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Semi-Pro
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Tennis can be a very cruel sport sometimes, as your efforts and hard work over the years will not always be awarded. For example, Julien Benneteau played in 10 ATP finals in the span of 7 years, between 2008-2014, but every time he left the court empty handed, losing all of them! 4 times he played against rivals ranked outside Top 70, but it just wasn't meant to be for him. On the other hand, some players were forced to wait almost 10 years before their first ATP title, playing more than 150 ATP events in between.
Most famous example is Vincent Spadea, who enter the ATP main draw for the first time in Miami 1993, as a 18-year-old, winning one match. Since then, he battled in tournaments all over the world, losing 4 finals before he finally went all the way, in Scottsdale 2004. That was his 223rd ATP tournament in career, which is Open era record, very unlikely to be broken soon. Other American, Tom Gullikson, probably also lost every hope before taking the title in 1985 Newport, in his 204th ATP event. In recent years, Andreas Seppi won Eastbourne in 2011, playing his 174th ATP tournament, and last year Denis Istomin took his maiden ATP trophy in Nottingham, from a 169th try. Interestingly, 3 out of 4 of these titles came on grass.
Nevertheless, this article is set to point out exactly the opposite achievements, those players who won the title literally momentarily after stepping to the ATP Tour. A few weeks ago in Memphis, young American Taylor Fritz came very close to win the title in only his 3rd ATP event, but Kei Nishikori did his best to prevent that, beating him 6-4 6-4. Taylor came close, but the chosen group of players (of course, just those who started a career in the Open era) managed to go all the way, and this is a reminder of their successes.
4 players achieved something that will be very hard to be seen again, and that is to win ATP title on debut! We start from Lyon on February 14th, 1988 when anonymous Yahiya Doumbia from Senegal came from qualifications to go all the way. It's not easy to find any kind of footage from his matches but seems he was a skilful serve&volley player, well suited for carpet courts in Lyon. He was ranked 453rd at that moment, playing in only 8 Challengers before heading to Lyon. After he qualified, the 2nd seed Andrei Chesnokov waited in the first round and it could have easily been the end of the road for Doumbia. Still, he won in two tie breaks, for his first ATP win. In the top half of the draw, little known American Todd Nelson took out Forget in Round 16, and first seed Noah in the semi-final, to reach his only ATP final. Basically, it was the most important match in the career for both Doumbia and Nelson, with player from Senegal prevailing 6-4 3-6 6-3, to stun the whole tennis world, even in the pre-internet period.
Just a year later, Spaniard Jose Francisco Altur won his first and only ATP title in San Marino, being 21-year-old at that moment. Just like Doumbia, Altur started on Challenger Tour, playing 10 of those and advancing to 2 semi-finals in weeks before San Marino. He was ranked 204th and, of course, needed to qualify to enter the main draw, which he did. The draw wasn't very strong, and Jose Francisco didn't face any rival from the Top 100. After two solid wins in the opening rounds, Massimo Cierro pushed him to the limits in the quarter-final, winning 7-5 in the third set. He then went to beat 2nd seed Lawson Duncan to reach final, and came from behind against Roberto Azar, to surprise the whole field and win the title. We had the same situation like in Lyon, because Azar also played in his first and only ATP final, so it was very important match for both of them.
From two rather unknown title winners, we are moving to a more familiar name. Nicolas Lapentti from Ecuador won 5 titles in his career and more than 300 ATP matches, and his journey began conquering the title Bogota on clay in 1995, still at the age of 19. The tournament was held just after the US Open with a solid field of participants, as lot of them lost in the first week in New York. Lapentti was 258th in the world, playing only 6 Challengers before Bogota. He lost the first set in last qualifying round but recovered after that, for his first entrance to the big stage. Already used to the courts in Bogota at high altitude, he notched 2 straight sets wins over the players ranked outside Top 130, to find himself in the last 8.
