Nicolás Massú

Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried (; born 10 October 1979), nicknamed El Vampiro (Spanish, 'the vampire'), is a Chilean tennis coach and a former professional player. A former world No. 9 in singles, he won the singles and doubles gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is the only man to have won both gold medals at the same Games since the re-introduction of Olympic tennis in 1988, and they were the first two Chile's Olympic gold medals. Massú also reached the final of the 2003 Madrid Masters and won six singles titles. He was the coach of 2020 US Open champion and former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem from 2019 to 2023.

Family Massú is Jewish, as is his mother, Sonia Fried. His father, Manuel Massú, is of Lebanese and Palestinian ancestry. His mother is of Israeli and Hungarian-Jewish descent. His maternal grandfather, Ladislao Fried Klein, was a Hungarian-born Jew who survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary by hiding, as his parents did not survive. His maternal grandmother, Veronika (née Vegvari), was a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He also claimed the boys' doubles competitions at both Wimbledon and the US Open, partnering Peru's Luis Horna at the former and countryman Fernando González at the latter.

ATP Tour In August 1998, Massú won his first Futures tournament, in Spain. The following month, he claimed his first Challenger event, in Ecuador. He won his second Challenger tournament in June 1999, in Italy. In September 1999, he successfully defended his title in Ecuador. In November 1999, he won the Santiago Challenger event and cracked the top 100 in singles for the first time.

In May 2000, Massú reached his first ATP tournament final, at the U.S. Clay Court Championships in Orlando, Florida, where he lost to Fernando González. Later in August, he lost again to another Chilean—Marcelo Ríos—in his US Open debut. In January 2001, Massú reached his second ATP event final, in Adelaide, Australia.

In January 2006, Massú lost to José Acasuso in the final of his hometown event at Viña del Mar. In February, he won his sixth ATP title in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. In April, he reached the final of the Casablanca event in Morocco. In July, he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Amersfoort tournament.

Because of his low ranking, Massú was granted a wild card to compete in both singles and doubles events in Beijing. He only managed to reach the second round in singles and was ousted on his first match in doubles, where he partnered again with Fernando González. To this day, Massú is the only male player in the Open Era to have won gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games.

Davis Cup Massú began playing for Chile in Davis Cup matches in 1996. He played in the World Group, representing Chile in the years from 2005 to 2007 and again from 2009 to 2011. He ended his participation with a record of 29–17, including 17–4 on clay.

In 2014, Massú took the position of captain of the Chile Davis Cup team, with former No. 1 Marcelo Ríos as coach. After five years since the start of his tenure as captain, the team achieved a comeback to the elite group of the competition and qualified for the 2019 Davis Cup Finals, eight years after its last participation.

Maccabiah Games Massú is a veteran of the 2001 Maccabiah Games in Israel, the international Jewish Olympics.

Coaching career Massú was the coach of Dominic Thiem, 2020 US Open Men's Singles Champion and winner of the 2019 Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament. Massú played one doubles tournament in 2019, partnering Dominic's brother, Moritz Thiem.

He coached Hubert Hurkacz from November 2024 until April 2026. Since June 2026, he is coaching Francisco Cerúndolo.

Playing style Massú was known for his fighting spirit, especially when playing for Chile, which he demonstrated at the 2004 Olympics and in numerous Davis Cup matches. He has also turned around difficult matches and had a style characteristic of a clay-court specialist, with strong baseline play characterized by a solid forehand and backhand.

Significant finals Olympic finals Singles: 1 (1–0) OutcomeYear ChampionshipSurface OpponentScore Gold 2004 Athens Olympics Hard Mardy Fish 6–3, 3–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4

Doubles: 1 (1–0) OutcomeYear ChampionshipSurface Partner OpponentsScore Gold 2004 Athens Olympics Hard Fernando González Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler 6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4

Masters Series finals Singles: 1 (0–1) Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score Runner-up 2003 Madrid Hard (i) Juan Carlos Ferrero 3–6, 4–6, 3–6

