Marcelo Rios

Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (Santiago, Chile, December 26, 1975), is a Chilean tennis player. He was number 1 in the ATP Ranking for six weeks in 1998, being the first Latin American tennis player to do so in the professional era. He has also been the only one in history to reach number 1 as a youth (in 1993) and veteran (in 2006), at the end of the season.

He reached the final of the Australian Open in 1998 and has been the only number 1 without a Grand Slam title. In 1999 he was the first in history to win all three Masters 1000 tournaments on clay: Monte Carlo, Hamburg and Rome. On the ATP World Tour he won 19 titles, 18 individually (5 Masters 1000, 1 Grand Slam Cup, 2 ATP 500 and 10 ATP 250) and one in doubles (ATP 250). the ATP Circuit of Champions won eight titles. He finished from 1997 to 1999 in the top ten in the world and participated in the Masters Tournament in 1998. He was one of the most talented tennis players of the century XX according to international specialists, and generated extraordinary blows, some of which are remembered as the "360º return", the "gillette", the "passing shot on the back", the "two-handed backhand jump » and the «seated smash». In 2016 he was considered by the ATP as one of the twenty best tennis players in the Open Era without a Grand Slam title.

Representing Chile, he won the World Team Cup in 2003. He was the "best male individual tennis player in Chile" between the 1994-2001 seasons, the "best Chilean hard court tennis player in history" and the best in Latin America. In 2000 he was recognized by the General Directorate of Sports and Recreation as the “best Chilean athlete of the 20th century.” He has been the technical assistant of the Chilean Davis Cup team since 2014.

Sports career

Youth stage (1988-1993)

Ríos was born in 1975. At the beginning of 1988 he went to train at Club Deportivo Universidad Católica, in Santa Rosa de Las Condes. Two years later, he left the cross store to enter Hans Gildemeister's ranch. At that moment, one of the great architects of his success appeared in his life, his coach Manuel Astorga. After the conditions of young Marcelo were revealed, he and his family decided to move to Bradenton, Florida in the United States to train at the Nick Bollettieri academy, which over the years and after the retirement of "chino", Bollettieri when commenting on the great tennis players who passed through his academy, several of them former world numbers 1, affirmed that Marcelo Ríos was the greatest talent he had ever seen play.

Around 1992 Marcelo was reaching the proposed goals one by one. At the age of 16, he was runner-up in the Copa Milo Internacional, national champion, champion of the Chile Satellite and runner-up in the junior US Open in doubles, along with Gabriel Silberstein. He exploded in 1993 winning the Milo Cup, the US Open, the Japan Open and the Eddie Herr tournament, as well as the runner-up at the Sunshine Cup, the semifinals of Roland Garros and the Junior Italian Open, and the quarterfinals of the Orange Bowl. As a result, he finished the season as the junior world number one.

Professional start (1994-1995)

In 1994 he turned professional and quickly began to gain international fame after his participation in the Roland Garros tournament, when in the second round and at the age of 18, he met Pete Sampras, giving him a hard battle by losing 6-7, 6-7 and 4-6. His great ability with his left hand and his novelty appearance - he used long hair and a cap with a backwards visor - drew the attention of the specialized media, this being his first step to international stardom. That same year he would win his first challenger in Dresden, Germany.

At the age of 19, in May 1995 Marcelo achieved his first title in the Bologna Tournament, defeating the Uruguayan Marcelo Filippini 6-2 6-4, thus entering the top 50 players in the world for the first time. Then in June he would win the Amsterdam Tournament, both in singles - against Jan Siemerink 6-4 7-5 6-4 - and in doubles, together with Sjeng Schalken and in October he would win the Kuala Lumpur Tournament against Mark Philippoussis by 7-6 6-2. He also reaches the final of the ATP tournament in his country, in Santiago. In this way Marcelo ends the year as No. 25 in the world.

Heyday (1996-1999)

At the age of 20, in 1996 Marcelo managed to have good performances in Masters Series category tournaments. He reached the quarterfinals at the Stuttgart and Rome Masters and the semifinals at the Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Canada Masters. He would also achieve his fourth title in Sankt Pölten, Austria against the Spanish Félix Mantilla 6-1 6-4 and again reach the final in Santiago, thus constituting a kind of curse that prevented him from winning at home and with his public.. He would also reach the Barcelona and Scottsdale finals. For much of the year Marcelo would manage to be within the top ten, being the first Chilean in history to achieve it individually in the professional era. He ends the year ranked No. 11 in the world.

In 1997, Chino reached the quarterfinals for the first time in a Grand Slam tournament, at the Australian Open and again at the US Open. He would also come his first great victory by winning the final of the Monte Carlo Super 9 tournament (currently ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo). After going bye in the first round, he defeated Andrea Gaudenzi, Albert Costa, Magnus Larsson and Carlos Moyá. In the final he beat Álex Corretja 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3. Two weeks later he would reach the final of the Masters in Rome, repeating the final against the Spaniard, although this time he would be the one who would win the cup.

I would also highlight the quarterfinals reached again in the Madrid Masters and the finals in Marseille, Boston and for the third time, in Santiago. Marcelo Ríos would end the year for the first time in the top ten at No. 10 and peaked as high as No. 6 throughout the year.

In 1998, he stands out for representing the pinnacle of Ríos's career, who reached number 1 in the world, demonstrating a brilliant level of play. He started it by winning the Auckland Open tournament against the Australian Richard Fromberg and reached the Australian Open final, defeating Grant Stafford, Thomas Enqvist, Andrew Ilie, Lionel Roux, Alberto Berasategui and Nicolas Escudé, finally losing to the Czech Petr Korda, who was later sanctioned for positive doping that year. The following months would stand out for victories such as the Super 9 title, current Indian Wells Masters Series by defeating Greg Rusedski in the final. His final consecration would come at the Super 9 in Key Biscayne in the United States, led by his coach Larry Stefanki. To get to first place, he had to win the tournament. Ríos won with resounding victories over the Germans Hendrik Dreekmann and Tommy Haas, and then the Croatian Goran Ivanišević. In the quarterfinals he defeated the Swede Thomas Enqvist and in the semifinals, Tim Henman. In the final, on March 29, 1998, Ríos beat the local and legendary Andre Agassi, by partials of 7-5, 6-3 and 6-4. In Chile, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the triumph and in the days to come a massive reception would be organized that would culminate with Ríos greeting President Eduardo Frei from the balcony of La Moneda to ten thousand people who cheered him outside the palace. of government.

His status as number 1 single player lasted four weeks, until he was unable to defend the title in Monte Carlo due to an injury he contracted in the Davis Cup when he defeated Argentine Hernán Gumy, in Buenos Aires. However, on August 10 he would recover it for another two weeks, although it would finally be Pete Sampras who would win the No. 1 in 1998, who achieved first place in the world ranking for the sixth consecutive year. Throughout this season Marcelo would also win the Rome Masters against Albert Costa, Saint Poelten against Vincent Spadea, the Grand Slam Cup against Andre Agassi, and Singapore against Mark Woodforde. He would also reach the quarterfinals at the Madrid and Paris Masters. The year 1998 would be a milestone in Marcelo's career and in Chilean sports. Ríos would win 7 titles, including 3 Masters Series, reaching a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open. On July 27 of that year, he would reach the maximum number of points that he would get throughout his career with 3,719 units (according to the points system prior to the year 2000). Finally, he would finish the year as No. 2 in the world, behind Pete Sampras.

In 1999, Zurdo de Vitacura maintained a high level, although his game was interrupted by repeated injuries and operations. As a result of this, Marcelo is unable to defend the points achieved by reaching the final of the 1998 Australian Open, for which he falls several places in the ranking. He would then reach the final of the Monte Carlo Masters where, after winning the first set and winning the second, he had to retire due to a new injury and let the Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten win. Marcelo would have his revenge by winning the Hamburg Masters in a disputed match of more than 4 hours against the Argentine Mariano Zabaleta and the following week he would be crowned champion for the third time in a row in the Saint Poelten Tournament also against Zabaleta. In October he would win the Singapore Tournament and reach the final of the Shanghai Tournament, losing to Sweden's Magnus Norman. He would also highlight the quarterfinals reached at Roland Garros and at the Madrid Masters. Despite the constant injuries that meant having to undergo surgery for groin pain, Chino would finish the year for the third consecutive time as Top Ten, ranked No. 9 in the world ranking.

Afterword (2000-2004)

The beginning of the new century would be marked by repeated and disabling injuries that would prevent Marcelo from remaining among the elite of the men's singles. Even so, he would manage to win the title in the Umag Tournament, in Croatia against the Argentine Mariano Puerta. He would also reach the semifinal at the Hamburg Masters, losing to Marat Safin, one of the new stars on the circuit. The Chinese ends the year as No. 37 in the world in an uncertain future outlook. In 2000 he began to have repeated back injuries, which reduced his performance and caused him to retire prematurely from tennis in 2004. He played his last professional match at the 2003 Roland Garros Tournament, at the age of 27. age.

The year 2001 would start off in a big way, heralding a resurgence by winning the first tournament of the year in Doha. However, his performance in the following tournaments would be poor, weakened by ankle surgery, which resulted in him falling out of the top 50 in the world for the first time since he was a teenager. The second half of the year improves Marcelo's performance, and in September he manages to win a title again, this time in Hong Kong defeating the German Rainer Schüttler. In October Marcelo decided to play a Challenger tournament again, something he had not done since 1994, winning the final in Santiago against the Argentine Edgardo Massa. He would also reach a doubles final in Scottsdale. Marcelo would finish the year as No. 39 in the world.

In 2002 he managed to obtain good results at the beginning of the year, but a back injury (lumbar stress fracture) prevented him from developing the season normally. It would be the same injury that would take him to the operating room twice and would never allow him to return to a competitive level. In this year the quarterfinals in the Australian Open, the semifinal in the Miami Masters and the final in the Stockholm tournament against the Thai Paradorn Srichaphan would stand out. Marcelo would manage to finish again within the 25 best players in the world in the No. 24 position, but without being able to recover from the injuries that have plagued him since the end of 1999.

In the 2003 Viña del Mar Tournament, (former Santiago Tournament) Marcelo managed to reach the final, losing to the Spanish David Sánchez and confirming his fate which prevented him, throughout his career, from winning an ATP championship in his country Chile, losing the four finals played. However, he would get, representing Chile together with Fernando González and Nicolás Massú, the Team World Cup in Düsseldorf. In this same year he also won the silver medals in singles and doubles together with Adrián García in the 2003 Pan American Games. In May Marcelo would play his last ATP level match, losing in the first round of Roland Garros against Mario Ancic by 1 -6 0-1 and retirement. During 2003 Marcelo played very few tournaments in many of which he had to retire, which had the consequence of ending the year only as No. 105 in the world, suggesting an early retirement.

In 2004 Marcelo played two Challenger category tournaments. The first in Salinas, Ecuador, losing in the round of 16 and, in what would be his last participation in the ATP Challenger Tour, in San Luis, Mexico, retiring in the second round against Argentine Mariano Delfino. Finally, after years of battling constant injuries, back pain got the better of him and at just 28 years old, he announced his retirement from tennis on July 16, 2004, during a press conference in Santiago. In the middle of the year, to say goodbye to the Chilean public, and in gratitude for the support throughout his career, he organized a farewell tour throughout Chile, called "Gracias Chile", in which he faced rivals such as Adrián García, Mardy Fish, Petr Korda, Goran Ivanišević and Guillermo Coria.

Marcelo's career was marked by being brilliant but short. The wandering between the constant injuries, the motivational decline after reaching No. 1 and the increasing need to dedicate time to his family, ended his career early. In this he won 18 titles and reached 13 finals on the ATP tour. His game was characterized by being clearly emotional when playing tennis at a very high level and talent, with great command, followed by sudden drops in spirits and deconcentration. In 2007 it was expected that he would return to the professional circuit, for only one tournament in exceptional form, playing the ATP Professional of Viña Del Mar in Chile, but the constant injuries that forced him to retire from tennis forced him to cancel participation.

ATP Champions Tour and exhibitions (2006-present)

Rios in 2009.

After a sabbatical in 2005, in 2006, at the age of 30, he decided to return to professional tennis, entering the exclusive circuit for veterans, the ATP Champions Tour. The first tournament of the season took place in Doha, Qatar, where he won the championship by defeating Frenchman Cédric Pioline in the final by a score of 6-2, 6-2. The following week he repeated, this time winning the crown in Hong Kong, where he defeated fellow former World No. 1 Thomas Muster in the final. Ríos would win six tournaments in a row, adding Algarve, Graz, Paris and Eindhoven to those previously mentioned. Finally, Ríos would finish the senior season as the world No. 1 in the category and with a streak of 25 consecutive victories, achieving the record of being the only player in history to be No. 1 in the world as a youth, professional and veteran. From this, the controversy would arise in the national press, suggesting that Chino would still be in a position to compete as a professional, as well as in the international press, who would question Marcelo's legitimacy on the veterans tour as he was only 30 years old, and his opponents ten, or almost twenty years older than him. The American John McEnroe (51 years old at the time) asked the federation that the minimum age to participate in the tour should be 35 years.

On March 30, 2007, he played an exhibition at the Arena Santiago against the American Andre Agassi, who he won in the match that took him to number one in the world nine years before.

In 2008, Chino returns to the veterans tour where he wins the tournaments in Barcelona and Algarve, and loses the final in Sao Paulo against the recently entered tour, Pete Sampras. Marcelo "Chino" Ríos would end the year as World No. 3 in the veteran ranking. On June 24, 2008, Marcelo celebrates 10 years since winning No. 1 in the world with a guest of honor, the best in history, Pete Sampras. An exhibition held at the Arena Santiago in Santiago de Chile is played, which Marcelo Ríos wins 4-6 6-4 and 7-6, demonstrating once again his great talent. Both athletes exhibited an excellent level of play.

On April 9, 2009 Marcelo plays against Andy Roddick in Santiago de Chile, losing 6-2 6-4 in an exhibition. In 2009, Ríos continued to participate in the Champions Tour, however, he did not obtain the previous good results and is currently ranked No. 14 in the ranking.

On February 19, 2011, he won the Masters Tournament, which was held at the Monticello Casino against Cedric Pioline (French, once number 5 in the world) by 7-5, 6-7 (5) and 10-6 (super tie break) and ruled out playing that year's Davis Cup against the United States.

At the beginning of 2014, Ríos wanted to return to the Veterans Tour, with matches scheduled against Thomas Enqvist and Carlos Moyá in Stockholm. However, after a conversation with his doctor, he canceled them declaring his withdrawal from the ATP Champions Tour due to his health problems. After the "heart attack" suffered in 2013 and a diagnosis of reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome, Marcelo declared "I will not risk my life to continue playing tennis".

At the end of 2018, after not presenting health problems in recent years, he had an exhibition against Nicolás Lapentti at the Gran Arena Monticello. After good feelings in training, he raised the idea of returning to play a professional tournament in 2019 at the age of 43, for which he sought a wildcard at the Challenger in Columbus, declaring:

Play a tournament in Ohio. A challenger and be able to win it and get to make history again and try to be the oldest player in winning a professional tournament

However, he was later discarded because he would have to wait until one day before the tournament to find out if his invitation was accepted, which Chino did not want.

Davis Cup

Ríos made his Davis Cup debut in 1993 at the age of 17 against the Bahamas in the city of Santiago, Chile. Throughout his participation he achieved a record of 28-17; 25-10 in singles and 3-7 in doubles. Together with the team, his best performance was reaching the World Group playoffs three times, against the Indian team in 1997, against Zimbabwe in 1999 and against Slovakia in 2001. He participated for 11 years in all versions of the Davis Cup from 1993 to 2003, except 1994. His last participation was against Venezuela in July 2003. For several years he was the first single player in Chile, and he did not achieve better results due to a lack of competitive teammates. With the replacement of Fernando González and Nicolás Massú at the beginning of the 2000s, the Chilean team was strengthened. He owns the second best record in singles with 25 wins, surpassed by Luis Ayala with 27 wins achieved in the 1950s.

Style of Play

Rios running a “second service” in Roland Garros in 2000.

He was characterized by his control, movement and precision on the pitch. He used a Yonex RD Power 10 Long model racket, with a 95 square inch frame, an unstrung weight of 335 grams, and a 354 strung weight, with a unique length of 28 inches, and a 16x19 string pattern, which he had Babolat VS Team natural gut strings with a thickness between 1.2 and 1.3 millimeters, a tension of 34 kilos and string savers. He was left-handed with a two-handed backhand.

He had no idol since childhood. He fathered over Gastón Gaudio (5-0), with whom he did not lose sets, and his black beasts were Michael Chang (1-6), Yevgeny Kafelnikov (2- 6) and Thomas Enqvist (3-7). He is the top idol mainly of Yoshihito Nishioka and Shang Juncheng.

Eccentric Strikes

He recorded the "gillette": a powerful offensive volley that consists of applying a "slicing backhand" by vehemently lowering the racket horizontally to achieve a "drop shot", whereby the ball describes a sharp curve due to the Magnus effect, stopping and then accelerating from the apex curling, and coming back after dribbling on the opponent's side of the court, occasionally passing the net, dubbed the brand of shaving accessories for its resemblance to the movement of a razor. It has been adopted by Roger Federer, Aleksandr Dolgopolov, Benoît Paire, Dominic Thiem and Félix Auger-Aliassime, among others.

He recorded the "two-handed backhand jump": an offensive shot that involves driving vertically with one leg bent forward to strike with a vehement twist of the trunk in the air, forcing mainly the core muscles—avoiding stepping back, widening the angle dribbling and accelerating the pace of play—, fostered by the adaptation of his short stature for tennis according to specialists and configured during adolescence in the 1990s. He has been adopted by Michael Chang, Sébastien Grosjean, Marat Safin, Kei Nishikori and Daniil Medvedev, among others. He recorded the "sitting smash": a volley that consists of hitting over the head with the buttocks supported and the legs stretched out on the court —accelerating the pace of the game—, inspired by the "traditional smash" and fostered after slipping during a match against Andre Agassi for the Grand Slam Cup in Munich (Germany) on October 4, 1998.

He recorded the "passing shot backwards": a highly difficult offensive shot that consists of applying a "forehand" backwards with the racket in a vertical position turned without seeing the court, directing the ball by aiming and passing the opponent, triggered by a volley during a match against Nicolás Massú at the US Open in New York on August 28, 2000. He recorded the "360º return": a high-difficulty defensive service connection that consists of rotating completely once upright to hitting weakly with two hands placing the racket without directing the ball, during a match against Alberto Martín for the Australian Open in Melbourne on January 18, 2002.

Personal life

Family

Marcelo Ríos was born in Santiago on December 26, 1975. He was the fourth member of the family made up of Jorge Ríos, Alicia Mayorga and their first daughter, Constanza.

Marcelo Ríos married 17-year-old Costa Rican Giuliana Sotela in 2000. In 2001 he had a daughter named Constanza. He would then divorce and remarry in 2005 with the Chilean model María Eugenia & # 34; Kenita & # 34; Larrain. With her he had a brief relationship of just five months and a scandalous and mediatic break. Marcelo would later declare that his marriage to the model was "the worst mistake in his life."

He is currently married to public relations officer Paula Pavic, with whom he has 2 daughters, Isidora and Colomba, along with triplets Marcelo, Agustina and Antonella, born in the Chilean capital on December 16, 2011.

Health

In August 2013, he was rushed to the hospital for a severe headache. Later he would be diagnosed with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome . He was discharged after a few days and indicated to take the precautions that his condition warrants in the future.In March 2014 he was again hospitalized for the same condition, as a precaution.

In 2014, he admitted that he thinks he has Asperger syndrome. The opinion of expert psychiatrists was that it is very likely that she does suffer from this condition.

I once looked for Marcelo Rios on Google and saw that an associated term was Asperger. I think I'm Asperger. As with 70 symptoms coming out, I feel identified with 69.

On November 17, 2016, in an interview with the Chilevisión program El Cubo, Ríos confirmed that he was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was a child, declaring that he had never given it any importance until the confession of 2014.

I was diagnosed with this when I was a kid and I let him through. I remember having a psychologist at the Davis Cup who gave us some tests and she told me I had Asperger. And I had no idea what it meant or interested me, nor did I look for it or anything. But today I've been looking for him, and, let's say, I look at 60 things that I have 50.

In an interview conducted in March 2021 by Martín Cárcamo for Canal 13, Ríos pointed out that during a period of stress, anguish and anxiety, he even took 12 mg of ravotril daily, prescribed by his psychiatrist. He is currently trying to leave him with another psychiatrist.

Brands

• He is the only one in history to lead tennis in the youth, veteran and professional categories, although in the latter case he did not finish the year in the first place as it did in the previous ones.
• He was the first Ibero-American to lead tennis in the ATP era.
• Of those who have led tennis in the individual ATP era, it is the lowest height, with 175 centimeters.
• He's been the only one who's been able to be on the ATP world ranking, didn't win a Grand Slam tournament.
• He was the first in history to win the three Masters Series in clay, in 1999 (Montecarlo, Rome and Hamburg). Gustavo Kuerten (2000), Rafael Nadal (2008), and Novak Djokovic (2013) have repeated this achievement.
• He is the only Chilean male in history to lead tennis, and the general with more individual titles, 18.
• He is the youngest Chilean tennis player to win a title of ATP Challenger (18 years, 4 months), ATP 250 (19 years, 5 months), ATP 500 (22 years, 9 months) and Masters 1000 (21 years, 4 months).

Controversies

Marcelo's difficult temperament has led to a series of controversies. Here are some of them:

As a tennis player

• In the 1997 Los Angeles Tournament, he was disqualified and fined $5000 to say:fuck you» (“jedete”) to the referee of the meeting.
• Monica Seles accused him of saying:move your fat ass» (“move your fat ass”), although he has denied it.
• In a confusing incident, he hit his physical preparer Manuel Astorga, leaving him severely injured on one foot. After this, Astorga was fired as a physical preparer.
• In 1998 he was fined with $10 000 for overhauling during the Stuttgart tournament.
• When he reached N° 1 of the world ranking, he immediately fired his coach Larry Stefanki.
• When No. 1, a reporter asked him a question trying to compare his achievements with those of another prominent Latin American tennis player, Guillermo Vilas (whose best location on the ATP ranking was number 2). Marcelo Rios replied: "I do not know Vilas, I only know that he was N°2 and I am N°1."
• At the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, he was elected by the Chilean delegation as the national flagship at the opening ceremony. However, he refused at the last minute on the grounds that his parents had not been invited to the ceremony by the delegation. Nicolas Massú took his place.
• After a magazine published photos of hers dancing sensually with a woman at a disco in Paris, her girlfriend Giuliana Sotela finished with him. Then, during a press conference he read a letter asking for forgiveness from Giuliana and ended up in tears.
• In 2001 in Rome, he was arrested for beating a taxi driver on his nose and then fighting with the police who tried to arrest him.
• He won the Roland Garros lemon prize on several occasions for being the most antipathic player.
• His entry to the veteran tour has been questioned for only 30 years. His controversial arrival on the tour caused John McEnroe to propose the age of 35 to compete as a senior, after having lost the supremacy and starring of the tournament at the hands of the Chilean.
• He tried to put his pants down in front of some reporters who were recording while he was partying outside his apartment in Reñaca.
• He had a violent discussion with Ilie Năstase, who was about to become a physical confrontation, because Rios refused to take a picture with the son of the Romanian player.

After retirement

• In April 2017 he suffered a car accident; when a journalist arrived at the scene and asked about what had happened, Rios replied “Why don’t I go to the chucha?”. Later in an interview, I would point out that "All journalists are the same shit."and would argue that feeling attacked by the press would be one of the reasons to go to Miami and leave Chile. Journalist Manuel De Tezanos, through a program of the Fox Sports chain, where the professional, quite annoying, tilded the extenist of bad thankful because journalists always knew how to separate their polemics from their sporting performance, as well as saying that the other sportsman liked to throw away shit for free.
• In November 2017, in the midst of the presidential election, he criticized the candidate of La Fuerza de la Mayoría Alejandro Guillier in his Twitter account only for the fact that he was a journalist, which earned him a series of support, but also of strong criticism, especially of another Chilean journalist like Juan Cristóbal Guarello, who recriminated him for finding out at the last hour that Guillier was one of the candidates and also because Rios has never paid his right to him. Days later, the former president expressed his support for the Chile Pact candidate Comes Sebastian Piñera, which brought back messages of support and criticism, and it was the latter that both the Chinese as his wife, Paula Pavic, responded without plugs.
• On January 31, 2018, with regard to the trainings for the Davis Cup that year, a group of journalists went to cover such an event. There they asked Rios about the issue, which, citing Maradona, answered: As my personal friend Diego Armando says, 'Let all of you suck it.'. When asked later about the visit of the future sports minister, Pauline Kantor, Rios answered back: Keep her sucking. This has brought countless repercussions in the world of journalism in Chile. The next day, when they wanted to ask about the Davis Cup, Rios pushes a journalist and sends her to wash her teeth, telling her that He's got a tupho.. Finally, on 7 February, he wrote a letter to El Mercurio requesting the apology of the case. The reason for this action was for a call of attention from the emblematic sports face of TVN Pedro Carcuro, since the latter is the only journalist with whom Rios has a good relationship.
• Marcelo traveled from his current residence in Miami to Santiago to vote in the 2020 constitutional plebiscite for the option Rejectedyet he did not vote. He pointed out that when he arrived at 8:00 his table was not yet constituted, and after waiting he was asked to be a table vocal so he left. In the afternoon he returned, but noting that there was a large row he decided to leave again because they were going to hueviar a lot in wait.
• On Tuesday, November 24, 2021, Rios assured in the web program led by Patricia Maldonado and Catalina Pulido, "Las Indomables", that journalist and humanist deputy Pamela Jiles had tried to abuse him in an interview at the tenist's home when he was only 14 years old. Where he held that the journalist invited him to perform the last part of the interview in the shower of the tenist's house, and that his clothes should be removed to continue, although this could not be realized because the mother of Rios heard and expelled Pamela from the house. Marcelo declared He tried to rape me, homage. Pamela Jiles denied the veracity of those accusations, and announced that he was going to complain against Chino Rios. The extenist against the legal threat clarified: QI make it clear that Pamela Jiles never tried to rape me or wanted to violate the way I said it, it was in a way maybe out of the context and trying to put more spicy on the subject.. After that, the controversy stopped.
• In September 2021, referring to a publication by Jordi Castell lamenting the death of his dog, Rios published on his social networks: "Pastel don't suffer so much for the dog, just think that he should be happy and thinking at last I freed myself from this sack of weas and starving that he had to endure".

Historical classification