Mariano Puerta

Mariano Rubén Puerta (; born 19 September 1978) is an Argentine tennis coach and a former professional player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 9 singles ranking in August 2005. His career highlight is reaching the final of the French Open in 2005.

Shortly afterwards he tested positive for the banned substance etilefrine in a drugs test, for which he received an eight-year doping ban, subsequently reduced to two years on appeal.

Tennis career

Puerta made his debut on the ATP Tour in 1997, and turned professional in 1998. He won his first ATP title in 1998 in Palermo, Italy. In 2000, Puerta achieved his highest year-end ranking of World No. 21, reaching five finals, and winning one of them (Bogotá). That same year, however, he underwent wrist surgery, which kept him off the tour for several months.

Besides from not recovering his previous playing level, he was suspended from tennis for 9 months from October 2003 onwards for a doping offense (see section on doping controversies). Owing to the suspension he missed most of the 2004 season, and by August 2004 his world ranking had dropped to No. 440. He was reduced to playing Challenger-level tournaments for a while until he had earned enough points to return to the ATP Tour.

In 2005, Puerta made an eye-opening comeback on the Tour by winning the title in Casablanca and then making it to the final of the world's most prestigious clay court tournament, the French Open, where he eventually succumbed to Rafael Nadal in a close match (7–6(8–6), 3–6, 1–6, 5–7). By August 2005 he had climbed to a career-best World No. 9 in the ATP singles rankings, an advancement of 431 places in one year.

In December 2005, he was, again, suspended for a doping offense, this time for 8 years, effectively ending his professional career. This suspension was later reduced to two years on appeal.

On June 6, 2007, Puerta returned to the professional circuit with a 6–4, 6–3 victory over Australian Joseph Sirianni at the Sassuolo Challenger, a tournament to which he was invited as a wild card since he had no ranking. In the second round, Puerta lost 6–3, 6–0 to Spaniard Marc López. Since returning to the tour, Puerta has only played on the ATP Challenger Tour, including winning the Bogotá Challenger in 2008 and reaching the final of the San Luis Potosí Challenger in 2008 without dropping a set, where he was forced to default the final, and the Cordenons challenger in 2007.

Playing style Puerta is left-handed and uses a single-handed backhand. He is an excellent clay-court specialist with a game that revolves around very accurate and powerful groundstrokes off both wings with heavy topspin. His main weaknesses are his mental strength, slow court speed and comparatively weak serve, the latter two which significantly prevents his success on fast surfaces. He is also very capable at the net, having good volleys and quick reflexes despite his slow court speed.

Doping controversies In 2003, Puerta received a two-year doping suspension after testing positive for clenbuterol at Viña del Mar. In his defence, he argued that the substance had been administered to him by his doctor to combat asthma and that it had no performance-enhancing effect. The sanction was subsequently reduced to nine months suspension, effective from October 2003, and a $5,600 fine.

In December 2005, Puerta was banned again, this time after it was revealed that he had tested positive for the use of the cardiac stimulant etilefrine following his 2005 French Open final loss to Rafael Nadal. News of this positive drug test had been circulating since October 2005. The suspension was for eight years, the longest in tennis history at that time. As a result, Puerta was forced to forfeit all of his rankings points and prize money (totalling US$887,000) from the 2005 French Open onwards; and had all his 2005 results from that point onwards annulled. (Puerta's finish as a finalist at the 2005 French Open was allowed to remain on the record books only insofar as no completed match results were retroactively overturned; a scenario in which the ultimate score from the men's final may have been nullified, and/or a "lucky loser" semifinalist chosen for promotion to nominal runner-up.)

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) tribunal posited that "the amount of etilefrine detected in the positive drugs test was too small to have any effect on his performance"; this theory, however, being at odds with etilefrine's extremely short terminal elimination half-life. Puerta appealed against the ban, claiming on his website that he only ingested trace amounts of it accidentally left over by his wife in a glass. On July 12, 2006, his suspension was reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, making him eligible to restart his career on June 5, 2007.

In 2020 (following 11 years of retirement and his ensuing bankruptcy), Puerta admitted he had lied to the tribunal about the cause of the etilefrine contamination; stating the actual source was ginseng and caffeine pills which a friend of his fitness trainer Darío Lecman had given him. Though Lecman subsequently denied any involvement in their provenance, the Argentine's then-coach Andrés Schneiter confirmed Puerta had regularly used similar pills throughout the first half of the 2005 season. Puerta claimed he later sought testing of remaining pills in the batch, and that Olindo Iacobelli then informed him of their contamination. The ITF expressed regret over Puerta's belated confessions, but – after a review of the original case – decided not to reopen disciplinary proceedings against him, citing both resourcing constraints and the age of the case.

Rafael Nadal, 1st Marquess of Llevant de Mallorca – who defeated Puerta to win his first of 14 Roland-Garros titles – stated that as the champion, he was not concerned by the revelation of Puerta's doping. He acknowledged, however, that Puerta's previous opponents may have felt robbed of their opportunity to compete fairly.

Grand Slam finals Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) OutcomeYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss2005 French Open Clay Rafael Nadal 7–6(8–6), 3–6, 1–6, 5–7

ATP career finals

Singles: 10 (3 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Legend (singles)Grand Slam (0–1)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters Series (0–0)ATP International Series Gold (0–1)ATP World Series (3–5)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (3–7)Grass (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoor (3–7)Indoor (0–0)

Doubles: 3 (3 titles)

Legend (doubles)Grand Slam (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters Series (0–0)ATP International Series Gold (0–0)ATP World Series (3–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (3–0)Grass (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoor (3–0)Indoor (0–0)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 19 (11–8) LegendATP Challenger (10–8)ITF Futures (1–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (11–8)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)

Doubles: 10 (5–5) LegendATP Challenger (5–5)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (5–5)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)

Junior Grand Slam finals Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses.