Marco Chiudinelli

Marco Chiudinelli (born 10 September 1981) is a retired tennis player from Switzerland. A member of Switzerland's winning 2014 Davis Cup squad, he reached his highest singles ranking of 52 in February 2010 during a career that was often hindered by injury.

Biography Marco grew up in Münchenstein and learned to play tennis at Basel Lawn Tennis Club. He later joined a region-wide tennis group, where he first met Roger Federer, who belonged to the nearby Old Boys Tennis Club. In 2001, at the suggestion of Allegro, Chiudinelli moved to Halle in Germany to train.

Career Early career, 2000–2005 Marco Chiudinelli played his first professional matches in 2000, but did not compete on a regular basis until 2002. That year he won his first tournament on the third-tier Futures circuit in Dubai, defeating a 16-year-old Jimmy Wang in the final. He finished as runner-up to Grégory Carraz at a Futures event in Poitiers in March and secured a second Futures title at Syros in April.

Over the following months he tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the main draw of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, the Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles, and the Canada Masters in Toronto. He also attempted to qualify for the 2002 US Open, winning against a fading Cédric Pioline in the first round – this was technically a win by retirement, as Pioline stormed off court while 0-5 down in the third set. He lost in the next round of qualifying to Argentine Gastón Etlis. He spent the bulk of the 2003 season playing on the Challenger Tour and reached the semi-final stage of events in Fergana and, after coming through qualifying, Nottingham, where he lost to second seed John Van Lottum.

Chiudinelli began 2004 well, winning 18 of his first 22 matches. He won another Futures title in January in Doha and the following month reached his first Challenger final in Belgrade – along the way defeating a teenage Novak Djokovic in one of his earliest professional appearances.

Chiudinelli's ranking reached a then high of 129 in January 2005 after making the round of 16 at the Qatar Open. He soon received his first call up to the Switzerland Davis Cup team for the tie versus the Netherlands, losing in five sets to the more established Sjeng Schalken, and later winning the dead rubber against Peter Wessels. After retiring through injury in his second round match against Michael Ryderstedt at Wimbledon Qualifying in June, Chiudinelli was later forced to get surgery to heal persistent pain in his shoulder. As a consequence he did not play for the remainder of the season and his ranking fell to 287.

At the 2010 French Open, Chiudinelli was accepted into the main draw by direct entry and beat Somdev Devvarman to advance to the second round for the first time. There he lost to American John Isner in a match that extended over two days because of rain.

Later career, 2015–2017

He also played the longest doubles match ever with Stanislas Wawrinka, being defeated by Lukáš Rosol and Tomáš Berdych of the Czech Republic in the first round of the 2013 Davis Cup. The match, played on 2 February 2013, lasted 7 hours, 2 minutes.

Chiudinelli again represented Switzerland in the 2014 Davis Cup World Group first round, partnering Michael Lammer. His doubles victory with Lammer clinched the first-round victory over Serbia, allowing Switzerland to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004. Switzerland went on to win its first Davis Cup in history.

At the 2014 Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Chiudinelli played doubles with childhood friend and Roger Federer. They reached the final and held championship points, but lost a close tiebreaker.

In 2016, Chiudinelli qualified for the US Open and beat fellow qualifier Guilherme Clezar in the first round in four sets. This was Chiudinelli's first main-draw Grand Slam tournament victory since the 2010 US Open. In the second round, he faced Lucas Pouille. Chiudinelli was two sets and a break up in the third set and was serving for the match at 5–4, but was broken. He then lost the resulting tiebreaker and could not regain his form in the last two sets.

Chiudinelli then received a wild card into the 2016 Swiss Indoors tournament where he took on compatriot Stan Wawrinka in the first round and lost in three sets 7–6(7–1), 1–6, 4–6, despite leading the match against the newly crowned 2016 US Open champion.

In 2017, after an injury plagued-season, Chiudinelli announced on his website that he would be retiring following the 2017 Swiss Indoors tournament where he enjoyed the greatest success of his career, reaching the semifinals in 2009.

ATP career finals Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups) Legend Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0) ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0) ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0) ATP World Tour 250 Series (1–3) Finals by surface Hard (0–0) Clay (1–1) Grass (0–2) Carpet (0–0)

