Nicolás Lapentti
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (; born 13 August 1976) is an Ecuadorian former 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. Lapentti was ranked world No. 6 in men's singles by the
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 ...
(ATP) in April 2000. His brothers, Giovanni and Leonardo, uncle Andrés, and cousins Roberto and Emilio have also been professional tennis players. 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 (), 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 ...
(partnering with
Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten (; born 10 September 1976) is a Brazilian 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 f ...
) 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, Magnus Norman,
Mikael Tillström Mikael Tillström (born 5 March 1972) is a former tennis player and coach from Sweden. Career He represented his native country as at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he was defeated in the third round by Switzerland's Roger Federer. ...
, Andrew Ilie and Karol Kučera 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 and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three Masters titles. He has a career high ATP worl ...
. 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 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 was the first Georgian pla ...
, 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, Giovanni, 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. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in July 2013. Ferrer won 27 ATP Tour singles titles, including a ...
in second round,
Fernando Verdasco Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spaniards, Spanish tennis coach and a former professional player. He was ranked world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, achieved in April 2009, and w ...
in the third round and faced No. 2 seed
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 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-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...
in the first round of the 2009 French Open. In 2017, it was announced that Nicolás would compete in the Ecuador Open 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 since 1993. Representing his country in
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 ...
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 (genre), thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original ''Bourne (novel series), The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copi ...
books.


ATP career finals


Singles: 12 (5 wins, 7 losses)


Doubles: 7 (3 wins, 4 losses)


Singles performance timeline


Top 10 wins


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lapentti, Nicolas 1976 births Living people Ecuadorian expatriate tennis players 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 for Ecuador Tennis players 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