Chela’s farewell

There were four players to claim a title in their debut at the main level, five others won maiden tournament not having won a match before, Juan Ignacio Chela [176] is one of them (along with Butch Walts, Karel Novacek, Lleyton Hewitt and Steve Darcis). Mexico City… it was just fourth tournament in Chela’s career, he went through qualifying rounds to upset Gustavo Kuerten in the 2nd round. It must have been a tremendous boost of confidence for the young Argentinian player, who won three another matches to get the title. Thanks to that triumph he became immediately a regular tour player, mainly connected with clay-courts. The first setback occurred one year later when he was disqualified for 3 months due to accusations of taking illegal substance. “El Flaco” dropped to No. 826 and responded with an impressive streak of wins obtained at Challenger level – won 6 out of 7 Challengers to come back to the Top 100 within three months! His second major comeback was recorded eight years later as he’d slipped in ranking to No. 205 because of a herniated disc injury, only to win two ATP tournaments the following year which helped distinctively in reaching the Top 20 for the first time in four years. I consider him as an underachiever, over many years he had been circulating among clay-court specialists  (he adopted his game to hard-courts quite well though), but never reached a semifinal of most prestigious events, despite eleven quarterfinals (3 Grand Slams, 8 Masters 1000). The biggest opportunity was arguably wasted in Hamburg ’05 when he lost to Christophe Rochus. Chela was a member of the Davis Cup team over 12 years, but never won a rubber which would be remembered for years, he lost important ones to Russians (to Marat Safin in semifinal 2002 and Nikolay Davydenko four years later in final). Emotionally reserved (excluding an incident at Australian Open ’06), very solid baseliner, who actually never changed drastically his external appearance throughout career. Perhaps relatively weak serve – considering his height – foiled him in achieving bigger results…

Curiosities
* finished career with 326 wins, only three Argentinians won more in history: Guillermo Vilas (923), David Nalbandian (377) & Jose-Luis Clerc (375)
* according to my stats he never won a match saving m.p. in deciding set, but he did it six times in the 2nd set
* in 2004 captured titles in Estoril singles and doubles
* his win over Nicolas Massu in Acapulco 2007 after 3 hours 39 minutes, it was the longest 3-set match since Tel Aviv ’93 (Cherkasov def. Gaudenzi)
* he’d lost 8 consecutive 5-setters before he won his first one, against Benjamin Becker at Wimbledon ’07; Becker was serving for match at 6:5 in the 5th set; Chela had won 7 five-setters in a row since then  before lost this year 9-11 in the 5th set to Martin Klizan, which ultimately was not only the longest match in career, but the last one as well…
Juan Ignacio Chela in numbers (singles):
6 titles (9 Challengers), 6 finals (4 CH):
Titles:
99 – Salinas, Lima
00 – Mexico City (4)
01 – Budaros, Segovia, Ribeirao Preto, Campinas-2, Szczecin, Lima
02 – Amersfoort (47)
04 – Estoril (94)
07 – Acapulco (168)
09 – Medelin
10 – Houston (223), Bucharest (236)
Finals:
01 – Bogota; 02 – Sydney, Long Island; 06 – Acapulco, Kitzbuhel; 11 – Buenos Aires
Best Grand Slam results:
Roland Garros (quarter-finalist 2004, 11)
US Open (quarter-finalist 2007)
# Member of the Argentinian team in the Davis Cup final (2006); contributor to the Argentinian triumph at World Team Cup (2007) with 1-2 record in singles, 1-1 in doubles
# Highest ranking: 15 (09.08.2004)
Ranking in years 1996-2011:
1165 – 628 – 204 – 131 – 63 – 71 – 23 – 38 – 26 – 39 – 33 – 20 – 140 – 73 – 38 – 29.
Detailed stats (main level only):
275 tournaments (years 1999-2012)
Win/loss record:
main level: 326/277 (.540)
all levels: 496/347 (.588)
5-setters: 7-9 (.437)
Tie-breaks: 100-108 (.480)
– deciding 3rd set tie-breaks: 10-7 (.588)
m.p. matches: 6-4 (.600)
Longest winning streak: 8 [2007]
Longest losing streak: 8 [2012]
Longest win: 4 hours 21 min. Sasa Tuksar 3-6, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6 – Davis Cup 2006
Longest defeat: 4 hours 53 min. Martin Klizan 5-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1, 9-11 – Wimbledon 2012
Longest tie-break won: Juan Albert Viloca 7-6(10), 6-3 – Bogota 2001
Longest tie-break lost: Potito Starace 4-6, 6-7(10) – Barcelona 2007
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