- Mariano Puerta
-
Mariano Ruben Puerta Country 
ArgentinaResidence Buenos Aires, Argentina Born September 19, 1978
San Francisco, Córdoba, ArgentinaHeight 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) Turned pro 1998 Plays Left-handed (one-handed backhand) Career prize money US $1,695,028 Singles Career record 128–118 Career titles 3 Highest ranking No. 9 (August 15, 2005) Grand Slam results Australian Open 2R (1999) French Open F (2005) Wimbledon 1R (1998, 2001, 2003) US Open 2R (1999) Doubles Career record 42–54 Career titles 3 Highest ranking No. 68 (August 2, 1999) Last updated on: March 25, 2007. Mariano Ruben Puerta (born September 19, 1978 in San Francisco, Córdoba) is an 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.
Contents
Career
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 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 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 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
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 US$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 (€443,282/£300,671/$456,000) 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
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 [1]. 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
Singles
Runner-up (1)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final 2005 French Open 
Rafael Nadal6–7, 6–3, 6–1, 7–5 Singles finals (11)
Wins (3)
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 Franco Squillari6–3, 6–2 2. March 6, 2000 Bogotá, Colombia Clay 
Younes El Aynaoui6–4, 7–6 3. April 4, 2005 Casablanca, Morocco Clay Juan Mónaco6–4, 6–1 Runner-ups (8)
- 1998: San Marino (lost to
Dominik Hrbatý) - 2000: Mexico City (lost to Juan Ignacio Chela)
- 2000: Santiago (lost to
Gustavo Kuerten) - 2000: Gstaad, Switzerland (lost to Àlex Corretja)
- 2000: Umag, Croatia (lost to
Marcelo Ríos) - 2005: Buenos Aires (lost to Gastón Gaudio)
- 2005: French Open (lost to Rafael Nadal)
- 2007: Cordenons, Italy (lost to Máximo González)
Doubles finals
Wins (3)
- 1998:
- Bogotá (with Diego del Río)
- 1999:
- Munich (with Daniel Orsanic)
- 1999: Umag (with Javier Sánchez)
Singles performance timeline
To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the U.S. Open, which ended on September 10, 2007.
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 DQ A A A A 0–3 U.S. Open A A A A 1R 2R 1R A A 1R A DQ 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 DQ 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 DQ A A A A 0-0 Canada Masters A A A A A A 1R A A A A DQ A A A A 0-1 Cincinnati Masters A A A A A A 2R A A A A DQ A A A A 1-1 Shanghai Masters Not Held NMS Not Held Not ATP Masters Series A 0–0 Paris Masters A A A A A A 1R A A A A DQ 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 - 261 195 311 N/A Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses. To help interpret the performance table, the legend below explains what each abbreviation and color coded box represents in the performance timeline.
Terms to know SR tournaments won/played W-L Win-Loss Performance Table Legend NH not held A absent LQ lost in qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds QF quarterfinalist SF semifinalist F runner-up W winner NMS means an event that was not an ATP Masters Series tournament. NM1 means an event that was not an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. DQ = Results Disqualified.
See also
- List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
External links
- Puerta's ATP Profile
- Puerta's Profile
- Sportsline's Profile
- ITF independent anti-doping tribunal decision (PDF)
References
- ^ The Associated Press (December 22, 2005). "Puerta Is Facing the Longest Ban in Tennis History". NYTimes.com - Sports. The New York Times (nytimes.com). http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/sports/tennis/22tennis.html. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
Categories:- 1978 births
- Living people
- Argentine male tennis players
- Argentine sportspeople in doping cases
- Doping cases in tennis
- Olympic tennis players of Argentina
- People from San Francisco, Córdoba
- Sportspeople from Buenos Aires
- Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- 1998: San Marino (lost to
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