Acasuso’s farewell

The 29-year-old Jose Acasuso announces his retirement this week in Buenos Aires. Chucho’s career has been basically finished since 2009 when he suffered a severe knee injury, in the last two seasons he played barely four ATP tournaments and dropped outside the Top 200 for the first time since his rookie year. I consider him as an underachiever, when he was on, he was able to produce magnificent tennis, especially on his favorite surface – clay, where played all his eleven ATP finals. It’s tough to indicate a weakness in his repertoire in terms of technique… he possessed massive serve, very nice to watch one-handed backhand, decent volleys (similar achievements in doubles as in singles). I guess his head was the biggest problem to achieve more, quite often he seemed completely indifferent on court throughout his matches. He had twice an occasion to become a national hero playing as a joker in the Davis Cup finals on Sunday, especially in 2006 as he faced Marat Safin in a deciding 5th rubber against Russia. He said during a farewell ceremony  at the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club: “It was a tough and important decision, that’s why I took some time to make it public. It was 12 years of my life, but since I began playing tennis it’s more than 25, so that’s why I wanted to really think about it. Tennis was my life. I gave my best to be a professional player and do what I liked the most. I’m closing an important part of my life where I went through amazing moments like winning tournaments, representing my country, beating the best players in the world and traveling around the world.”

Curiosities:
* reached first ATP final in his tournament debut (as a qualifier in Buenos Aires 2001)
* lost two vital rubbers which concluded Davis Cup finals (2006 to M.Safin, 2008 to F.Verdasco), in the Open era it occurred also to Ion Tiriac
* one out of five players to win the longest tie-break in singles (20-18 against Bjorn Phau)
* never won a match on grass in eight attempts
* in 2006 was involved in the last – by far – 5-set final outside majors, he lost to David Ferrer despite a 2-sets-to-1 lead and serving at 5:1 in the 4th set, in the 9th game he held a match point
* in 2009 played against Tommy Robredo in every tournament of the South American swing (three times in semi-finals, once in quarterfinals); they shared two wins each (their H2H overall: 5-5)
* played two matches in his career against Olivier Patience and won both saving match points (5 m.p. – Buenos Aires ’04; 1 m.p. – Vina del Mar ’05)

Jose Acasuso in numbers (singles):

3 titles (4 Challengers), 8 finals (5 CH):

Titles:
01 – Bermuda
02 – Sopot (24), San Marino
04 – Bucharest (63)
06 – Vina del Mar (95)
10 – Tunis
11 – Blumenau

Finals:
01 – Buenos Aires; 02 – Bucharest, Palermo; 04 – Sopot;
06 – Stuttgart; 07 – Sopot; 08 – Buenos Aires; 09 – Vina del Mar

Best Grand Slam results:
Roland Garros (2005 – 4th round)

He was a member of the winning team for Argentina at the World Team Cup in 2002 (2/2 singles) and 2007 (3/0 singles; 1/0 doubles) and a member of the team which lost the Davis Cup final twice (2006, 2008)

Highest ranking: 20 (14.08.2006)

Ranking in years 1999-2011:
256 – 175 – 86 – 41 – 101 – 67 – 40 – 27 – 65 – 48 – 51 – 253 – 255.

Win/loss record:
main level: 193/183 (.513)
all levels: 353/253 (.582)

Detailed stats (main level only):

180 tournaments (years 2001-2011)

5-setters: 5-5
Tie-breaks: 65-71 (.478)
– deciding 3rd set tie-breaks: 4-3 (.571)
m.p. matches: 5-5 
Longest winning streak: 9 [2006]
Longest losing streak: 7 [2004]

Longest win: 3 hours, 57 minutes. Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 1-6, 11-9 – Roland Garros 2006
Longest defeat: 5 hours. David Ferrer 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, 5-7, 4-6 – Stuttgart 2006
Longest tie-break won: Bjorn Phau 7-5, 7-6(18) – Toronto 2006
Longest tie-break lost: Roger Federer 6-7(8), 7-5, 6-7, 2-6 – Roland Garros 2009