Nicolás Lapentti

Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (; born 13 August 1976) is an Ecuadorian former professional tennis player. Lapentti was ranked world No. 6 in singles by the ATP in April 2000. Personal information Lapentti began playing tennis at the age of six. His brothers, Giovanni and Leonardo, uncle Andrés, and cousins Roberto Quiroz and Emilio Gómez have also been professional tennis players. His brother Giovanni, reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 110 in May 2005. In addition, the other brother Leonardo, was active at the lower levels of professional tennis. 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. 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 books.

Professional

Juniors Lapentti 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 (partnering with Gustavo Kuerten) and the US Open.

1995: Turned Pro, First ATP title Lapentti turned professional in 1995 and won his first top-level singles title later that year in Bogotá.

1999-00: Australian Open semifinalist, world No. 6 Lapentti was a semifinalist at the 1999 Australian Open, defeating Thomas Johansson, Magnus Norman, Mikael Tillström, Andrew Ilie and Karol Kučera before losing to Thomas Enqvist. He also won two tour singles titles that year and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 in April 2000.

2002 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, faced four match points but was not able to convert any of them. Lapentti finally won the tough three-set match.

2008-09 At the 2008 Cincinnati Open, Lapentti defeated David Ferrer in second round, Fernando Verdasco in the third round and faced No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal 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, he had to retire against Novak Djokovic at the 2009 French Open.

2017 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 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.

ATP career finals Singles: 12 (5 wins, 7 losses) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)ATP Super 9 / ATP Masters Series (0–0)ATP Championship Series / ATP International Series Gold (2–1)ATP World Series / ATP International Series (3–6) Finals by surfaceHard (1–1)Clay (3–6)Grass (0–0)Carpet (1–0) Finals by settingOutdoor (4–7)Indoor (1–0)

Doubles: 7 (3 wins, 4 losses) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)ATP Super 9 / ATP Masters Series (0–0)ATP Championship Series / ATP International Series Gold (0–0)ATP World Series / ATP International Series (3–4) Finals by surfaceHard (1–0)Clay (2–4)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0) Finals by settingOutdoor (3–4)Indoor (0–0)

Singles performance timeline

Top 10 wins