Mariano Puerta

Mariano Rubén Puerta (born 19 September 1978) is a former Argentine professional male tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 9 singles ranking on August 15, 2005. His career highlights include reaching the final of the French Open in 2005, where he lost to Rafael Nadal in four sets.

Puerta made his debut on the ATP Tour in 1997, and turned professional in 1998. He won his first ATP title in 1998 in Palermo, Italy. In 2000, Puerta achieved his highest year-end ranking of World No. 21, reaching five finals, and winning one of them (Bogotá). That same year, however, he underwent wrist surgery, which kept him off the tour for several months.

Besides from not recovering his previous playing level, he was suspended 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 No. 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(8–6), 3–6, 1–6, 5–7). By August 2005 he had climbed to a career-best World No. 9 in the ATP singles 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.

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. In the second round, Puerta lost 6–3 6–0 to Spaniard Marc López. Since returning to the tour, Puerta has only played on the ATP Challenger Tour, including winning the Bogota challenger in 2008 and reaching the final of the San Luis Potosi Challenger in 2008 without dropping a set, where he was forced to default the final, and the Cordenons challenger in 2007.

Puerta is left-handed and uses a single-handed backhand. He is an excellent clay-court specialist with a game that revolves around very accurate and powerful groundstrokes off both wings with heavy topspin. His main weaknesses are his mental strength, slow court speed and comparatively weak serve, the latter two which significantly prevents his success on fast surfaces. He is also very capable at the net, having good volleys and quick reflexes despite his slow court speed.

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 $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 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". 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.

Grand Slams

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2005	French Open	Rafael Nadal	7–6(8–6), 3–6, 1–6, 5–7

Singles: 10 (3 titles, 7 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	10 August 1998	San Marino Open, San Marino	Clay	Dominik Hrbatý	2–6, 5–7
Winner	1.	5 October 1998	Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, Palermo, Italy	Clay	Franco Squillari	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	21 February 2000	Mexican Open, Mexico City, Mexico	Clay	Juan Ignacio Chela	4–6, 6–7(4–7)
Runner-up	3.	28 February 2000	Chile Open, Santiago, Chile	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	6–7(3–7), 3–6
Winner	2.	6 March 2000	Bancolombia Open, Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	6–4, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	4.	10 July 2000	Swiss Open, Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Àlex Corretja	1–6, 3–6
Runner-up	5.	17 July 2000	Croatia Open, Umag, Croatia	Clay	Marcelo Ríos	6–7(1–7), 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up	6.	7 February 2005	ATP Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	4–6, 4–6
Winner	3.	4 April 2005	Grand Prix Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Juan Mónaco	6–4, 6–1
Runner-up	7.	5 June 2005	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Rafael Nadal	7–6(8–6), 3–6, 1–6, 5–7

Doubles: 3 (3 titles)

Wins (3)

(WIP)

• 1998:
  • Bogotá (with Diego del Río)
• 1999:
  • Munich (with Daniel Orsanic)
  • Umag (with Javier Sánchez)

Singles

Walkovers are neither official wins nor official losses.