Mariano Puerta

Mariano Puerta

Country (sports)	Argentina
Residence	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	5'11 (180 cm)
Turned pro	1998
Plays	Left-handed
Prize money	US $1,695,028
Singles
Career record	3
Career titles	128-118
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)
Doubles
Career record	42-54
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 68 (August 2, 1999)
Last updated on: March 25, 2007.

Mariano Puerta (September 9, 1978, Belgrano, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine professional male tennis player.

Career

Puerta made his debut on the ATP Tour in 1996. He won his first ATP title in 1998 in Palermo, Italy. In 2000 he reached what most consider the peak of his career, 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, in 2004 he was sanctioned for 9 months 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 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), 1-6, 3-6, 5-7). By August 2005 he had climbed to a career-best 9th place in the ATP entry 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 one-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

In 2003 Puerta received a two-year doping suspension after testing positive for clenbuterol at Viña del Mar. In his defense 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 and a US$5600 fine.

In 2005, he was once again banned, this time after he tested positive for the use of the cardiac stimulant etilefrine. The suspension was for 8 years, the longest so far in tennis history. Puerta also had his results disqualified from every event from the 2005 French Open onwards, and forfeited all his entry ranking points and prize money. Since he had recently lost the French Open final to Spain's Rafael Nadal, that signified a loss of €443,282 (£300,671, $456,000).

The International Tennis Federation tribunal noted, however, that "The amount of etilefrine in his body 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 5th 2007.

Comeback

On June 6, Puerta returned to the professional circuit with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Joseph Sirianni at the Sassuolo Challenger, tournamet to wich he was invited as a wild card since he had no ranking[2].

Grand Slam singles final

Runner-up (1)

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

Titles (6)

Singles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	October 5, 1998	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Franco Squillari	6-3, 6-2
2.	March 6, 2000	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	6-4, 7-6(5)
3.	April 4, 2005	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Juan Monaco	6-4, 6-1

Doubles (3)

• 1998: Bogotá (with Diego Del Río)
• 1999: Munich (with Daniel Orsanic)
• 1999: Umag (with Javier Sánchez)

Singles runners-up (7)

• 1998: San Marino
• 2000: Gstaad
• 2000: Mexico City
• 2000: Santiago
• 2000: Umag
• 2005: Buenos Aires (lost to Gastón Gaudio)
• 2005: French Open (lost to Rafael Nadal)

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	Career
Australian Open	-	-	1R	1R	-	1R	2R	-	0
French Open	F	-	2R	2R	2R	3R	2R	-	0
Wimbledon	1R	-	1R	-	1R	-	-	1R	0
US Open	2R	-	1R	-	-	1R	2R	1R	0
Tennis Masters Cup	RR	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	0

External links

• Puerta's ATP statistics
• Puerta's Profile
• Sportsline's Profile
• ITF independent anti-doping tribunal decision (PDF)