Monaco Claims 300th ATP Tour-Level Win at Shenzhen Open

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Juan Monaco is part of Argentina’s Magnificent Seven…

The 30-year-old Argentine tennis player, a former World No. 10, claimed his 300th tour-level win on Wednesday at the Shenzhen Open as he battled past Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in just under two hours.

“It’s amazing. 300 victories is a lot,” said Monaco, who has eight career titles. “It’s a gift and it gives me a boost of power for my next matches. I’m really happy.”

Monaco has become the seventh Argentine player in the Open Era to win at least 300 singles matches on the ATP World Tour, joining an illustrious group that includes tennis legend Guillermo Vilas (928 wins), as well as David Nalbandian (383) and Juan Martin del Potro (312).

Additionally, Monaco becomes the 26th active member on the ATP World Tour (sixth this season) to win at least 300 career matches.

Monaco’s first tour-level win came on home soil in Buenos Aires in 2004 against Nicolas Lapentti. Speaking to ATPWorldTour.com, he hailed his greatest win as being his victory over Tommy Haas in the 2012 Hamburg final.

“I think the most important victory in my life was the match I won in Hamburg. It was really important for me because I knew before the match that if I won, I’d break into the Top 10. Also it was the final of an [ATP World Tour] 500, in Germany, against Tommy. It was incredible and the best day of my life for sure.”

Here’s a look at Monaco’s achievements By The Numbers…

ARGENTINA’S 300 WINS CLUB

Player	Match Wins No.
Guillermo Vilas	929
David Nalbandian	383
Jose-Luis Clerc	375
Juan Ignacio Chela	326
Juan Martin del Potro	312
Martin Jaime	301
Juan Monaco	300

Delbonis Reaches Men’s Final at the Brasil Open

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Could the second time be the charm for Federico Delbonis?

In a hard-fought semifinal match at the Brasil Open, the 23-year-old professional tennis player defeated home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in 2 hours, 9 minutes to reach a title match for only the second time in his career.

Delbonis, who lost his first finals match in Hamburg last year, will play Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi – ranked No. 114 in the world – in the men’s final.

Top-seeded Tommy Haas retired from his semifinal match against Lorenzi on Saturday.

Lorenzi was leading Haas 6-3, 3-2 when the German called it quits due to a shoulder injury.

Lorenzi and the No. 61-ranked Delbonis have never faced each other before on the ATP World Tour.

Delbonis Defeats Albert Montanes to Reach the Brazil Open Semifinals

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

There’s no crying for Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, only cheering…

The 23-year-old professional tennis player soundly defeated Spain’s Albert Montanes in just over an hour to advance to the Brazil Open semifinals.

Delbonis, currently ranked No. 61 in the world, beat Montanes in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

He’s now one win away from reaching the second ATP tournament final of his career as he continues his quest to win his first career title.

Delbonis will next face either home-crowd favorite Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil or Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t such a positive experience for his fellow countrymen…

Top-seeded Tommy Haas came back to defeat Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.

Haas broke Zeballos’ serve twice in a row in the decisive set to close the match and take a step closer to his second final of the year.

Haas will next play Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, who reached his first ATP semifinal with an upset 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 win over fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina.

“Lorenzi has been around for a long time so this is a goal I’m sure he has been waiting to achieve for a lifetime,” Haas said. “He has nothing to lose and is going to try to go one more and get to his first ATP tour final. He is a dangerous player. I’m going to have to try to play some of my best tennis.”

The 114th-ranked Lorenzi broke Monaco’s serve to go up 4-3 in the final set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 34 minutes at the Ibirapuera Arena.

The 32-year-old Italian squandered a match point before losing the second set, but was in control in the third to pick up the win in the ATP 250 tournament in South America’s biggest city.

Lorenzi served 12 aces en route to his first pro semifinal after five career quarterfinal losses.

“I’m very happy to finally break through to the semifinals,” Lorenzi said. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities before but was never able to come up with the victory at this stage. For sure this is one of my greatest weeks on the tour.”

The 43rd-ranked Monaco was trying to win his 200th clay-court match. He is the fifth-highest winner on the surface, behind Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro.

Monaco had a set point in the first set but couldn’t capitalize on it.

“It was a very close match, he had his chances in the first set and I had mine in the second, it was very difficult,” Lorenzi said.

Nadal, the defending champion, is not playing at the clay-court tournament this year. He chose to play at the first edition of the Rio Open, which he won last week.

Bellucci Reaches Quarterfinals at the Brazil Open

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Thomaz Bellucci is making a statement at his home tournament…

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player continued to feed off his home crowd Thursday, defeating Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Brazil Open.

Bellucci, a wild card in the tournament, broke Haider-Maurer’s serve early in the third set and held on to close the match in 2 hours, 36 minutes at the Ibirapuera arena.

Bellucci, currently ranked 108th, will now play Martin Klizan of Slovakia, who upset third-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-4, 6-3.

Meanwhile, fourth-seeded Juan Monaco of Argentina reached the quarterfinals with a marathon 7-6 (2), 2-6, 7-5 victory over Albert Ramos of Spain in nearly three hours. He will face Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, who cruised past win Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-4, 6-3.

Top-seeded Tommy Haas will play his quarterfinal match against 116th-ranked Horacio Zeballos of Argentina on Friday.

del Potro Defeats Tommy Haas to Reach Citi Open Final

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Juan Martin del Potro may soon be celebrating a career quinceañera…

The 24-year-old Argentine tennis player – the top seed at Washington, D.C.’s Citi Open – beat third-seeded Tommy Haas 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the semifinals Saturday to earn a chance to claim his fifteenth career ATP title.

del Potro stretched his winning streak at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. Open to 13 matches. He claimed the title at the Washington tournament in 2008 and 2009, then skipped it the past three years.

