Nicolás Lapentti

Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (Spanish pronunciation: [nikoˈlas laˈpenti]; born 13 August 1976) is a former professional tennis player from Ecuador. His brothers, Giovanni and Leonardo, uncle Andrés, and cousins Roberto and Emilio also are or were on the pro circuit. His father, also named Nicolás Lapentti, was a star basketball player at the College (now University) of St. Thomas in Minnesota from 1963 to 1967, and played on the Ecuador Olympic team.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Lapentti and the second or maternal family name is Gómez.

Nicolás Lapentti

Country (sports)	Ecuador
Residence	Miami, Florida, U.S.
Born	(1976-08-13) 13 August 1976 (age 48) Guayaquil, Ecuador
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1995
Retired	2011 (last match 2017)
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$6,313,898
Singles
Career record	321–299
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 6 (17 April 2000)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	SF (1999)
French Open	4R (2000)
Wimbledon	QF (2002)
US Open	3R (2001)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (1999)
Grand Slam Cup	QF (1999)
Olympic Games	1R (1996, 2004, 2008)
Doubles
Career record	153–159
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 32 (10 May 1999)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1999, 2001, 2003)
French Open	QF (1998)
Wimbledon	3R (2003)
US Open	3R (2003)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	1R (2001, 2010)

Beginnings

Lapentti began playing tennis at the age of six.

He first came to the tennis world's attention an outstanding junior player who won the Orange Bowl in Florida in 1994, when he also captured the junior doubles titles at the French Open (partnering with Gustavo Kuerten) and the US Open.

Professional

Lapentti turned professional in 1995 and won his first top-level singles title later that year at Bogotá.

In 1999, Lapentti was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, defeating Thomas Johansson, Magnus Norman, Mikael Tillström, Andrew Ilie and Karol Kučera before losing to Thomas Enqvist. He also won two tour singles titles that year and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 that November.

In 2002, Lapentti won his fifth tour singles title at St. Pölten, beating Fernando Vicente in straight sets in the final. In the second round of that tournament, his rival, Irakli Labadze, faced four match points but was not able to convert any of them. Lapentti finally won that tough match 5–7, 7–6⁽¹⁾, 7–6⁽⁶⁾.

His brother, Giovanni, also a professional tennis player, reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 110 in May 2005. In addition, another brother, Leonardo, has been active at the lower levels of professional tennis.

In the Cincinnati Open 2008, Lapentti defeated David Ferrer in second round, Fernando Verdasco in the third round and faced No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals where he lost in straight sets. With that victory over Lapentti, Nadal clinched the world No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Nicolás Lapentti at the 2009 US Open

In his last participation in a Grand Slam championship, he unfortunately had to retire against Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2009 French Open.

In 2017, it was announced that Nicolás would compete in the Ecuador Open doubles draw alongside brother Giovanni, playing in the final event of his career.^[1]

Davis Cup

He has also been a member of the Ecuador Davis Cup team since 1993. Representing his country in Davis Cup since he was 17, and won the deciding rubber against Great Britain (July 2000) to put Ecuador in the World Group. Moreover, he owns the Davis Cup record for most matches won in five sets, with a total of 13 victories.

Personal

Nicolás Lapentti in 2017

He set up the Nicolás Lapentti Foundation in late 2000 to help bring tennis to the underprivileged, and develop future champions. Other interests include soccer and reading Robert Ludlum books.

ATP career finals

Singles: 12 (5 wins, 7 losses)

Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) Tennis Masters Cup (0–0) ATP Super 9 / ATP Masters Series (0–0) ATP Championship Series / ATP International Series Gold (2–1) ATP World Series / ATP International Series (3–6)

Finals by surface Hard (1–1) Clay (3–6) Grass (0–0) Carpet (1–0)

Finals by setting Outdoor (4–7) Indoor (1–0)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Sep 1995	Bogotá Open, Colombia	World Series	Clay	Miguel Tobón	2–6, 6–1, 6–4
Loss	1–1	Sep 1996	Bogotá Open, Colombia	World Series	Clay	Thomas Muster	7–6(8–6), 2–6, 3–6
Loss	1–2	Oct 1997	Bogotá Open, Colombia	World Series	Clay	Francisco Clavet	3–6, 3–6
Loss	1–3	Jul 1999	Swiss Open, Switzerland	World Series	Clay	Albert Costa	6–7(4–7), 3–6, 4–6
Win	2–3	Aug 1999	Indianapolis Tennis Championships, United States	Champ. Series	Hard	Vince Spadea	4–6, 6–4, 6–4
Win	3–3	Oct 1999	Grand Prix de Lyon, France	World Series	Carpet (i)	Lleyton Hewitt	6–3, 6–2
Loss	3–4	Oct 2000	Japan Open, Tokyo	Intl. Gold	Hard	Sjeng Schalken	4–6, 6–3, 1–6
Win	4–4	Jul 2001	Austrian Open Kitzbühel, Austria	Intl. Gold	Clay	Albert Costa	1–6, 6–4, 7–5, 7–5
Loss	4–5	Feb 2002	Santiago Open, Chile	International	Clay	Fernando González	3–6, 7–6(7–5), 6–7(4–7)
Win	5–5	May 2002	St. Pölten, Austria	International	Clay	Fernando Vicente	7–5, 6–4
Loss	5–6	Jul 2003	Swedish Open, Båstad	International	Clay	Mariano Zabaleta	3–6, 4–6
Loss	5–7	Sep 2006	Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, Italy	International	Clay	Filippo Volandri	7–5, 1–6, 3–6

Doubles: 7 (3 wins, 4 losses)

