Kevin Anderson 0–1 *

David Ferrer David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...

0–1 *

Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

0–1 *

Cameron Norrie Cameron Norrie (; born 23 August 1995) is a South African-born British professional tennis player, having previously represented New Zealand. He has reached career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles (on 12 September 2022) and No. 117 in dou ...

0–1 *

Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009. His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...

0–2 :''* .''

Wins over top 10 players

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escobedo, Ernesto 1996 births Living people American male tennis players Tennis players from Los Angeles People from West Covina, California American sportspeople of Mexican descent