Future world number 1, Marcelo Rios, was awaiting him, but Lapentti played an amazing match in a 6-3 6-4 victory, facing no break points in the entire match. From great effort against world number 38 to barely escaping against fellow Ecuadorian Luis Adrian Morejon in the next round, ranked 184th! Nicolas won 7-5 6-7 7-5, breaking rival 4 times, to reach ATP final on debut. Home player Miguel Tobon received a wild card to play here (ranked 281st), and identical to the previous two stories, our hero won the title over the player who never again reached ATP final, as that for sure was extenuating circumstance for all of them. Tobon started better, carried by the home crowd, but Lapentti came back from a 2-6 deficit to win the next two sets 6-1 6-4. Lapentti played for another 15 years on the Tour, winning 5 titles in total, and making semi-final in Australian Open in 1999 and a surprising quarter-final at Wimbledon 3 years later.
The last player who won ATP title from the first attempt was Spaniard Santiago Ventura, in 2004 Casablanca event. This was his first and only ATP final, and he took full advantage of it. Unlike the previous 3 players, Ventura already had a lot of experience in the lower circuits of Futures and Challengers. Aside from some sporadic Futures successes, things were not going like he would want, barely reaching Top 300 on few occasions, and with only 9 Challengers played. Nevertheless, that all changed in May of 2004 when he came to Casablanca, ranked 316th. He had no bigger troubles in his 3 qualifying rounds, making it to his first ATP main draw. The tournament wasn't strong, and Santiago faced no players from the Top 100 before the final. He scored an easy win in the first round and quarter-final, beating Nicolas Mahut between those matches. Frenchman gave him the hard time but Spaniard won 7-6 6-4, so out of sudden he was in ATP semi-final!
In his semi-final match, Ventura toppled Christophe Rochus, 6-1 1-6 6-2, thanks to a great break points realization, he was 5 from 7. The man who never reached Challenger semi-final, for example, was now one win away from ATP glory, in the biggest match of his life. It has to be said, however, that Doumbia, Altur and Lapentti before him had best possible opponents in the final, inexperienced and not as a high-quality as someone would expect, but that certainly wasn't the case with Ventura. On the other side of the net, there was Dominik Hrbaty, 32nd player in the world, who knew very well how to play matches like these. Ventura won the first set 6-3, after one break of serve, but Slovak responded with a great second set, taking it 6-1 with 2 breaks. Ventura somehow managed to stay calm and hold his nerves, crossing the finish line first after 6-4 in the third set.
Lleyton Hewitt and Steve Darcis followed those 4 players, winning their first title on their second try. If we can question talent and abilities of previously mentioned players, this was more than expected from someone like Lleyton Hewitt. After few years of stagnation in producing talents, Australia finally got someone who was available to bring them big titles in the future. Destiny wanted for him to play his first ever professional tournament in Australian Open in 1997, when he qualified still at the age of 15! In the rest of that season, Lleyton entered few Satellites and scored his first Challenger match in December in Perth.
The best was just around the corner, playing with a wild card in Adelaide few weeks later, ranked 550th! His first ATP win came against Scott Draper, and he hold off Woodforde's challenge in the second round, being a tie-break away from losing. Things started to look serious when he toppled Spadea, reaching the semi-final. In that round, he faced the only player outside Top 100, but that was no other than Andre Agassi. Lleyton again showed the mentality of the true champion, beating Agassi 7-6 7-6. In the match with no breaks (Agassi had 5 break points, Lleyton 2) young Aussie won the tie breaks 7-5 7-4, to continue his incredible run and reach the final.
Jason Stoltenberg was his ultimate rival, and the match went to distance, to a third set tie-break. Virtually nothing could separate the players but Lleyton won his 4th tie break in Adelaide that week, beating Jason 3-6 6-3 7-6 to win his first out of many ATP titles. Still at the age of 16, Lleyton became the youngest winner of ATP title since Michael Chang in San Francisco in 1988, and it's safe to say he will not be reached or beaten for at least 10 more years.
