Juan Antonio Pino Pérez (born 3 July 1965) is a 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 from Cuba.

Biography

Pino, who comes from

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 139,336 (2004) in a municipality of 190,332, it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños'' ...

in western Cuba, began playing tennis at the age of 10 and trained in Havana. A right handed player, Pino holds the record for most matches won for the

Cuba Davis Cup team The Cuba men's national tennis team represents Cuba in Davis Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Federación Cubana de Tenis de Campo. Cuba currently competes in the Americas Zone Group III. They played in the World Group in 1993. ...

, a total of 34, in a career spanning 12-years from 1987 to 1999. His 26 ties for Cuba includes World Group participation in 1993, which was Cuba's first ever appearance in the main competition, having qualified through the expulsion of the Yugoslav team due to the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

. Cuba's debut World Group fixture came against Sweden in

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

and Pino was picked to play

Stefan Edberg Stefan Bengt Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. A major proponent of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles between 1985 ...

in the first rubber. Pino was beaten comfortably by Edberg and also lost a dead rubber to

Nicklas Kulti Nicklas Kulti (born 22 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He was born in Stockholm. Tennis career Juniors Kulti was ranked No. 1 in the junior world singles rankings in 1989 after winning the Australian Open and W ...

, as Sweden won all matches in the tie. The Cubans then travelled to Saint Petersburg for a relegation play-off against Russia, in which they were again soundly defeated by the more experienced team. Pino lost his two singles matches, to

Andrei Cherkasov Andrei Gennadievich Cherkasov (; born 4 July 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. Career Born in Ufa, Soviet Union, Cherkasov first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player. In 1987, he was ranke ...

and

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis p ...

. In addition to his Davis Cup career, Pino also represented Cuba regularly at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

. He won five medals at three separate games, three of which came at the

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games were held in Havana, Cuba from August 2 to August 18, 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organization, PASO community, with events in 33 different sports. The main stadium was ...

in the Cuban capital. During his professional career he made the main draw of four Grand Prix/ATP tour tournaments, all as a doubles player. He twice reached singles finals on the Challenger tour, the first in 1989 where he was runner-up to

Daniel Orsanic Daniel Orsanic (, ; born 11 June 1968) is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. He was captain of the Argentina Davis Cup team that won the country's first title in 2016. Playing career Orsanic was a left-hander with a double han ...

in Goiania and the other a loss to

Roberto Jabali Roberto Aude Jabali (born 16 May 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Brazil. Career Jabali was a semi-finalist in the boys' singles event at the 1988 French Open and also made the final of the Banana Bowl that year. He runner-up in ...

at Bogota in 1996, during which he had an opening round win over

Franco Squillari Franco Squillari (born 22 August 1975) is a former professional male tennis player from Argentina. He won 3 singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 2000 French Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 11. Career As a ...

. His one Challenger title came in doubles, the Viña del Mar tournament in 1991, with regular doubles partner

Mario Tabares Mario Tabares (born July 22, 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Cuba. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won one doubles title. He achieved a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 ...

Challenger titles

Doubles: (1)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pino, Juan 1965 births Living people Cuban male tennis players Pan American Games bronze medalists for Cuba Pan American Games medalists in tennis Tennis players at the 1987 Pan American Games Tennis players at the 1991 Pan American Games Tennis players at the 1995 Pan American Games People from Pinar del Río Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in tennis Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Cuba Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Cuba Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Cuba Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games 20th-century Cuban people 21st-century Cuban people