Legend Grand Slam tournaments (0–0) Tennis Masters Cup (0–0) ATP Super 9 / ATP Masters Series (0–0) ATP Championship Series / ATP International Series Gold (0–0) ATP World Series / ATP International Series (3–4)

Finals by surface Hard (1–0) Clay (2–4) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Finals by setting Outdoor (3–4) Indoor (0–0)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 1996	Bogotá Open, Colombia	World Series	Clay	Pablo Campana	Nicolás Pereira David Rikl	3–6, 6–7
Win	1–1	Aug 1997	Dutch Open, Amsterdam	World Series	Clay	Paul Kilderry	Andrew Kratzmann Libor Pimek	3–6, 7–5, 7–6
Win	2–1	Oct 1997	Mexican Open, Acapulco	World Series	Clay	Daniel Orsanic	Luis Herrera Mariano Sánchez	4–6, 6–3, 7–6
Loss	2–2	Nov 1997	Santiago Open, Chile	World Series	Clay	Julián Alonso	Hendrik Jan Davids Andrew Kratzmann	6–7, 7–5, 4–6
Win	3–2	Jan 1999	Adelaide International, Australia	World Series	Hard	Gustavo Kuerten	Jim Courier Patrick Galbraith	6–4, 6–4
Loss	3–3	May 1999	Prague Open, Czech Republic	World Series	Clay	Mark Keil	Martin Damm Radek Štěpánek	0–6, 2–6
Loss	3–4	Feb 2004	Santiago Open, Chile	International	Clay	Martín Rodríguez	Juan Ignacio Chela Gastón Gaudio	6–7(2–7), 6–7(3–7)

Singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

P#

DNQ

A

Z#

PO

G

S

B

NMS

NTI

P

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Tournament	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	SR	W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	1R	A	2R	SF	2R	2R	4R	3R	2R	A	A	2R	A	1R	1R	0 / 11	15–11
French Open	A	A	A	1R	2R	1R	2R	4R	2R	1R	3R	1R	Q1	2R	2R	3R	1R	1R	0 / 14	12–14
Wimbledon	A	Q1	A	2R	1R	1R	2R	1R	A	QF	2R	A	A	A	2R	1R	1R	A	0 / 10	8–10
US Open	A	Q1	A	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	3R	1R	2R	Q1	1R	Q3	1R	1R	2R	A	0 / 12	7–12
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–4	2–3	1–4	8–4	5–4	4–3	7–4	6–4	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–4	2–3	1–4	0–2	0 / 47	42–47
Year-end championships
Tennis Masters Cup	Did not qualify						RR	Did not qualify											0 / 1	0–3
Grand Slam Cup	Was Not Invited						QF	Not Held											0 / 1	1–1
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells	A	A	A	1R	Q2	3R	A	SF	QF	1R	1R	3R	A	A	A	Q1	3R	A	0 / 8	12–8
Miami	A	Q1	Q2	1R	2R	1R	3R	QF	3R	QF	4R	2R	2R	1R	A	Q1	Q1	2R	0 / 12	14–12
Monte Carlo	A	A	A	A	Q2	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	A	Q1	A	2R	3R	A	0 / 8	4–8
Rome	A	A	A	A	A	2R	QF	2R	SF	1R	1R	1R	A	Q1	A	2R	Q1	Q1	0 / 8	10–8
Hamburg	A	A	A	A	A	2R	SF	1R	3R	1R	1R	2R	Q1	A	Q1	A	NM1		0 / 7	8–7
Canada	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	2R	1R	Q1	Q2	A	A	1R	Q2	A	0 / 5	2–5
Cincinnati	A	A	A	A	A	1R	3R	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	1R	Q1	Q1	QF	Q1	A	0 / 8	5–8
Madrid (Stuttgart)	A	A	A	A	A	A	3R	2R	3R	3R	A	A	Q1	A	Q1	Q1	A	A	0 / 4	5–4
Paris	A	A	A	A	A	A	SF	2R	3R	2R	2R	A	1R	A	Q2	Q2	A	A	0 / 6	7–6
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–2	0–1	3–6	16–7	8–9	15–9	7–9	3–8	4–4	1–3	0–1	0–0	5–4	4–2	1–1	0 / 66	67–66
Year-end ranking	326	632	109	121	63	90	7	24	23	29	57	122	95	67	109	86	97	447

Top 10 wins

Season	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Total
Wins	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	4	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	11

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	LR
1998
1.	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	7	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	3R	6–4, 6–1	61
1999
2.	Àlex Corretja	8	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	1R	4–3 ret.	26
3.	Carlos Moyá	10	Indianapolis, United States	Hard	QF	6–1, 6–2	20
4.	Gustavo Kuerten	5	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	QF	5–7, 6–4, 7–5	14
2001
5.	Magnus Norman	5	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	1R	4–6, 6–1, 6–1	27
6.	Tim Henman	10	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	3R	6–4, 6–4	27
7.	Juan Carlos Ferrero	4	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	QF	7–6(8–6), 6–2	36
8.	Lleyton Hewitt	3	Paris Masters, France	Carpet (i)	2R	4–6, 6–4, 6–4	30
2003
9.	Jiří Novák	8	Miami Open, United States	Hard	2R	2–6, 6–3, 6–4	39
2006
10	Nikolay Davydenko	6	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	2R	6–3, 6–3	116
2008
11.	David Ferrer	4	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	2R	7–6(7–2), 3–6, 6–3	89

References

1. "Serbian Janko Tipsarevic Continues Climb to Top 100 in Quito | ATP Tour | Tennis".

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Nicolás Lapentti at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Nicolás Lapentti at the International Tennis Federation
• Nicolás Lapentti at the Davis Cup

Awards
Preceded by Andre Agassi	ATP Most Improved Player 1999	Succeeded by Marat Safin