Potito Starace (; born 14 July 1981) is an Italian 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 cov ...

player on the ATP Tour. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world no. 27 on October 15, 2007. He was a

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. T ...

specialist, and was coached by Umberto Rianna. Starace was banned from tennis for life by the Italian Tennis Federation and by the

Tennis Integrity Unit The Tennis Integrity Unit was the organisation responsible for investigating match fixing in tennis since 2008 until 2020. It was replaced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. It had the ability to impose fines and sanctions, and ban p ...

for betting offences.

Career

One of the most memorable runs of Starace's career was when he made the men's doubles semifinals of the 2012 French Open, partnering

Daniele Bracciali Daniele Bracciali (; born 10 January 1978) is an Italian former tennis player, best ranked world no. 21 in doubles. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world no. 49, achieved in May 2006. In doubles, he reached the semifinals of the 2012 Fren ...

, before succumbing to top seeds

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal a ...

and

Max Mirnyi Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi ( be, Максім Мікалаевіч Мірны, ; russian: Максим Николаевич Мирный, ; born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles spec ...

. In singles, he made four ATP finals but lost in all of them. On the Challenger tour, he won the

San Marino CEPU Open The Internazionali di Tennis San Marino Open (formerly known as the San Marino CEPU Open and San Marino GO&FUN Open) is a professional tennis tournament played on red clay. It is currently part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) C ...

three times, a record for the tournament, and the

Tennis Napoli Cup The Tennis Napoli Cup (formerly the Capri Watch Cup) is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor red clay courts. It is currently part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour. It is held annually at the Tenni ...

four times, also a record. Its also noticed the match at the tennis club Napoli against the well known couple called "cugini di campagna",where potito and his friend Volandri lost and after this retired from the professional career. In doubles, he won six ATP titles. He represented Italy at 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 ...

, where he lost to eventual gold medallist

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 world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finish ...

in the first round.

Betting scandal

Following

Alessio di Mauro Alessio di Mauro (born 9 August 1977) is a former professional tennis player from Italy. During his career, he reached the final of one ATP tournament, the 2007 ATP Buenos Aires. On 26 February 2007 the left-hander reached his career high rankin ...

's 9-month ban in November 2007, Starace and

were each fined and given short suspensions from playing. Starace received a fine of £21,400 and a 6-week ban from January 1, 2008. Starace's case revolved around his final in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

against the Spaniard

Pablo Andújar Pablo Andújar Alba (; born 23 January 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. Andújar has won four ATP Tour singles titles and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 32 in July 2015. His best results are reaching the fourt ...

, which the Italian lost. Starace had led their head-to-head 5-0 going into the match. Bookmaker Massimo Erodiani asked via Skype if Starace had received a certified cheque to lose the match and received an affirmative answer, explaining that all bets were safe on a Starace loss. In 2015, the Italian Tennis Federation banned Bracciali and Starace for life. In 2019, he was banned by the Tennis Integrity Unit for life, subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

ATP career finals

Singles: 4 (0–4)

Doubles: 9 (6–3)

Performance timelines

Singles

''Current through 2015 French Open.

Doubles

''Current through 2013 Wimbledon Championships.

Top 10 wins

* Starace has a 2–23 (.080) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Starace, Potito 1981 births Living people Hopman Cup competitors Italian male tennis players Olympic tennis players of Italy Sportspeople from the Province of Avellino Sportspeople banned for life Sportspeople involved in betting scandals Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Match fixers