Mariano Puerta

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Mariano Rubén Puerta
Portrait of a winner Mariano Puerta snag.jpg
Country  Argentina
Residence Buenos Aires, Argentina
Born (1978-09-19) September 19, 1978 (age 34)
San Francisco, Córdoba, Argentina
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 78 kg (172 lb)
Turned pro 1998
Retired 2009
Plays Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $1,695,028
Singles
Career record 128–118
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 9 (August 15, 2005)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 2R (1999)
French Open F (2005)
Wimbledon 1R (1998, 2001, 2003, 2005)
US Open 2R (1999, 2005)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals RR (2005)
Doubles
Career record 42–54
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 68 (August 2, 1999)

Last updated on: September 25, 2012.

Mariano Rubén Puerta (born September 19, 1978 in San Francisco, Córdoba) is a former Argentine professional male tennis player best known for making the final of the French Open in 2005, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets. He won 3 singles titles and reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 9.

Contents

Career [edit]

Puerta made his debut on the ATP Tour in 1996. He won his first ATP title in 1998 in Palermo, Italy. In 2000, Puerta achieved his highest year end ranking of World No. 21, making it to five finals, and winning one of them (Bogotá). That same year, however, he underwent wrist surgery, which kept him off the circuit for several months.

Besides not recovering his previous playing level, he was suspending 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(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 on appeal.

Puerta is left-handed and uses a single-handed backhand. He is a clay court specialist with a game that revolves around groundstrokes with heavy topspin. On fast surfaces his game is compromised by his comparatively weak serve and slow court speed. His three ATP titles so far were all won on clay.

Doping controversies [edit]

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 $5600 fine.

In December 2005, Puerta was once again banned, 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. The suspension was for 8 years, the longest in tennis history at that time. As a result, Puerta was forced to forfeit all his rankings points and prize money from the 2005 French Open onwards, and had all his 2005 results from after the French Open, annulled. Puerta's runner-up finish at the 2005 French Open was allowed to remain on the record books.

The International Tennis Federation tribunal noted, however, that "The amount of etilefrine detected in the positive drugs test was too small to have any effect on his performance".[1] Puerta appealed against the ban, claiming on his web site 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 2 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, making him eligible to restart his career on June 5, 2007.

Comeback [edit]

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.[2] In the second round, Puerta lost 6–3 6–0 to Spaniard Marc López. Since returning to the ATP, Puerta has only played on the ITF circuit, reaching the quarterfinals of the Trani and Puebla challengers, the semifinals of the Belo Horizonte and Medellín challengers, and the final of the Cordenons challenger.

Grand Slam finals [edit]

Singles [edit]

Runner-up (1) [edit]

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
2005 French Open Spain Rafael Nadal 6–7, 6–3, 6–1, 7–5

ATP Tour Singles finals (11) [edit]

Wins (3) [edit]

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (3)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. October 5, 1998 Palermo, Italy Clay Argentina Franco Squillari 6–3, 6–2
2. March 6, 2000 Bogotá, Colombia Clay Morocco Younes El Aynaoui 6–4, 7–6
3. April 4, 2005 Casablanca, Morocco Clay Argentina Juan Mónaco 6–4, 6–1

Runner-ups (8) [edit]

Doubles finals [edit]

Wins (3) [edit]

Singles performance timeline [edit]

Tournament 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Career W-L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A 2R 1R A A 1R A A A A A A 1–3
French Open A A A A LQ 2R 3R 2R 2R 2R A F A A A A 12–6
Wimbledon A A A A 1R A A 1R A 1R A 1R A A A A 0–3
U.S. Open A A A A 1R 2R 1R A A 1R A 2R A A A A 1–4
Win-Loss 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-2 3-3 2-3 1-2 1-1 1-4 0-0 6-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 14-16
Year-End Championship
ATP World Tour Finals A A A A A A A A A A A RR A A A 0–0
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics Not Held A Not Held A Not Held A Not Held A NH 0–0
ATP World Tour 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A A A A 1R A A A A A A A A A A 6–6
Miami Masters A A A A A 1R A 1R A A A A A A A A 0–2
Monte Carlo Masters A A A A A A 2R 1R A A A 3R A A A A 3–3
Rome Masters A A A A A 1R QF 1R A A A A A A A A 3–3
Madrid Masters A A A A A A A A A A A 3R A A A A 0-0
Canada Masters A A A A A A 1R A A A A QF A A A A 0-1
Cincinnati Masters A A A A A A 2R A A A A 1R A A A A 1-1
Shanghai Masters Not Held NMS Not Held NMS A 0–0
Paris Masters A A A A A A 1R A A A A 2R A A A A 0–1
Hamburg Masters A A A A A 3R 3R 1R A A A 2R A A A NM1 4–4
Career Statistics
ATP Finals Reached 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 19
ATP Tournaments Won 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 19
Year End Ranking 786 764 424 141 39 101 21 254 116 118 133 56 N/A 261 195 311 N/A

Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses.

Terms
W-L Win-loss NMS Not a Masters Series event
NPM/NP5 Not a Premier mandatory or 5 event NH not held
A absent LQ/#Q lost in qualifying draw and round number
RR lost at round robin stage #R lost in the early rounds
QF quarterfinalist SF semifinalist
SF-B semifinalist, won bronze medal F runner-up
F runner-up, won silver medal W winner
Z# Davis Cup Zonal Group (number) PO Davis Cup play-off
NMS means an event that was not an ATP Masters Series tournament.
NM1 means an event that was not an ATP Masters 1000 tournament.
– means a result that has been disqualified.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ The Associated Press (December 22, 2005). "Puerta Is Facing the Longest Ban in Tennis History". NYTimes.com - Sports. The New York Times (nytimes.com). Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
  2. ^ "Puerta: "Espero terminar el año entre los 100 mejores", Clarín.com, 7th June 2007.

External links [edit]

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