Template:Spanish name 2Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (born 29 July 1980), nicknamed El bombardero de La Reina (Spanish "The La Reina Bomber"), is a professional tennis player from Chile. He is known for having one of the hardest hitting forehands in the circuit.[1] One of his other nicknames is Mano de Piedra ("Stone Hand").
González began playing tennis at the age of seven. He moved in with his family to the La Reinacommune in eastern Santiago, where he practiced with his coach Claudio González (no relation) at the Club de Leones de La Reina.
As a junior, González achieved the world number one ranking. He won the US Open boys doubles (with compatriot Nicolás Massú) in 1997, and the French Open singles (defeating a young Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final) and doubles (with VenezuelanJosé de Armas) in 1998. That year, aged 17, he made his Davis Cup debut in Chile's tie against Argentina, losing in four sets to Franco Squillari. He won his first Davis Cup tie in a doubles rubber partnering Massú.
González achieved success at futures level in 1998. In the three futures events held in Chile that year, he reached two semifinals and defeated ItalianEnzo Artoni in the final in Santiago.
1999–2004
González became a professional in 1999. In the early stages of the year, he played mainly at futures level. He reached his first challenger quarter-final in Edinburgh. He played his first ATP tournament in Washington, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the first round before losing to Marc Rosset.
In February 2002, González won his second career ATP title in Viña del Mar by defeating Nicolás Lapentti in the final, and later that year he won his third title in Palermo, Italy and reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati Masters (defeating seeded Tim Henman and Andy Roddick en route), and the quarterfinals at the US Open. In September, he surpassed former World No. 1 player Marcelo Ríos as the top Chilean in the singles rankings, and was one of the most improved players on the ATP circuit, jumping 118 positions in the ATP Champions Race.
In February 2004, González repeated his Viña del Mar title by defeating Gustavo Kuerten in the final. In August, at the Olympic Games in Athens, he and doubles partner Massú gave their country its first ever Olympic gold medal, when they defeated Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler of Germany to win the men's doubles tournament. He also won a bronze medal in the men's singles.
Fernando González at training for the World Team Cup, in 2005
2005
González began the year by taking the title in Auckland, New Zealand — his first hard court title — in January. In April, he won his first ATP doubles tournament (and second after the Olympics), in Valencia (clay) with doubles partner Martín Rodríguez. After reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in June, he went on to win the ATP tournament in Amersfoort (clay), The Netherlands in the following month. He further proved his all-court versatility by winning the indoors-carpet singles title at Basel as well as winning the doubles title in the same tournament with partner Agustín Calleri. The results for 2005 were enough for him to attend the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai, first as a reserve, and then as a player due to the withdrawal of Andre Agassi after his first match. González became the first Chilean to win a Masters match when he beat Mariano Puerta and just missed out on making the semifinal—and finishing the year as World No. 10—after losing to Gastón Gaudio in a match in which he had three match points.
2006
In April, González became the third Chilean (after Marcelo Ríos and Massú) to break into the top ten singles ranking. He reached World No. 10 after winning a quarterfinal match at the Monte Carlo Masters—shortly after parting ways with longtime coach Horacio de la Peña, who was then replaced by Larry Stefanki in May. After reaching his first Masters Series singles final in Madrid (losing to Roger Federer in straight sets) in October, he ascended to World No. 7. He finished the year at World No. 10.
2007
In January, González reached the Australian Open singles final, thereby becoming the first Chilean to have reached the quarterfinal round in all four Grand Slam tournaments, and the fourth Chilean (third male) to have reached a Grand Slam tournament final. He beat —in succession— Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, and Tommy Haas en route to the final, which he lost to World No. 1 Roger Federer in (relatively close) straight sets. On January 29, his ranking jumped to World No. 5, his best career singles ranking, and only five points behind World No. 4. In May, he became the first Chilean to reach the final of the Rome Masters since Marcelo Ríos won the title in 1998. From July to August, González went on a five-match losing streak, which ended in September, when he captured the China Open tournament title in Beijing. In November, he became the first Chilean since Ríos in 1998 to qualify directly for the Tennis Masters Cup. In his opening match, he upset top-ranked Federer for the first time in eleven encounters. He then lost to Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko, finishing last in his group. He ended the season at World No. 7, his highest year-end ranking to date.
2008
At the Australian Open, in January, González failed to defend the totality of the points obtained the year earlier, and fell from World No. 7 to World No. 24. He bounced back the following week, winning his home event of Viña del Mar for the third time, rising to World No. 16. In May he won his tenth ATP title at the BMW Open in Munich. The following month, he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open for the second time, losing to top-seeded Roger Federer in four sets. In August, González represented Chile at the Beijing Olympic Games in both singles and men's doubles. At the games' opening ceremony, he was his country's standard bearer. As in Athens 2004, he partnered with Massú in doubles, but was unable to defend his gold, exiting in the first round. In singles, he improved his Olympic record, clinching a silver medal, after beating James Blake of the United States in the semifinals. In the gold medal match, he lost in straight sets to Spain'sRafael Nadal. At the US Open in September, he lost in the fourth round to former US Open champion Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-4, 6-1. This, however, secured his return into the top 10.
González plays as an offensive baseliner. His groundstrokes, especially on the forehand side, are extremely powerful, even amongst his contemporaries. His forehand has incredible spin and pace, which makes his forehand one of the heaviest shots in tennis. His speed and agility allow him to hit winning shots from practically anywhere in the court. However, as offensive baseliners are, he used to be prone to make a huge number of unforced errors and was less consistent. His new coach, Larry Stefanki, has helped him develop an extreme slicebackhand which combined with his aggressive forehand has propelled his retrieving abilities to a new level and has given him much more consistency, resulting in fewer unforced errors. In addition, he can also approach the net by chipping and charging and has a wide array of passing shots including the slice backhand passing shot, rarely used in modern tennis.
González's serve has also changed since he started working with Stefanki. His first serve used to be only a flat serve, but since late-2006 he has increasingly used a three-quarter of strength slice serve to move his opponents out of the court and increase his precision. The addition of an extreme slice backhand and a slice serve have made him a markedly better player as he has a wider array of choices to get him out of jams or move his opponents to set up his powerful forehand.
Personal life
González was born in Santiago, Chile. His father, Fernando González, is the manager of a flour mill in Santiago and his mother, Patricia Ciuffardi, a housewife.
González is a very private person and rarely discusses aspects of his personal life with the press. He did confirm, though, in a newspaper interview, that he was dating Argentine tennis player Gisela Dulko.[2]
Chile
Silver medal (2008)
Gold medal (2004)
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Nicolás Lapentti
José Acasuso
Gustavo Kuerten
Olivier Rochus
Marcos Baghdatis
Simone Bolelli
Tim Henman
Arnaud Clément
Martin Verkerk
Ivan Ljubičić
