Roberto Argüello (born 12 May 1963) is a 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 from

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 ...

Career

Argüello was an ambidextrous player, capable of using right-handed shots for balls to his right and left-handed stokes for balls to the left of him. He however favoured a two-handed forehand and backhand.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> The Argentine was the 1977 Junior Orange Bowl champion and four years later won the Under-18s Orange Bowl. In 1982, the year of the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

, he left tennis in order to serve with the

Argentine Army The Argentine Army () is the Army, land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander-in-chief of the Armed For ...

. He played just one tournament that season, the Buenos Aires Open in February. Argüello returned to the

Grand Prix tennis circuit The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix Tennis Circuit it was administered by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and ran annually until 1989 when it and the rival ...

in 1983 and made an immediate impression, winning the Venice Open, as a qualifier. The 20-year-old defeated top seed

Eliot Teltscher Eliot Teltscher (born March 15, 1959) is a retired professional American tennis player. He won the 1983 French Open Mixed Doubles. His highest ranking in singles was No. 6 in the world and in doubles was No. 38 in the world. Tennis career Earl ...

in the opening round and secured the tournament with a win over Jimmy Brown in the final. This made him just the fourth qualifier to ever win a Grand Prix title. Also in 1983, Argüello upset world number seven

José Luis Clerc José Luis Clerc (; born 16 August 1958), also known by the nickname Batata, is a former professional tennis player from Argentina. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 3 August 1981, ...

to make the quarter-finals in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

and made another quarter-final appearances at

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

. Argüello attained his career best ranking, 38th in the world, in 1984, after making the semi-finals at

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. In 1985 he had his most consistent year on tour, reaching the quarter-finals of five tournaments,

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 ...

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

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and

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. Another notables performances that season included beating world number six

Anders Järryd Anders Per Järryd (; born 13 July 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. During his career he won eight Grand Slam doubles titles (three French Open, two Wimbledon, two US Open, one Australian Open), reached the world No. ...

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and defeating

Yannick Noah Yannick Noah (; born 18 May 1960) is a French former professional tennis player and singer, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. Noah won the French Open in 1983 French Open – Men's singles, 1983, and is a forme ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, when the Frenchman was also sixth in the world. Argüello was a semi-finalist at

in 1986, the last time he would make it that far in a tournament. He did however make three further quarter-final appearances, at both Guarujá and

in 1988 and St Vincent in 1989. While Argüello had success on the Grand Prix circuit, he struggled to make an impact in Grand Slam tournaments. He entered the main draw of six Grand Slams but only once made it past the first round, at the

1985 French Open The 1985 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 27 May until 9 June. It was the 84th staging of the French Open, and the first Grand ...

, when he defeated Marty Davis in straight sets. The Argentine was then eliminated in the second round by

Tomáš Šmíd Tomáš Šmíd (born 20 May 1956) is a former tennis player from Czechoslovakia, who won nine singles titles during his career. In doubles, he won 54 titles and was world No. 1 in doubles from December 17, 1984, to August 11, 1985. The right-hand ...

. His

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 ...

record for

stands at 1-1. He had a win over Italian Francesco Cancellotti in 1983, to give Argentina a 5-0 clean-sweep of their World Group Quarter-final but lost to Raúl Viver of

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

in 1985. Both matches were dead rubbers.Davis Cup Profile
/ref>

Grand Prix career finals

Singles: 1 (1–0)

Challenger titles

Singles: (1)

References

External links

Roberto Argüello
Official website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arguello, Roberto 1963 births Living people Argentine male tennis players Argentine military personnel Tennis players from Rosario, Santa Fe 20th-century Argentine sportsmen