Rafael Arévalo González (; born July 4, 1986) is a retired 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

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. The majority of Arévalo's professional career has been restricted to playing on the

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(ITF) circuit, with a further 22 appearances for the El Salvador Davis Cup team; he also encountered modest success in the juniors, reaching a peak of No. 10 in 2004. However, in 2008, aided by the Salvadoran Tennis Federation ('' Federación Salvadoreña de Tenis''), he was awarded an invitation to the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

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. The Tripartite Commission, which issued the invitation, is composed of representatives from

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(IOC),

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s (NOCs), and the

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(ITF), and it is standard practice to award such invitations (of which there were two for the men's singles tennis event) to countries with small Olympic teams. Arévalo was the first player from

to represent the country, in a tennis competition, at the Olympics. Arévalo defeated

Lee Hyung-taik Lee Hyung-taik ( ko, 이형택, born 3 January 1976) is a former professional tennis player from South Korea. He won one singles title and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 36, in August 2007. Personal life Lee was born in a p ...

in three sets in the first round, before being beaten by Swiss World No. 1

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in the second. Later that year, Arévalo won his only ATP Challenger Tour match, beating Borja Malo in Quito, before losing to Julio Cesar Campozano. He is the brother of tennis player

Marcelo Arévalo Marcelo Arévalo González (; born October 17, 1990) is a Salvadoran professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 5 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on 14 November 2022. ...

, with whom he plays on the El Salvador Davis Cup team. He is known in his home city of

Sonsonate Sonsonate () is a city and municipality of El Salvador. It is the capital of the department of Sonsonate; on the Sensunapan River and the Pan-American Highway from San Salvador to the Pacific port of Acajutla, south. Pop. (2007), about 71,541. E ...

as 'Cabeza de Cono', which translates to Conehead. Arévalo played his last match at the

2019 Davis Cup The 2019 Davis Cup was the 108th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by Rakuten. For this edition, the format of the cup was changed. The main modification is the World Group took place ...

where he partnered his brother,

Marcelo Marcelo is a given name, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Marcellus. The Italian version of the name is Marcello, differing in having an additional "l". Marcelo may refer to: * Marcelo Costa de Andrade (born 1967), Brazilian serial killer, rapi ...

, in a doubles match against

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. Soon after, he became president of the El Salvador Davis Cup team.

Notes

References

External links

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Quick Tennis Academy
Salvadoran male tennis players 1986 births Living people Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players for El Salvador Tennis players at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for El Salvador Tennis players at the 2007 Pan American Games Tennis players at the 2003 Pan American Games {{ElSalvador-tennis-bio-stub