Alberto Berasategui

Alberto Berasategui

Country (sports)	Spain
Residence	Bellaterra, Spain
Born	(1973-06-28) 28 June 1973 Bilbao, Spain
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Turned pro	1991
Retired	May 2001
Plays	Right-handed (one and two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$4,676,187
Singles
Career record	278–199
Career titles	14
Highest ranking	No. 7 (14 November 1994)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (1998)
French Open	F (1994)
Wimbledon	1R (2000)
US Open	2R (1993, 1996)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (1994)
Doubles
Career record	47–59
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 55 (6 October 1997)

Alberto Berasategui (born 28 June 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He won 14 singles titles and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 7 in November 1994.

Tennis career

Berasategui won a total of 14 top-level singles titles and 1 tour doubles titles. He won at least 1 singles title for 6 consecutive years (1993–1998). He began playing tennis at age seven and was the European junior champion in 1991. He turned professional later that year, and won his first top-level singles title in 1993, 2 years later. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 7.

In 1994, Berasategui reached nine finals, winning seven of them. He also reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where he faced fellow Spaniard and defending champion Sergi Bruguera. He was defeated in four sets, 3–6, 5–7, 6–2, 1–6.

Berasategui retired from the professional tour in May 2001, having had persistent wrist injuries since his match with Hernán Gumy at the Bologna tournament in June 1998. The injuries had an adverse effect on his results and form, and had caused his consistency and ranking to decline. He also suffered severe cramps of unknown origin in long matches.

Playing style

Bererasategui was known for his extreme western grip, known as the "Hawaiian grip", where his unusual hold on the racket would allow him to hit both forehands and backhands with the same side of the racket.^[1] This helped him on clay, but he did not have much of an impact on other surfaces except for a quarterfinals appearance at the 1998 Australian Open, in which he beat world No. 2, Patrick Rafter, in the third round in four sets, and came back from two sets down to beat the 1995, 2000, and 2001 Australian Open champion, former and future world No. 1 Andre Agassi in the fourth round. He lost in quarterfinals to Marcelo Ríos after winning a tight first set tiebreak 7–6^(8–6), 4–6, 4–6, 0–6.

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1994	French Open	Clay	Sergi Bruguera	3–6, 5–7, 6–2, 1–6

Career finals

Singles: 23 (14 titles, 9 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	30 August 1993	Umag, Croatia	Clay	Thomas Muster	5–7, 6–3, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	11 October 1993	Athens, Greece	Clay	Jordi Arrese	4–6, 6–3, 3–6
Winner	1.	8 November 1993	São Paulo, Brazil	Clay	Sláva Doseděl	6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	15 November 1993	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Carlos Costa	6–3, 1–6, 4–6
Winner	2.	18 April 1994	Nice, France	Clay	Jim Courier	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	4.	23 May 1994	Bologna, Italy	Clay	Javier Sánchez	6–7(3–7), 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up	5.	6 June 1994	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Sergi Bruguera	3–6, 5–7, 6–2, 1–6
Winner	3.	25 July 1994	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Andrea Gaudenzi	7–5, 6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Winner	4.	29 August 1994	Umag, Croatia	Clay	Karol Kučera	6–2, 6–4
Winner	5.	3 October 1994	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Àlex Corretja	2–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–4
Winner	6.	10 October 1994	Athens, Greece	Clay	Óscar Martínez	4–6, 7–6(7–4), 6–3
Winner	7.	31 October 1994	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Francisco Clavet	6–3, 6–4
Winner	8.	7 November 1994	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Francisco Clavet	6–4, 6–0
Winner	9.	19 June 1995	Porto, Portugal	Clay	Carlos Costa	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	6.	6 November 1995	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Bohdan Ulihrach	2–6, 3–6
Winner	10.	24 June 1996	Bologna, Italy	Clay	Carlos Costa	6–3, 6–4
Winner	11.	29 July 1996	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Àlex Corretja	6–2, 6–4, 6–4
Winner	12.	16 September 1996	Bucharest, Romania	Clay	Carlos Moyà	6–1, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	7.	15 September 1997	Marbella, Spain	Clay	Albert Costa	3–6, 2–6
Winner	13.	6 October 1997	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Dominik Hrbatý	6–4, 6–2
Winner	14.	13 April 1998	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Thomas Muster	3–6, 6–1, 6–3
Runner-up	8.	20 April 1998	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Todd Martin	2–6, 6–1, 3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	9.	11 October 1999	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Arnaud di Pasquale	1–6, 3–6

Performance timelines

Singles

References

External links

• Alberto Berasategui at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Alberto Berasategui at the International Tennis Federation
• Alberto Berasategui at the Davis Cup