Trailing Haas 4-1 when a downpour caused a three-hour delay in play, 2009 U.S. Open champion stormed back to win four games in a row.

“The rain delay’s annoying. It bothers me a lot, actually,” said Haas, who showed frustration at various moments by spiking, tossing or kicking his racket. “Come back out there, and the momentum was really on my side, at least for the first set, I think. (If) it would have been mine, it would have been maybe a different match. But these are all the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and not worth talking about.”

Still, Haas actually held two set points late in the first, one of which del Potro erased with a 117 mph second-serve ace, and the other with a volley winner.

“He went for it,” said Haas, a finalist last year. “He deserved it.”

del Potro now faces John Isner in the finals on Sunday.

“Nobody can break his serve in this tournament. … Of course, sometimes you get frustrated when you can’t return his serve,” said del Potro, looking ahead to facing Isner.

Almagro Defeats Defending Champion to Reach the Semis at the German Tennis Championships

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Nicolas Almagro has taken down the reigning champion in Hamburg…

The 27-year-old Spanish tennis star withstood a tough challenge from defending champion Juan Monaco of Argentina to earn a spot in the semifinals of the German Tennis Championships.

Almagro, the third-seeded player in the tournament, rallied to beat his Argentine opponent by a score of 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 on Friday for his place in the semis.

He’ll next play Italy’s Fabio Fognini, who beat Tommy Haas for the second time in two weeks to reach the semifinals, with a 6-2, 6-4 win over the second-seeded home favorite.

Almagro, currently ranked No. 15 in the world, is aiming for the 13th title of his career.

Ferrer Earns His Place in the Sony Open Men’s Final

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

David Ferrer has earned his ticket to the Sony Open men’s final after a come-from-behind victory…

The 30-year-old Spanish tenista rallied from a set down to beat Tommy Haas 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Friday afternoon and book his spot in the final of the Miami tournament.

Ferrer wasn’t at his highest level throughout the semifinal contest, but he did manage to take advantage of the German’s inconsistency to claim victory in just over two hours, earning his first-ever berth in the championship match of the elite hard-court event.

In the first set, Haas showed the form that propelled him to a stunning upset of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic earlier in the week, breaking Ferrer’s serve in the fifth game and again in the seventh.

Ferrer improved in the second set, however, and also benefited from a lack of patience on the part of his 34-year-old opponent, whose error count rose quickly.

The final set began with three consecutive service breaks before Haas finally held for a 3-1 lead.

The German would not win another game, however, as Ferrer, the No. 5 player in the world proved more solid in the players’ punishing baseline rallies.

Next up for Ferrer in Sunday’s final will be the winner of Friday’s night match between France’s Richard Gasquet and Britain’s Andy Murray.

Ferrer holds an 8-1 career head-to-head advantage over the Frenchman but has not fared as well against Murray, losing six of their 11 encounters and five of six on hard courts.

Mónaco Claims Title at the German Tennis Championships

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Juan Mónaco’s inching his way to the top of the ATP rankings…

The 28-year-old Argentine tenista edged out German veteran Tommy Haas 7-5, 6-4 Sunday in the final of the German Tennis Championships to claim his third clay-court title of the year.

With the victory, Mónaco will reach a career-high ranking of world No. 10 when the rankings are released on Monday.

This was Mónaco’s second final in two weeks. He lost to Janko Tipsarevic in Stuttgart a week ago.

In all, he has six career titles, all on clay.

Falla Ousts No. 11 Seed John Isner at Wimbledon…

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Alejandro Falla has dispatched the United States’ greatest hope in the men’s draw at Wimbledon…

The 28-year-old Colombian tenista—currently ranked No. 73 in the world—came back from the brink of defeat to take down the top-ranked American John Isner in the first round of the grass tournament on Monday.

Isner, ranked No, 10 in the world, failed to convert a match point in the fourth set and lost to Falla by a final score of 6-4, 6-7 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5.

Isner— best known for winning the longest match in tennis history two years ago in the first round at the All England Club, when he edged Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set—has been eliminated in five sets in each of the past three Grand Slams.

“I’m just really down on myself right now,” he said. “I’m trying not to feel the outside pressure. There are some good things expected of me, and I’m glad I’m in that position, but I’m just not performing right now. It’s just ugly right now.”

The 6-foot-9 Isner notched 31 aces and said he has been pleased with his serve, but not the rest of his game.

“Sometimes, and lately it has been happening quite a lot, I get out there in the match and I’m just so clouded,” he said. “I just can’t seem to figure things out. I’m my own worst enemy out there. It’s all mental for me, and it’s pretty poor on my part.”

Isner held a match point with Falla serving at 6-7 in the fourth set. The Colombian was on the ropes again serving at 5-all in the final set when he faced three break points, but Isner failed to convert them, then lost serve in the final game.

“I didn’t put my opponent away,” Isner said. “I had my chances, and I didn’t do it. It’s all on me.”

Meanwhile, this is Falla’s latest upset of a Top 10 player in a major tournament…

At the 2006 Wimbledon tournament, Falla upset 9th seed Nikolay Davydenko and at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open he beat 9th seed Tommy Haas in straight sets.

Falla next faces Isner’s history-cohort Mahut in the second round.

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