Martín Jaite (born 9 October 1964) is a former top-10 professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from Argentina. Jaite's career-high

Association of Tennis Professionals The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to p ...

singles ranking was world no. 10, which he achieved in the summer of 1990, and he won a total of 12 titles and $1,873,881 in tour prize money during his career. Jaite's playing style leveraged his consistency, speed, thoughtful use of tactics, and fitness to compensate for his lack of power.

Early life

Jaite was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and is Jewish.

Tennis career

Jaite was a top junior in both Spain and Argentina. He joined Argentina's

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

team. He began playing on the ATP tour in 1983, and soon was ranked among the top 20 players in the world. He reached the quarterfinals in competition at the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

in 1985, defeating

Paolo Canè Paolo Canè (born 9 April 1965; ) is a former tennis player from Italy. Canè turned professional in 1983. During his career, he won three top-level singles titles (Bordeaux in 1986, Båstad in 1989, and Bologna in 1991) and achieved much succe ...

, Trevor Allan,

Miloslav Mečíř Miloslav Mečíř (; born 19 May 1964) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. He won the men's singles gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games, representing Czechoslovakia, and contested two major singles finals. In 1987 he won the WCT Fi ...

and

Heinz Günthardt Heinz Peter Günthardt (; born 8 February 1959) is a retired tennis player from Switzerland. Tennis player career Günthardt won five singles titles during his professional career, including the Rotterdam WCT in 1980. The right-hander reached ...

before losing to

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player and coach. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis ...

. In May 1986 at Forest Hills Jaite defeated world No. 4

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...

in straight sets. In May 1987, Jaite beat world no. 9

Henri Leconte Henri Leconte (; born 4 July 1963) is a French former professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991. During ...

in Germany in two tiebreaks. In September 1987, Jaite upset world no. 3

Mats Wilander Mats Arne Olof Wilander (; born 22 August 1964) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

in five sets to win a competition in Barcelona, Spain. In April 1989, he upset world no. 8

Jakob Hlasek Jakob Hlasek (; born 12 November 1964) is a Swiss former professional tennis player of Czech origin. He won a major doubles title at the 1992 French Open, partnering Marc Rosset. Career The major highlights of Hlasek's career came in 1992. He w ...

in two sets in Monte Carlo. Jaite became only the sixth South American to be ranked in the top 10 in the ATP computer rankings, reaching no. 10 in 1990. In May 1990, he defeated world No. 2

Stefan Edberg Jan Stefan Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), one of two players in the ...

in three sets in Germany. Jaite defeated world No. 4

Guy Forget Guy Forget (; born 4 January 1965) is a French tennis administrator and retired professional player. During his career, he helped France win the Davis Cup in both 1991 and 1996. Since retiring as a player, he has served as France's Davis Cup te ...

in April 1991 in France, and then again in July, in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Olympics

He participated for his native country at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

in Seoul, but lost to

Brad Gilbert Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961) is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 ...

, the eventual winner of the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

Davis Cup

Jaite was 14–20 in

play, 11–7 in singles on clay, from 1984 to 1999. Jaite was involved in a Davis Cup tie against the US in Buenos Aires when

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...

was leading 6–2, 6–2, 5–0. Jaite was leading 40–0 in the sixth game of the third set, and missed his first serve. Agassi then called out to his then-coach

Nick Bollettieri Nicholas James Bollettieri (July 31, 1931 – December 4, 2022) was an American tennis coach. He pioneered the concept of a tennis boarding school, and helped develop many leading tennis players during the past decades, including Andre Agassi, J ...

, "Hey watch this!", and then followed by catching the second serve in his left hand to give Jaite the game. Viewed as an act of disrespect, Agassi was booed by the crowd for five minutes.

After tennis

Jaite has had an important role in Argentine tennis since his retirement. He is the tournament director for ATP Buenos Aires, the Buenos Aires Challenger, and director of Futures events in Argentina. From July 2007 till December 2008, Jaite was coaching

David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached his highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006, during a career that spanned from 2000 to 2013. Nalbandian was runner-up in ...

, and helped lead him to titles in Madrid and

Bercy Bercy () is a neighbourhood in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France, the city's 47th administrative neighbourhood. History Some of the oldest vestiges of human occupation in Paris were found on the territory of Bercy, dating from the late N ...

, where he became the first man to defeat the top two players in the world,

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

and

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

, in consecutive tournaments. In 2011, Jaite was named captain of the Argentina Davis Cup team.Jaite named Davis Cup captain
''

Buenos Aires Herald The ''Buenos Aires Herald'' is an English language daily online newspaper. Originally published as a daily newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1876 to 2017, its slogans were ''A World of Information in a Few Words'' and ''Unbiased press, a ...

''. 11 December 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2012.

Career finals

Singles: 19 (12 wins – 7 losses)

Doubles: 2 (1 win – 1 loss)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaite, Martin 1964 births Living people Argentine male tennis players Jewish Argentine sportspeople Jewish tennis players Olympic tennis players for Argentina Tennis players from Buenos Aires Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics 20th-century Argentine sportsmen