ATP Challenger Tour & ITF Futures Singles: 15 (10 titles, 5 runner-ups) Legend Challenger (3–4) Futures (7–1) Finals by surface Hard (10–2) Clay (0–0) Carpet (0–3) Finals by setting Outdoors (9–2) Indoors (1–3) ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1. 3 February 2002 Dubai, UAE Hard Jimmy Wang 7–6(7–5), 6–2Loss 1. 24 March 2002 Poitiers, France Carpet (i) Gregory Carraz 6–7(8–10), 2–6Win 2. 14 April 2002 Syros, Greece Hard Jeroen Masson 6–7(5–7), 6–2, 6–4Win 3. 28 April 2003 Namangan, Uzbekistan Hard Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 6–1, 7–6(7–1)Win 4. 25 January 2004 Doha, Qatar Hard Uros Vico 6–2, 6–4Loss 1. 2 February 2004 Belgrade, Serbia Carpet (i) Nenad Zimonjić 6–2, 6–7(2–7), 4–6Win 1. 6 September 2004 Donetsk, Ukraine Hard Saša Tuksar 6–3, 6–2Win 5. 21 May 2006 Mishref, Kuwait Hard Mohamed Mamoun 6–0, 6–2Win 6. 4 June 2006 Mishref, Kuwait Hard Viktor Bruthans 6–1, 4–6, 6–0Win 7. 23 November 2008 Dubai, UAE Hard Benjamin Balleret 6–1, 6–0Win 2. 27 April 2009 Tenerife, Spain Hard Paolo Lorenzi 6–3, 6–4Loss 2. 4 March 2013 Kyoto, Japan Carpet (i) John Millman 6–4, 4–6, 6–7(2–7)Loss 3. 9 August 2015 Segovia, Spain Hard Evgeny Donskoy 6–7(2–7), 3–6Loss 4. 24 January 2016 Manila, Philippines Hard Mikhail Youzhny 4–6, 4–6Win 3. 21 February 2016 Wrocław, Poland Hard (i) Jan Hernych 6–3, 7–6(11–9)

Doubles: 17 (6 titles, 11 runner-ups) Legend Challenger (6–11) Finals by surface Hard (5–8) Clay (0–2) Carpet (1–1) Finals by setting Outdoors (4–8) Indoors (2–3) ResultNo.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1. 22 October 2001 Seoul, Korea Hard Yves Allegro František Čermák Jaroslav Levinský 7–5, 6–7(8–10), 3–6Loss 2. 29 October 2001 Yokohama, Japan Carpet (i) Sebastian Jäger Takao Suzuki Mitsuru Takada 3–6, 4–6Loss 3. 19 November 2001 Puebla, Mexico Hard Tuomas Ketola Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 1–6Win 1. 30 September 2002 Bukhara, Uzbekistan Hard Yves Allegro Janko Tipsarević Jan Weinzierl 6–3, 6–4Loss 4. 28 October 2002 Réunion, Réunion Island Hard Jaroslav Levinský Federico Browne Jonathan Erlich 1–6, 6–4, 3–6Loss 5. 6 September 2004 Donetsk, Ukraine Hard Lovro Zovko Igor Kunitsyn Uros Vico 6–3, 3–6, 4–6Loss 6. 25 April 2005 Tunis, Tunisia Clay Jean-Claude Scherrer Tomas Behrend Robert Lindstedt 6–3, 1–6, 3–6Loss 7. 13 November 2006 Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine Hard (i) Lovro Zovko Sergiy Stakhovsky Orest Tereshchuk 3–6, 0–6Loss 8. 3 November 2008 Astana, Kazakhstan Hard George Bastl Mikhail Elgin Alexander Kudryavtsev 4–6, 7–6(10–8), [8–10]Loss 9. 26 March 2013 San Luis Potosí, Mexico Clay Peter Gojowczyk Marin Draganja Adrián Menéndez Maceiras 4–6, 3–6Win 2. 21 July 2014 Astana, Kazakhstan Hard Sergei Bubka Chen Ti Huang Liang-chi 6–3, 6–4Win 3. 23 November 2015 Andria, Italy Hard (i) Frank Moser Dustin Brown Carsten Ball 7–6(7–5), 7–5Loss 10. 18 September 2016 Istanbul, Turkey Hard Marius Copil Sadio Doumbia Calvin Hemery 4–6, 3–6Win 4. 25 September 2016 İzmir, Turkey Hard Marius Copil Sadio Doumbia Calvin Hemery 6–4, 6–4Loss 11. 23 October 2016 Brest, France Hard (i) Luca Vanni Sander Arends Mateusz Kowalczyk 7–6(7–2), 3–6, [5–10]Win 5. 23 April 2017 Taipei, Taiwan Carpet (i) Franko Škugor Sanchai Ratiwatana Sonchat Ratiwatana 4–6, 6–2, [10–5]Win 6. 7 May 2017 Gimcheon, South Korea Hard Teymuraz Gabashvili Ruan Roelofse Yi Chu-huan 6–1, 6–3

Singles performance timeline

National participation

Davis Cup (9 wins, 19 losses) Group membership World Group (4–13) WG play-off (4–6) Group I (1–0) Group II (0–0) Matches by surface Hard (7–11) Clay (0–7) Grass (0–0) Carpet (2–1) Matches by type Singles (8–13) Doubles (1–6) Matches by setting Indoors (9–17) Outdoors (0–2) Matches by venue Switzerland (8–7) Away (1–12) indicates the result of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Result No. Rubber Match type (partner if any) Opponent nation Opponent player(s) Score 2–3; 4–6 March 2005; Expo Centre, Fribourg, Switzerland; World Group first round; hard(i) surface Defeat 1 I Singles Netherlands Sjeng Schalken 6–7(4–7), 6–4, 3–6, 7–5, 2–6 Victory 2 V Singles (dead rubber) Peter Wessels 4–6, retired 4–1; 22–24 September 2006; Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland; World Group play-offs; hard(i) surface Victory 3 V Singles (dead rubber) Serbia and Montenegro Janko Tipsarević 6–4, 6–1 2–3; 9–11 February 2007; Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland; World Group first round; carpet(i) surface Victory 4 I Singles Spain Fernando Verdasco 6–3, 6–4, 3–6, 7–6(7–2) Defeat 5 III Doubles (with Yves Allegro) Feliciano López / Fernando Verdasco 6–7(5–7), 7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–2), 1–6, 10–12 Victory 6 V Singles (dead rubber) David Ferrer 3–6, 6–3, 6–3 1–4; 6–8 March 2009; Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, United States; World Group first round; hard(i) surface Defeat 7 II Singles United States Andy Roddick 1–6, 3–6, 6–7(5–7) Defeat 8 V Singles (dead rubber) James Blake 4–6, 6–7(6–8) 3–2; 18–20 September 2009; Centro Sportivo "Valletta Cambiaso", Genoa, Italy; World Group play-offs; clay surface Defeat 9 III Doubles (with Stan Wawrinka) Italy Simone Bolelli / Potito Starace 2–6, 4–6, 6–7(3–7) 1–4; 5–7 March 2010; Plaza de Toros de La Ribera, Logroño, Spain; World Group first round; clay(i) surface Defeat 10 I Singles Spain David Ferrer 2–6, 6–7(5–7), 1–6 Defeat 11 V Singles (dead rubber) Nicolás Almagro 1–6, 3–6 0–5; 17–19 September 2010; National Tennis Centre, Astana, Kazakhstan; World Group play-offs; hard(i) surface Defeat 12 I Singles Kazakhstan Andrey Golubev 4–6, 4–6, 4–6 Defeat 13 V Singles (dead rubber) Mikhail Kukushkin 2–6, 4–6 5–0; 8–10 July 2011; PostFinance-Arena, Bern, Switzerland; Group I Europe/Africa second round; hard(i) surface Victory 14 IV Singles (dead rubber) Portugal João Sousa 6–3, 6–4 0–5; 10–12 February 2012; Forum Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland; World Group first round; clay(i) surface Defeat 15 V Singles (dead rubber) United States John Isner 3–6, 4–6 3–2; 14–16 September 2012; Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Netherlands; World Group play-offs; clay surface Defeat 16 V Singles (dead rubber) Netherlands Thiemo de Bakker 2–6, 6–7(4–7) 2–3; 1–3 February 2013; Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland; World Group first round; hard(i) surface Defeat 17 III Doubles (with Stan Wawrinka) Czech Republic Tomáš Berdych / Lukáš Rosol 4–6, 7–5, 4–6, 7–6(7–3), 22–24 4–1; 13–15 September 2013; Patinoire du Littoral, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; World Group play-offs; hard(i) surface Victory 18 II Singles Ecuador Julio César Campozano 3–6, 6–1, 6–3, 7–6(9–7) Defeat 19 V Singles (dead rubber) Gonzalo Escobar 0–6, 5–7 3–2; 31 January – 2 February 2014; SPENS, Novi Sad, Serbia; World Group first round; hard(i) surface Victory 20 III Doubles (with Michael Lammer) Serbia Filip Krajinović / Nenad Zimonjić 7–6(9–7), 3–6, 7–6(7–2), 6–2 Defeat 21 V Singles (dead rubber) Filip Krajinović 4–6, 4–6 3–2; 12–14 September 2014; Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland; World Group semifinal; hard(i) surface Defeat 22 III Doubles (with Stan Wawrinka) Italy Simone Bolelli / Fabio Fognini 5–7, 6–3, 7–5, 3–6, 2–6 4–1; 18–20 September 2015; Palexpo, Geneva, Switzerland; World Group play-offs; hard(i) surface Defeat 23 III Doubles (with Roger Federer) Netherlands Thiemo de Bakker / Matwé Middelkoop 6–7(7–9), 6–4, 6–4, 4–6, 1–6 0–5; 4–6 March 2016; Adriatic Arena, Pesaro, Italy; World Group first round; clay(i) surface Defeat 24 I Singles Italy Paolo Lorenzi 6–7(14–16), 3–6, 6–4, 7–5, 5–7 Defeat 25 III Doubles (with Henri Laaksonen) Simone Bolelli / Andreas Seppi 3–6, 1–6, 3–6 0–5; 3–5 February 2017; Legacy Arena / BJCC, Birmingham, United States; World Group first round; hard(i) surface Defeat 26 I Singles United States Jack Sock 4–6, 3–6, 1–6 3–2; 15–17 September 2017; Swiss Tennis Arena, Biel, Switzerland; World Group play-offs; hard(i) surface Victory 27 II Singles Belarus Dzmitry Zhyrmont 6–3, 4–6, 6–4, 6–3 Victory 28 IV Singles Yaraslav Shyla 6–4, 6–3, 6–4

Wins: 1 Edition Swiss Team Rounds/Opponents 2014 Davis Cup Roger FedererStanislas WawrinkaMichael LammerMarco Chiudinelli 1R: SUI 3–2 SRB QF: SUI 3–2 KAZSF: SUI 3–2 ITA F: SUI 3–1 FRA