ATP career finals Singles: 15 (6 titles, 9 runner-ups) Legend Grand Slam (0–0) Olympic Gold (1–0) ATP Masters Series (0–1) ATP International Series Gold (1–1) ATP Tour (4–7) Finals by surface Hard (1–2) Clay (5–7) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0) ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore Loss 0–1 May 2000 Orlando, United States Clay Fernando González 2–6, 3–6 Loss 0–2 Jan 2001 Adelaide, Australia Hard Tommy Haas 3–6, 1–6 Win 1–2 Feb 2002 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Agustín Calleri 2–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–2 Win 2–2 Jul 2003 Amersfoort, Netherlands Clay Raemon Sluiter 6–4, 7–6(7–3), 6–2 Loss 2–3 Jul 2003 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Guillermo Coria 1–6, 4–6, 2–6 Loss 2–4 Sep 2003 Bucharest, Romania Clay David Sánchez 2–6, 2–6 Win 3–4 Sep 2003 Palermo, Italy Clay Paul-Henri Mathieu 1–6, 6–2, 7–6(7–0) Loss 3–5 Oct 2003 Madrid, Spain Hard (i) Juan Carlos Ferrero 3–6, 4–6, 3–6 Win 4–5 Jul 2004 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Gastón Gaudio 7–6(7–3), 6–4 Win 5–5 Aug 2004 Athens Olympics Hard Mardy Fish 6–3, 3–6, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 Loss 5–6 Feb 2006 Viña del Mar, Chile Clay José Acasuso 4–6, 3–6 Win 6–6 Feb 2006 Costa do Sauípe, Brazil Clay Alberto Martín 6–3, 6–4 Loss 6–7 Apr 2006 Casablanca, Morocco Clay Daniele Bracciali 1–6, 4–6 Loss 6–8 Jul 2006 Amersfoort, Netherlands Clay Novak Djokovic 6–7(5–7), 4–6 Loss 6–9 Feb 2007 Viña del Mar, Chile Clay Luis Horna 5–7, 3–6

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups) Legend Grand Slam (0–0) Olympic Gold (1–0) ATP Masters Series (0–0) ATP International Series Gold (0–1) ATP Tour (0–1) Finals by surface Hard (1–0) Clay (0–2) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0) ResultNo.DateChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore Loss 1. Mar 2004 Acapulco, Mexico Clay Juan Ignacio Chela Bob Bryan Mike Bryan 2–6, 3–6 Win 1. Aug 2004 Athens Olympics Hard Fernando González Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler 6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4 Loss 2. Jul 2005 Amersfoort, Netherlands Clay Fernando González Martín García Luis Horna 4–6, 4–6

ATP Challengers & ITF Futures finals Singles: 18 (10–8) Legend ATP Challengers (8–5) ITF Futures (2–3) OutcomeNo.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore Runner-up 1. May 24, 1998 Vero Beach, Florida, USA Clay Ronald Agénor 3–6, 6–3, 3–6 Runner-up 2. May 31, 1998 Boca Raton, USA Clay Ronald Agénor 1–6, 2–6 Runner-up 3. June 21, 1998 Lafayette, USA Hard Cecil Mamiit 6–0, 3–6, 0–6 Winner 1. August 23, 1998 Vigo, Spain Clay Tommy Robredo 6–4, 6–2 Winner 2. August 30, 1998 Irun, Spain Clay Maxime Boyé 6–4, 3–6, 6–3 Winner 3. September 7, 1998 Quito, Ecuador Clay Mariano Sánchez 3–6, 6–3, 6–0 Winner 4. June 21, 1999 Biella, Italy Clay Oleg Ogorodov 7–6(7–5), 5–7, 6–3 Winner 5. September 6, 1999 Quito, Ecuador Clay Luis Morejón 6–2, 3–6, 6–3 Winner 6. November 1, 1999 Santiago, Chile Clay Karim Alami 6–7(4–7), 6–2, 6–4 Runner-up 4. November 28, 1999 Guadalajara, Mexico Clay Francisco Costa 6–4, 5–7, 3–6 Winner 7. September 15, 2003 Szczecin, Poland Clay Albert Portas 6–4, 6–3 Runner-up 5. April 14, 2003 Paget, Bermuda Clay Flávio Saretta 1–6, 4–6 Winner 8. May 5, 2008 Rijeka, Croatia Clay Christophe Rochus 6–2, 6–2 Runner-up 6. August 3, 2008 Belo Horizonte, Brazil Hard Santiago González 4–6, 3–6 Winner 9. October 6, 2008 Florianópolis, Brazil Clay Olivier Patience 6–7(4–7), 6–2, 6–1 Runner-up 8. October 13, 2008 Montevideo, Uruguay Clay Peter Luczak w/o Runner-up 8. October 23, 2009 Santiago, Chile Clay Eduardo Schwank 2–6, 2–6 Winner 10. November 22, 2009 Cancún, Mexico Clay Grega Zemlja 6–3, 7–5

Team titles

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

1Held as Hamburg Masters until 2008 and Madrid Masters from 2009 to 2013. 2Held as Stuttgart Masters until 2001, Madrid Masters from 2002 to 2008 and Shanghai Masters from 2009 to 2013.

Top 10 wins