Vincent Spadea (born July 19, 1974) is a former professional

tennis player 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 cove ...

from the United States. He reached a career high tenth position in the ATP Champions Race in April 2003, as well as a career-high 18th

ATP ranking The Pepperstone ATP rankings are the merit-based method used by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for determining the qualification for entry as well as the seeding of players in all singles and doubles tournaments. The first rankings ...

in February 2005. He has career prize money earnings of over $5,000,000. Spadea has ATP career singles wins over

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

(1–2 record), Pete Sampras (1–4),

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ac ...

(2–4),

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 ...

(1–1),

Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals ( Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Ope ...

(1–2),

Pat Rafter Patrick Michael Rafter (born 28 December 1972) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking on 26 July 1999. His career highlights include consecutive US Open ...

, Richard Krajicek,

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 ...

Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals of ...

Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...

Marat Safin Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; tt-Cyrl, Марат Мөбин улы Сафин; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian retired world No. 1 tennis player an ...

, and

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 ...

. He is one of five players to defeat Federer 6–0 in a set at a main tour tournament, which he did at 1999

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

. Spadea represented the United States at the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2004 Olympics. Vince was also named twice to the US Davis Cup Team in 2000 (captain John McEnroe) and 2004 (captain Patrick McEnroe). Spadea has one career ATP singles title and three ATP doubles titles. He also has eleven USTA Challenger Pro singles titles.

Personal life

Spadea was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1974. His mother is originally from Colombia. Spadea was

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in ''The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, where Ca ...

body double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes FOR another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...

in the 2017 film '' Battle of the Sexes''.

Tennis career

At the

1999 Australian Open The 1999 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 87th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 18 through 31 January 1999. This was the first Grand Slam o ...

, Spadea achieved his best performance in a major by reaching the quarterfinals. In the fourth round at that tournament, he defeated the 1995 Australian Open champion,

. Spadea then lost to

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 ...

in the quarterfinals. On September 13, 1999, Spadea achieved a top 20 ranking for the first time. However, from October 1999 to June 2000, Spadea suffered a record losing run of 21 losses in a row. His losing streak led the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

to dub him "the

Charlie Brown Charles "Charlie" Brown is the principal character of the comic strip '' Peanuts'', syndicated in daily and Sunday newspapers in numerous countries all over the world. Depicted as a "lovable loser," Charlie Brown is one of the great American a ...

of tennis" . He ended the streak in the first round of 2000 Wimbledon with an opening round 6–3, 6–7, 6–3, 6–7, 9–7 win over 14th seed

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...

, in a five-set marathon, which lasted for nearly four hours. Spadea's world ranking fell as low as 237 on October 23, 2000. Working hard on the Challenger Tour after his fall down the rankings, he successfully recovered and eventually won his only career

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

singles title in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he defeated James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way in 2004. He continued his journey back up the world rankings and was back in the top 20 by late 2004, although US Davis Cup captain,

Patrick McEnroe Patrick William McEnroe (born July 1, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player, broadcaster, and former captain of the United States Davis Cup team. Born in Manhasset, New York, he is John McEnroe's youngest brother. He won one ...

, declined to pick Spadea as his second singles player for the 2004 Davis Cup final against Spain, opting instead for the lower ranked

Mardy Fish Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.Fish won six tournaments on the mai ...

. Spadea achieved his career-high world ranking of 18 in February 2005. In 2003, Spadea reached the semi-finals of a Masters event for the first time in his career, losing to world No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt. He went on to the Monte Carlo Masters a month later and reached his 2nd semi-finals in a Masters series. This helped him reach a career high position of No. 10 in the ATP Champions Race in April. In 2006, Spadea published his autobiographical book, ''Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player''. Spadea criticized a number of tennis players including James Blake and Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe. He called out McEnroe for picking Mardy Fish ahead of him for the

2004 Davis Cup The 2004 Davis Cup was the 93rd edition of the tournament between nations in men's tennis. A total of 130 nations participated in the tournament. In the final, Spain defeated the United States at the Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville, Spai ...

final where the Americans lost to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Spadea criticized Blake for questionable character during a match where Blake allegedly "trash-talked" him. The book reached the top of the ranks in sports and tennis books during its debut month. Spadea reached the third round at the 2008 Australian Open. In the first round, he came back from two sets down to defeat former world No. 8, Radek Štěpánek. He closed the season by winning two Challenger titles, in Waco and Calabasas. Vince had an injury-stricken season in 2009, plagued by an overuse tendonitis arm issue, as well as a lower extremity staph infection. He won only a handful of ATP-level singles matches before the start of the clay-court season, but reached the semifinals of the Carson Challenger. The

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

summarized his career by calling him "the epitome of a tennis journeyman" and then noted that "he has played in 15 US Opens and has never reached the quarterfinals."

ATP career finals

Singles: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)

Doubles: 5 (3 titles, 2 runners-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 14 (8–6)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

¹This event was held in Stockholm through 1994, Essen in 1995, and Stuttgart from 1996 through 2001.

Top 10 wins

References

External links

* * *
Official website

Spadea's book wins ACE Magazine Book of the Year for 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spadea, Vince 1974 births Living people American male tennis players American people of Italian descent Olympic tennis players of the United States Sportspeople from Boca Raton, Florida Tennis people from Florida Tennis players from Chicago Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics American sportspeople of Colombian descent