Fernando González

Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (born 29 July 1980) is a retired professional tennis player from Chile. During his career he made it to the quarterfinal round of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the 2007 Australian Open, losing to top-seeded Roger Federer. He is the fourth male tennis player in history to have won each Olympic medal (gold in doubles and bronze in singles at Athens 2004, and silver in singles at Beijing 2008). The gold medal González won together with Nicolás Massú in the 2004 Olympic doubles competition was the first ever gold medal won by Chile at the Olympics.
Throughout his career, González defeated many past and present top players, including Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer (all while they held the top spot), Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyá, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin, Pete Sampras, and Andy Murray. González qualified twice for the year-end Masters Cup event and was runner-up at two Masters Series tournaments.
González was known for having one of the hardest forehands on the tour. In Spanish he is called El Bombardero de La Reina ("The La Reina Bomber") and Mano de Piedra ("Stone Hand").

Early years

At age four, González spent his time playing both football and tennis. His father, who was an amateur tennis player, was able to convince his son to opt for tennis over football. He began playing tennis at the age of six. He moved in with his family to La Reina in eastern Santiago, where he practiced with his coach Claudio González (no relation) at the Club La Reina three times a week.

In 1988, at age eight, González and his father spent a month and a half in the United States, training and playing in tennis championships. In 1992 he moved with his whole family to the U.S. for four years. They settled in Miami, where González perfected his play at the Patricio Apey Academy.

As a junior, González won the US Open Boys' Doubles (with compatriot Nicolás Massú) in 1997, and the French Open singles (defeating a young Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final) and doubles (with Venezuelan José de Armas) in 1998. That year, at 17, he made his Davis Cup debut in Chile's tie against Argentina, losing in four sets to Franco Squillari. He won his first Davis Cup tie in a doubles rubber partnering Massú. González reached as high as No. 4 in the world in singles and No. 2 in doubles.

González achieved success at the Futures level in 1998. In the three futures events held in Chile that year, he reached two semifinals and defeated Italian Enzo Artoni in the final in Santiago.

1999–2004

González became a professional in 1999. Early in the year, he played mainly at the Futures level. He reached his first challenger quarterfinal in Edinburgh. He played his first ATP tournament in Washington, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the first round, before losing to Marc Rosset.

González won his first ATP title in May 2000 when he defeated Massú at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships final in Orlando, Florida. It was the first all-Chilean ATP final since Jaime Fillol defeated Ricardo Acuña in the 1982 Itaparica final.

In January 2001, González played at the Australian Open for the first time, losing in the first round to Guillermo Coria in four sets. In May, he debuted at Roland Garros's main singles draw, reaching the second round. He continued to play Challengers and smaller ATP events throughout the year. Notable results include a final at the Montevideo Challenger (losing to David Nalbandian), and semifinals, at Zagreb and Lima.

In February 2002, González won his second career ATP title in Viña del Mar by defeating Nicolás Lapentti in the final, and later that year he won his third title in Palermo, Italy and reached the semifinals at the Cincinnati Masters (defeating seeded Tim Henman and Andy Roddick en route), and the quarterfinals at the US Open. In September he surpassed former no. 1 player Marcelo Ríos as the top Chilean in the singles rankings and was one of the most improved players on the ATP circuit, jumping 123 positions in the ATP singles rankings.

In May 2003, González reached the quarterfinals of Hamburg and the French Open. In between, he won the World Team Championship clay event for Chile, winning all his singles and doubles matches. Later in the year, he reached the finals of Washington and Metz and made the Stuttgart semifinals. In doubles, he and partner Tommy Robredo reached the semifinals at Miami.

In February 2004, González repeated his Viña del Mar title by defeating Gustavo Kuerten in the final. In August, at the Olympic Games in Athens, he and doubles partner Massú gave their country its first ever Olympic gold medal, when they defeated Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler of Germany to win the men's doubles tournament. He also won a bronze medal in the men's singles. Gonzalez had to play the bronze medal match against Taylor Dent and the doubles final on the same day. Also, he saved match points in both games, most notably four match points in the doubles final in the fourth set tiebreak.

2005

Fernando González at training for the World Team Cup, in 2005

González began the season by taking the title in Auckland, New Zealand, his first hard court title. In April, he won his first ATP doubles tournament (and second after the Olympics), in Valencia (clay) with doubles partner Martín Rodríguez. After reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in June, he went on to win the ATP tournament in Amersfoort (clay), The Netherlands in the following month. He further proved his all-court versatility by winning the indoors-carpet singles title at Basel, as well as winning the doubles title in the same tournament with partner Agustín Calleri. The results for 2005 were enough for him to attend the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai, first as a reserve, and then as a player due to the withdrawal of Andre Agassi after his first match. González became the first Chilean to win a Masters match when he beat Mariano Puerta and just missed out on making the semifinal—and finishing the year as number 11—after losing to Gastón Gaudio in a match in which he had three match points.

2006

In April, González became the third Chilean (after Ríos and Massú) to break into the top 10 singles ranking. In May, he reached no. 10 in the world after winning a quarterfinal match at the Monte-Carlo Masters shortly after parting ways with longtime coach Horacio de la Peña, who was then replaced by Larry Stefanki. After reaching his first Masters Series singles final in Madrid (losing to Roger Federer in straight sets) in October, he ascended to world no. 7. He finished the year at no. 10.

2007

In January, González reached the Australian Open singles final, thereby becoming the first Chilean to have reached the quarterfinal round in all four Grand Slam tournaments and the fourth Chilean (third male) to have reached a Grand Slam tournament final. He beat—in succession—Evgeny Korolev, Juan Martín del Potro, Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, world no. 2 Rafael Nadal, and Tommy Haas en route to the final, which he lost to world no. 1 Roger Federer in (relatively close) straight sets. On 29 January, he jumped to no. 5, his best career singles ranking, and only five points behind no. 4. In May, he became the first Chilean to reach the finals of the Rome Masters since Ríos won the title in 1998. At the US Open, González was upset by Teymuraz Gabashvili in a five-set thriller. From July to August, González went on a five-match losing streak, which ended in September, when he captured the China Open tournament title in Beijing. In November, he became the first Chilean since Ríos in 1998 to directly qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup. In his opening match, he staged a huge upset by beating top-ranked Federer for the first time in eleven encounters. He then lost to Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko, finishing last of his group. He ended the season at no. 7, his highest year-end ranking to date.

2008

At the Australian Open in January, González failed to defend all his points from the previous year and fell from no. 7 to no. 24 in the ATP singles rankings. He bounced back the following week, winning his home event at Viña del Mar for the third time, rising to no. 16. In May, he won his tenth ATP title at the BMW Open in Munich. The following month, he reached the quarterfinals of the French Open for the second time, losing to top seed Roger Federer in four sets. In August, González represented Chile at the Beijing Olympic Games in both singles and doubles events. At the opening ceremony, he was his country's standard bearer. As in Athens 2004, he partnered with Massú in doubles, but was unable to defend his gold, exiting in the first round. In singles, he improved his Olympic record, clinching a silver medal, after beating James Blake of the United States in the semifinals. In the gold medal match, he lost in straight sets to Spain's Rafael Nadal.

González made the semi-finals of the 2009 French Open, his career-best performance at the tournament.

At the 2008 U.S. Open in September, he lost in the fourth round to former local champion, Andy Roddick, 2–6, 4–6, 1–6. He ended the season at no. 15. In November, at the end of the season, Stefanki ceased coaching González after a job offer from Roddick. On 12 December, González announced he had hired former Argentine player Martín Rodríguez as his new full-time coach for 2009.

2009

In the first round of the Australian Open, González prevailed over Lleyton Hewitt in a five-set thriller which lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes. In the third round, González came back from two sets down to defeat Richard Gasquet of France, 3–6, 3–6, 7–6, 6–2, 12–10, in a match that lasted over four hours. He bowed out of the tournament with a straight-sets defeat against world no. 1 and eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.

