Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (; born 13 August 1976) 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

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

. His brothers,

Giovanni Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

and Leonardo, uncle Andrés, and cousins

Roberto The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

and

Emilio Emilio may refer to: * Emilio Navaira, a Mexican-American singer often called "Emilio" * Emilio Piazza Memorial School, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State * Emilio (given name) * ''Emilio'' (film), a 2008 film by Kim Jorgensen See also * Emílio (dis ...

also are or were on the pro circuit. His father, also named Nicolás Lapentti, was a star basketball player at the College (now University) of St. Thomas in Minnesota from 1963 to 1967, and played on the Ecuador Olympic team.

Beginnings

Lapentti began playing tennis at the age of six. He first came to the tennis world's attention an outstanding junior player who won the Orange Bowl in Florida in 1994, when he also captured the junior doubles titles at 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 ...

(partnering with

Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the French Open singles title three times ( 1997, 2000, and 2001), and was the Tennis Masters Cup champion in 2000. During his career he ...

) and the US Open.

Professional

Lapentti turned professional in 1995 and won his first top-level singles title later that year at Bogotá. In 1999, Lapentti was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, defeating

Thomas Johansson Karl Thomas Conny Johansson (; born 24 March 1975) is a Swedish retired professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 7 singles ranking on 10 May 2002. His career highlights i ...

Magnus Norman Magnus Norman (born 30 May 1976) is a Swedish tennis coach and retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 2 singles ranking on June 12, 2000. His career highlights include re ...

Mikael Tillström Mikael Tillström (born 5 March 1972) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who turned professional in 1991. Career He represented his native country as at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he was defeated in the third round by Switzer ...

Andrew Ilie Andrew Ilie (born 18 April 1976) is a former tennis player. Ilie fled Romania at age 10 with his family, spending a year at a refugee camp in Austria before emigrating to Australia. He turned professional in 1994 and became a citizen of Austra ...

and

Karol Kučera Karol Kučera (born 4 March 1974) is a retired ATP professional male tennis player from Slovakia. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 6 in September 1998, reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open the same year. In 20 ...

before losing to

Thomas Enqvist Thomas Karl Johan Enqvist (born 13 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached the final of the 1999 Australian Open – Men's singles, 1999 Australian Open and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three ATP Tou ...

. He also won two tour singles titles that year and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 that November. In 2002, Lapentti won his fifth tour singles title at St. Pölten, beating

Fernando Vicente Fernando Vicente Fibla (; born 8 March 1977) is a professional tennis coach and a former player from Spain, who turned professional in 1996. He reached his career-high ATP ranking of world No. 29 in June 2000, winning three singles titles and ...

in straight sets in the final. In the second round of that tournament, his rival,

Irakli Labadze Irakli Labadze ( ka, ირაკლი ლაბაძე, tr, ; born June 9, 1981) is a Georgian retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 42, which he attained in July 2004. He is the first Georgian playe ...

, faced four match points but was not able to convert any of them. Lapentti finally won that tough match 5–7, 7–6⁽¹⁾, 7–6⁽⁶⁾. His brother,

, also a professional tennis player, reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 110 in May 2005. In addition, another brother, Leonardo, has been active at the lower levels of professional tennis. In the Cincinnati Open 2008, Lapentti defeated

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 ...

in second round,

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 ...

in the third round and faced No. 2 seed

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

in the quarterfinals where he lost in straight sets. With that victory over Lapentti, Nadal clinched the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. In his last participation in a Grand Slam championship, he unfortunately had to retire against

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

in the first round of the

2009 French Open The 2009 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 113th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from May 24 through ...

. In 2017, it was announced that Nicolás would compete in the

Ecuador Open The Ecuador Open is a men's professional golf tournament held in Ecuador. The tournament was re-inaugurated as an event on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica in 2014 and the inaugural winner was Tyler McCumber Mark Tyler McCumber (born April 4, 1991) ...

doubles draw alongside brother Giovanni, playing in the final event of his career.

Davis Cup

He has also been a member of the

Ecuador Davis Cup team The Ecuador men's national tennis team represents Ecuador in Davis Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Ecuador Tennis Federation. Ecuador currently compete in the Americas Zone of Group I. Their best performance was in 1985, when they ...

since 1993. Representing his country in

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

since he was 17, and won the deciding rubber against Great Britain (July 2000) to put Ecuador in the World Group. Moreover, he owns the Davis Cup record for most matches won in five sets, with a total of 13 victories.

Personal

He set up the Nicolás Lapentti Foundation in late 2000 to help bring tennis to the underprivileged, and develop future champions. Other interests include soccer and reading

Robert Ludlum Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...

books.

ATP career finals

Singles: 12 (5 wins, 7 losses)

Doubles: 7 (3 wins, 4 losses)

Singles performance timeline

Top 10 wins

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapentti, Nicolas 1976 births Living people Ecuadorian expatriates in the United States Ecuadorian male tennis players Ecuadorian people of Italian descent Ecuadorian people of Spanish descent French Open junior champions Olympic tennis players of Ecuador Sportspeople from Guayaquil Tennis players from Miami Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles