Nicholas Lapenti

Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (Guayaquil, August 13, 1976) is an Ecuadorian tennis player, coming from a family with a tennis tradition through his uncle Andrés Gómez, an Ecuadorian tennis legend who won the Roland Garros. «Nico» Lapentti owns five ATP titles and his best ranking in singles was no. 6 in the world in 1999 after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open. He also reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon 2002.

In the Masters 1000, his greatest performances were achieved in Hamburg 1999, Paris 1999, Indian Wells 2000 and Rome 2001, where he reached the semifinals, while on the ATP Tour 500 he won the Indianapolis Tournament in 1999 and the Kitzbühel in 2001, and reached the final in Tokyo 2000.

He is related to other tennis players: nephew of Andrés Gómez, brother of Giovanni Lapentti, cousin of Roberto Quiroz and Emilio Gómez.

Beginnings

Lapentti began playing tennis at the age of six. He first came to the attention of world tennis as an exceptional player in 1994, winning the Orange Bowl in Florida, and also when he won two doubles titles, in the French Open (with Gustavo Kuerten) and the United States Open.

Professional

Lapentti turned professional in 1995 and won his first senior level title that same year in Bogotá.

In 1999, and thanks to perfect physical preparation, Lapentti was a semifinalist at the Australian Open, a contest in which he had to go through four rounds to five sets to reach those instances. In that same year he achieved good performances in the Masters 1000 category, reaching the semifinals in Hamburg and Paris and the quarterfinals in Rome. In addition, he participated in the Grand Slam Cup, which was an event in which he invited the players with the best performance in the Grand Slam of the current year, in that tournament he would reach the quarterfinals. He also won two ATP singles titles that year and reached his highest singles ranking of No. 6, so he would qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup that year, thus becoming the second Ecuadorian tennis player to play that tournament.

By the year 2000, he could not maintain the same level shown a year before, even so, he stood out in some Masters 1000 tournaments, such as the Indian Wells Masters, where he reached the semifinals and the Miami Masters where he advanced to the quarterfinals final, and in the ATP Tour 500 where he reached the final in Tokyo, losing to the Dutchman Sjeng Schalken. As for the Grand Slam tournaments, his best result that season was at Roland Garros, where he advanced to the fourth round, losing to Gustavo Kuerten 3-6, 4-6, 6-7 (4-7).

In 2002, Lapentti won his fifth ATP Tour singles title in St Pölten, beating Fernando Vicente in straight sets in the final. In the second round of that tournament, his opponent Irakli Labadze had four match points but was unable to convert any of them. Lapentti ultimately won that tough match 5-7, 7-6(1), 7-6(6). In that year he also reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and Miami, as well as the fourth round at the Australian Open, placing on July 8th # 20 of the ATP ranking.

Her brother, Giovanni, was also a professional tennis player, reaching a career-high ATP ranking of no. 110 in May 2005. Additionally, another brother, Leonardo, has been active in the lower levels of professional tennis.

At the 2008 Cincinnati Masters, Lapentti beats Marin Čilić in the first round, David Ferrer in the second round, Fernando Verdasco in the third round and faces the No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, where he loses in straight sets. With that victory over Lapentti, Nadal secured the no. 1 in the world for the first time. In the case of Lapentti would have an acceptable participation after the low level shown in the years 2004-2007, which cost him out of the top 100.

In 2009 he had to retire against Novak Djokovic in the first round of Roland Garros.

Lapentti's last participation in a Grand Slam was in 2010, when he played Roland Garros, being eliminated in the first round.

Davis Cup

He has also been a member of the Ecuador Davis Cup team since 1993. He has represented his country since he was 17 years old, and was the protagonist in one of the most important triumphs in the history of Ecuadorian tennis, when the Ecuadorian Cup team Davis defeated Great Britain 3-2 against all odds at the mythical All England Club, scene of the Wimbledon tournament.

The series began on July 14, 2000, where Nicolás Lapentti got an opening win, defeating Greg Rusedski 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-5, 4-6, 7 -5, then equaled Tim Henman by beating Luis Morejón 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. The next day "Nico" Lapentti and his brother Giovanni stunned locals Tim Henman and Arvind Parmar by beating them in straight sets 6-3, 7-5, 6-3. With a 2-1 advantage for Ecuador they reached the last day of competition, Tim Henman equalized the series by defeating Nicolás Lapentti 6-1, 6-4, 6-4, leaving the responsibility of the definition to the fifth point, in that instance both captains decided to place the third players on the team, Giovanni Lapentti and Arvind Parmar, where Giovanni would win the match in five sets. Additionally, Nicolás Lapentti holds the Davis Cup record for most matches won in five sets, with a total of 13 wins.

Titles (8; 5+3)

Individuals (5)

Lapentti and Kuerten before a double party (against Lopez and Verdasco) at the Masters of Miami 2008.

Nicolás Lapentti at the United States Open 2009.

Nicolás Lapentti in 2017.

NoBy	Date	Tournament	Surface	Oponente en la final	Outcome
1.	11 September 1995	Bogotá	Whipped earth	Miguel Tobón	3-6 6-1 6-4
2.	16 August 1999	Indianapolis	Dura	Vincent Spadea	4-6 6-4 6-4
3.	18 October 1999	Lyon	Carpeta	Lleyton Hewitt	6-3 6-2
4.	23 July 2001	Kitzbuhel	Whipped earth	Albert Costa	1-6 6-4 7-5 7-5
5.	20 May 2002	Sankt Pölten	Whipped earth	Fernando Vicente Fibla	7-5 6-4

Finalist in singles (7)

• 1996: Bogotá (see Thomas Muster)
• 1997: Bogotá (see Francisco Clavet)
• 1999: Gstaad (see Albert Costa)
• 2000: Tokyo (see Sjeng Schalken)
• 2002: Viña del Mar (see Fernando González)
• 2003: Bastad (before Mariano Zabaleta)
• 2006: Palermo (see Filippo Volandri)

Doubles (3)

N.o	Date	Tournament	Surface	Couple	Opponents in the final	Outcome
1.	28 July 1997	Amsterdam	Whipped earth	Paul Kilderry	Andrew Kratzmann Libor Pimek	3-6 7-5 7-6
2.	20 October 1997	Mexico City	Whipped earth	Daniel Orsanic	Luis Herrera Mariano Sánchez	4-6 6-3 7-6
3.	4 January 1999	Adelaide	Dura	Gustavo Kuerten	Jim Courier Patrick Galbraith	6-4

Challengers (6)

N.o	Date	Tournament	Surface	Oponente en la final	Outcome
1.	20 November 1995	Santiago	Whipped earth	Nicolás Pereira	7-6 6-3
2.	29 November 2004	Aracajú	Whipped earth	Júlio Silva	6-2 6-2
3.	18 September 2006	Szczecin	Whipped earth	Bohdan Ulihrach	3-6 6-3 6-3
4.	24 September 2007	Grenoble	Dura	Kristian Pless	6-3 7-5
5.	5 November 2007	Guayaquil	Whipped earth	Daniel Gimeno-Traver	6-3 6-7(6) 7-5
6.	9 November 2009	Guayaquil	Whipped earth	Santiago Giraldo	6-2 2-6 7-6(4)

Historical classification

Individuals

Doubles

Top 10 wins

#	Player	Ranking	Event	Surface	Round	Puntaje	Lapentti Ranking
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	Dura	CF	6–1, 6–2	20
4.	Gustavo Kuerten	5	Lyon, France	Alfombra	CF	5–7, 6–4, 7–5	14
2001
5.	Magnus Norman	5	Indian Wells, United States	Dura	1R	4–6, 6–1, 6–1	27
6.	Tim Henman	10	Indian Wells, United States	Dura	3R	6-4	27
7.	Juan Carlos Ferrero	4	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	CF	7-6(8-6)6-2	36
8.	Lleyton Hewitt	3	Masters of Paris, France	Alfombra	2R	4–6, 6–4, 6–4	30
2003
9.	Jiří Novák	8	Masters in Miami, United States	Dura	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	Dura	2R	7-6(7–2)3–6, 6–3	89