Tennis can be a very cruel sport sometimes, as your efforts and hard work over the years will not always be awarded. For example, Julien Benneteau played in 10 ATP finals in the span of 7 years, between 2008-2014, but every time he left the court empty handed, losing all of them! 4 times he played against rivals ranked outside Top 70, but it just wasn't meant to be for him. On the other hand, some players were forced to wait almost 10 years before their first ATP title, playing more than 150 ATP events in between.
Most famous example is Vincent Spadea, who enter the ATP main draw for the first time in Miami 1993, as a 18-year-old, winning one match. Since then, he battled in tournaments all over the world, losing 4 finals before he finally went all the way, in Scottsdale 2004. That was his 223rd ATP tournament in career, which is Open era record, very unlikely to be broken soon. Other American, Tom Gullikson, probably also lost every hope before taking the title in 1985 Newport, in his 204th ATP event. In recent years, Andreas Seppi won Eastbourne in 2011, playing his 174th ATP tournament, and last year Denis Istomin took his maiden ATP trophy in Nottingham, from a 169th try. Interestingly, 3 out of 4 of these titles came on grass.
Nevertheless, this article is set to point out exactly the opposite achievements, those players who won the title literally momentarily after stepping to the ATP Tour. A few weeks ago in Memphis, young American Taylor Fritz came very close to win the title in only his 3rd ATP event, but Kei Nishikori did his best to prevent that, beating him 6-4 6-4. Taylor came close, but the chosen group of players (of course, just those who started a career in the Open era) managed to go all the way, and this is a reminder of their successes.
4 players achieved something that will be very hard to be seen again, and that is to win ATP title on debut! We start from Lyon on February 14th, 1988 when anonymous Yahiya Doumbia from Senegal came from qualifications to go all the way. It's not easy to find any kind of footage from his matches but seems he was a skilful serve&volley player, well suited for carpet courts in Lyon. He was ranked 453rd at that moment, playing in only 8 Challengers before heading to Lyon. After he qualified, the 2nd seed Andrei Chesnokov waited in the first round and it could have easily been the end of the road for Doumbia. Still, he won in two tie breaks, for his first ATP win. In the top half of the draw, little known American Todd Nelson took out Forget in Round 16, and first seed Noah in the semi-final, to reach his only ATP final. Basically, it was the most important match in the career for both Doumbia and Nelson, with player from Senegal prevailing 6-4 3-6 6-3, to stun the whole tennis world, even in the pre-internet period.
Just a year later, Spaniard Jose Francisco Altur won his first and only ATP title in San Marino, being 21-year-old at that moment. Just like Doumbia, Altur started on Challenger Tour, playing 10 of those and advancing to 2 semi-finals in weeks before San Marino. He was ranked 204th and, of course, needed to qualify to enter the main draw, which he did. The draw wasn't very strong, and Jose Francisco didn't face any rival from the Top 100. After two solid wins in the opening rounds, Massimo Cierro pushed him to the limits in the quarter-final, winning 7-5 in the third set. He then went to beat 2nd seed Lawson Duncan to reach final, and came from behind against Roberto Azar, to surprise the whole field and win the title. We had the same situation like in Lyon, because Azar also played in his first and only ATP final, so it was very important match for both of them.
From two rather unknown title winners, we are moving to a more familiar name. Nicolas Lapentti from Ecuador won 5 titles in his career and more than 300 ATP matches, and his journey began conquering the title Bogota on clay in 1995, still at the age of 19. The tournament was held just after the US Open with a solid field of participants, as lot of them lost in the first week in New York. Lapentti was 258th in the world, playing only 6 Challengers before Bogota. He lost the first set in last qualifying round but recovered after that, for his first entrance to the big stage. Already used to the courts in Bogota at high altitude, he notched 2 straight sets wins over the players ranked outside Top 130, to find himself in the last 8.