At the Viña del Mar tournament in February, González was victorious again, taking the title for the fourth time in five finals. He overpowered all of his opponents with a solid display of tennis and did not drop a set throughout the whole tournament. He defeated his good friend José Acasuso, 6–1, 6–3, in the final. With this win, he returned to the top 15 in singles.

In early March, González missed the Davis Cup tie against Croatia due to a back injury. In April, he resigned from the Chilean Davis Cup team, citing a violation of a confidentiality agreement, after the local tennis federation disclosed the amount of money won by the players at the tie against Australia. He conditioned his return on the resignation of the federation's current directive, promising he would relinquish all his future Davis Cup proceeds to the "benefit of younger players."

At the start of the clay-court season, González reached the semifinals at Barcelona and Rome. He withdrew from Munich and Madrid, after twisting his ankle while signing autographs in Rome. At the French Open, he reached the semifinals for the first time, beating third seed Andy Murray in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he played Robin Söderling, who had previously defeated top seed Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko. González came just two games away from winning that match during the fifth set, after holding an advantage of 4–1.

At the US Open, González reached the quarterfinals for the second time, beating seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round. He was defeated by third seed Rafael Nadal in a match repeatedly delayed by rain. The match was suspended on Thursday night with González trailing, 6–7, 6–6, down 2–3 in the tiebreaker. When the match resumed on Saturday, González was visibly flat, losing the remaining four points in the tiebreaker and not winning a game in the third set.

With his notable performances at the French and US Open, González achieved a career-high 14 victories in Grand Slam events during the year.

2010

Having defeated Olivier Rochus, Marsel İlhan and Evgeny Korolev in the Australian Open, González was defeated by Andy Roddick in the fourth round in a tense, controversial five-set match lasting 3 hours and 25 minutes. On set point in the fourth set, a Roddick forehand winner was called out which Roddick challenged. Hawk-eye revealed that the ball was in fact in, and Roddick received the set. Gonzalez argued that the point should have been replayed, as he had been in the right position and would have made a play on the ball if it had been called in. Gonzalez lost the match, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4, 5–7, 2–6.

He entered the 2010 Movistar Open, held in Santiago for the first time that year (previously at Viña del Mar), as the two-time defending champion. He made the semifinals, losing to Thomaz Bellucci in three sets (after being a break up in the second set and two games away from victory).

He also made the semifinals at the 2010 Abierto Mexicano Telcel. He beat all of his opponents; Sam Querrey, Victor Hănescu, and Eduardo Schwank, in three sets, before losing badly to David Ferrer. Gonzalez decided to skip the 1000 Masters in Indian Wells to travel to areas affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile.

In early March, alongside his teammates, he defeated Israel in the Davis Cup to send Chile to the quarterfinals. He returned to the ATP Tour Masters 1000 in Miami, where he lost in the fourth round to Robin Söderling. He also hosted a benefit for the Chilean earthquake victims, Champions for Chile, appearing alongside Andy Roddick, Jim Courier, and Gustavo Kuerten.

During the clay season, Gonzalez played only one tournament in Houston, where he reached the quarterfinals. At Roland Garros, he was defeated in the second round and sidelined for almost three months with a knee injury.

Gonzalez returned in New Haven, where he lost in the second round to Radek Štěpánek. At the US Open, he retired from his first-round match against Ivan Dodig. On 21 September, Gonzalez announced that he would be having surgery on his right hip, and possibly right knee, on 4 October and was expected to be out for eight to nine months.

2011

Gonzalez announced he would return to Belgrade for "the start of the end of my career." He defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov in the first round of Wimbledon and made it to the third round, where he was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets, 3–6, 4–6, 3–6.

2012

On 9 February 2012 González announced that he would retire from professional tennis after the 2012 Miami Masters. He played his last professional match on 21 March 2012 at the Miami tournament, losing in three sets to Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in the first round.

González was born in Santiago, Chile. His father, Fernando González Ramírez, is the manager of the Molino Balmaceda flour mill in Santiago and his mother, Patricia Ciuffardi Muñoz, a housewife. He has an older sister, Patricia, and a younger sister, Jéssica. He studied primary school at Colegio de La Salle and finished secondary school at Colegio Terra Nova.