Future world number 1, Marcelo Rios, was awaiting him, but Lapentti played an amazing match in a 6-3 6-4 victory, facing no break points in the entire match. From great effort against world number 38 to barely escaping against fellow Ecuadorian Luis Adrian Morejon in the next round, ranked 184th! Nicolas won 7-5 6-7 7-5, breaking rival 4 times, to reach ATP final on debut. Home player Miguel Tobon received a wild card to play here (ranked 281st), and identical to the previous two stories, our hero won the title over the player who never again reached ATP final, as that for sure was extenuating circumstance for all of them. Tobon started better, carried by the home crowd, but Lapentti came back from a 2-6 deficit to win the next two sets 6-1 6-4. Lapentti played for another 15 years on the Tour, winning 5 titles in total, and making semi-final in Australian Open in 1999 and a surprising quarter-final at Wimbledon 3 years later.
The last player who won ATP title from the first attempt was Spaniard Santiago Ventura, in 2004 Casablanca event. This was his first and only ATP final, and he took full advantage of it. Unlike the previous 3 players, Ventura already had a lot of experience in the lower circuits of Futures and Challengers. Aside from some sporadic Futures successes, things were not going like he would want, barely reaching Top 300 on few occasions, and with only 9 Challengers played. Nevertheless, that all changed in May of 2004 when he came to Casablanca, ranked 316th. He had no bigger troubles in his 3 qualifying rounds, making it to his first ATP main draw. The tournament wasn't strong, and Santiago faced no players from the Top 100 before the final. He scored an easy win in the first round and quarter-final, beating Nicolas Mahut between those matches. Frenchman gave him the hard time but Spaniard won 7-6 6-4, so out of sudden he was in ATP semi-final!
In his semi-final match, Ventura toppled Christophe Rochus, 6-1 1-6 6-2, thanks to a great break points realization, he was 5 from 7. The man who never reached Challenger semi-final, for example, was now one win away from ATP glory, in the biggest match of his life. It has to be said, however, that Doumbia, Altur and Lapentti before him had best possible opponents in the final, inexperienced and not as a high-quality as someone would expect, but that certainly wasn't the case with Ventura. On the other side of the net, there was Dominik Hrbaty, 32nd player in the world, who knew very well how to play matches like these. Ventura won the first set 6-3, after one break of serve, but Slovak responded with a great second set, taking it 6-1 with 2 breaks. Ventura somehow managed to stay calm and hold his nerves, crossing the finish line first after 6-4 in the third set.
Lleyton Hewitt and Steve Darcis followed those 4 players, winning their first title on their second try. If we can question talent and abilities of previously mentioned players, this was more than expected from someone like Lleyton Hewitt. After few years of stagnation in producing talents, Australia finally got someone who was available to bring them big titles in the future. Destiny wanted for him to play his first ever professional tournament in Australian Open in 1997, when he qualified still at the age of 15! In the rest of that season, Lleyton entered few Satellites and scored his first Challenger match in December in Perth.
The best was just around the corner, playing with a wild card in Adelaide few weeks later, ranked 550th! His first ATP win came against Scott Draper, and he hold off Woodforde's challenge in the second round, being a tie-break away from losing. Things started to look serious when he toppled Spadea, reaching the semi-final. In that round, he faced the only player outside Top 100, but that was no other than Andre Agassi. Lleyton again showed the mentality of the true champion, beating Agassi 7-6 7-6. In the match with no breaks (Agassi had 5 break points, Lleyton 2) young Aussie won the tie breaks 7-5 7-4, to continue his incredible run and reach the final.
Jason Stoltenberg was his ultimate rival, and the match went to distance, to a third set tie-break. Virtually nothing could separate the players but Lleyton won his 4th tie break in Adelaide that week, beating Jason 3-6 6-3 7-6 to win his first out of many ATP titles. Still at the age of 16, Lleyton became the youngest winner of ATP title since Michael Chang in San Francisco in 1988, and it's safe to say he will not be reached or beaten for at least 10 more years.