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2007	Australian Open	Hard	Roger Federer	6–7(2–7), 4–6, 4–6

Olympic finals

Singles: 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Bronze	2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Taylor Dent	6–4, 2–6, 16–14
Silver	2008	Beijing Olympics	Hard	Rafael Nadal	3–6, 6–7(2–7), 3–6

Doubles: 1 (1 gold medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Gold	2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Nicolas Massú	Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler	6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4

Masters Series finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Champion	Score
Runner-up	2006	Madrid	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	5–7, 1–6, 0–6
Runner-up	2007	Rome	Clay	Rafael Nadal	2–6, 2–6

Singles: 22 (11–11)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	7 May 2000	Orlando, U.S.	Clay	Nicolás Massú	6–2, 6–3
Winner	2.	17 February 2002	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Nicolás Lapentti	6–3, 6–7(5–7), 7–6(7–4)
Winner	3.	29 September 2002	Palermo, Italy	Clay	José Acasuso	5–7, 6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	27 October 2002	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	David Nalbandian	4–6, 3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	2.	3 August 2003	Washington, D.C., U.S.	Hard	Tim Henman	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	3.	5 October 2003	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
Winner	4.	15 February 2004	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	18 July 2004	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Martin Verkerk	6–7(5–7), 6–4, 4–6
Winner	5.	16 January 2005	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Olivier Rochus	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	5.	6 February 2005	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	3–6, 4–6
Winner	6.	24 July 2005	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Agustín Calleri	7–5, 6–3
Winner	7.	30 October 2005	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Marcos Baghdatis	6–7(8–10), 6–3, 7–5, 6–4
Runner-up	6.	15 October 2006	Vienna, Austria	Hard (i)	Ivan Ljubičić	3–6, 4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	7.	22 October 2006	Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	5–7, 1–6, 0–6
Runner-up	8.	29 October 2006	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	3–6, 2–6, 6–7(3–7)
Runner-up	9.	28 January 2007	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Roger Federer	6–7(2–7), 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	10.	13 May 2007	Rome, Italy	Clay	Rafael Nadal	2–6, 2–6
Winner	8.	16 September 2007	Beijing, China	Hard	Tommy Robredo	6–1, 3–6, 6–1
Winner	9.	3 February 2008	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Juan Mónaco	W/O
Winner	10.	4 May 2008	Munich, Germany	Clay	Simone Bolelli	7–6(7–4), 6–7(4–7), 6–3
Runner-up	11.	17 August 2008	Summer Olympics, Beijing, China	Hard	Rafael Nadal	3–6, 6–7(2–7), 3–6
Winner	11.	8 February 2009	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	José Acasuso	6–1, 6–3

Other wins

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Bronze	1.	21 August 2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Taylor Dent	6–4, 2–6, 16–14

Doubles: 4 (3–1)

Wins (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
1.	21 August 2004	Summer Olympics, Athens, Greece	Hard	Nicolás Massú	Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler	6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4
2.	10 April 2005	Valencia, Spain	Clay	Martín Rodríguez	Lucas Arnold Ker Mariano Hood	6–4, 6–4
3.	30 October 2005	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Agustín Calleri	Stephen Huss Wesley Moodie	7–5, 7–5

Runner-up (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
1.	24 July 2005	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Nicolás Massú	Martín García Luis Horna	4–6, 4–6

Team competition wins

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partners	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	24 May 2003	World Team Cup Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	Nicolás Massú Marcelo Ríos	Jiří Novák Radek Štěpánek	2–1
Winner	2.	22 May 2004	World Team Cup Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	Adrián García Nicolás Massú	Wayne Arthurs Paul Hanley Lleyton Hewitt Mark Philippoussis	2–1

Singles performance timeline

Doubles performance timeline

1Held as Hamburg Masters till 2008. Held as Madrid Masters 2009–2012.
2Held as Stuttgart Masters till 2001, Madrid Masters from 2002–2008, and Shanghai Masters 2009–2012.