Juan Mónaco (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈxwamˈmonako];[1][a] born 29 March 1984), nicknamed "Pico", is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He won nine singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 2010 Shanghai Masters and the 2012 Miami Masters, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world no. 10 in July 2012. He announced his retirement from professional tennis on 15 May 2017.
Biography
Monaco comes from an indigenous Argentine background, and he started playing tennis at the age of six. His father, Héctor, is a businessman, while his mother, Cristina, is an architect. He has two siblings. He enjoys spending time at home in Tandil with family and friends. His favorite sports to follow are football and basketball. His favorite teams are Estudiantes de La Plata and the San Antonio Spurs. His favorite surface is clay. He counts Andre Agassi and countryman Mariano Zabaleta as his heroes. He also enjoys going to the cinema. His favorite movies are Gladiator and 300. He is also a fan of The Lord of the Rings books.[2]
Monaco used to be mentored by Luis Lobo of Argentina. Since the latter part of the 2010 season, Monaco was coached by Mariano Zabaleta. He added Gastón Etlis to his coaching team in February 2011.[3]
Career
2002–2003
In 2002, Monaco made his pro circuit debut. On 12 February, he won his first tournament in Jamaica F20, Montego Bay by defeating Francisco Rodríguez of Paraguay. He ended the year ranked no. 470 in singles.
In 2003, Monaco reached six finals, finishing as runner-up in two events in Jamaica F3, Montego Bay, losing to American Wayne Odesnik, and in Argentina F6, Buenos Aires losing to compatriot Diego Moyano. He however won four, all on clay, of his six finals. He won in Jamaica F4, Montego Bay, in Bolivia F1, La Paz, in Argentina F1, Buenos Aires, and Uruguay F2, Uruguay defeating Dmitri Sitak of Russia, and his compatriots Matias O'Neille, Carlos Berlocq, and Ignacio González King respectively. He ended the year ranked at no. 324 in singles.
2004–2006
Monaco started 2004 by winning in São Paulo–1, Brazil defeating Adrián García of Chile. He also made his ATP Debut in his home of Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 2004 Argentina Open, where he reached the quarterfinals (l. Guillermo Coria). He followed this up with a third-round result in his first Master Series event in the 2004 NASDAQ-100 Open, losing to Paradorn Srichaphan. He made his Grand Slam debut in the 2004 French Open as a qualifier, losing in the second round to eventual finalist and compatriot Guillermo Coria. He also reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 Swedish Open, losing to Chilean Fernando González. He got his best result of the year reaching his first semifinal in 2004 Idea Prokom Open in Sopot (l. to José Acasuso) and 2004 Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia in Paloma (l. to Filippo Volandri). He also made his 2004 US Open debut, but lost to compatriot Gastón Gaudio in the first round. He ended the year in the top 100 for the first time, ranked at no. 73 in singles.
2007 was Monaco's most successful year. Monaco started the year with a quarterfinal appearance at the 2007 Heineken Open, losing to compatriot Agustín Calleri. He also reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Brasil Open losing to another compatriot Juan Ignacio Chela. Monaco entered his home tournament of 2007 Copa Telmex in Buenos Aires ranked at no. 66, and exited with his first ATP title dominating Alessio di Mauro in the final in straight sets.
In the Grand Slams, Monaco lost in the first round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, losing to Nicolas Mahut and Kristof Vliegen, respectively. However, he reached the fourth round of the French Open and the US Open, losing to former French Open Champion Guillermo Cañas and Novak Djokovic. These results are the farthest he has gone at Grand Slams. He ended the year ranked no. 23, his highest year-end rank.
2008
In 2008, Monaco started the year with a semifinal appearance at the 2008 Heineken Open, losing to German Philipp Kohlschreiber. He also reached the third round of the 2008 Australian Open, the furthest he has reached so far, losing to Tomáš Berdych. In his first tournament after the Australian Open, he reached the final of the 2008 Movistar Open.[6] He was scheduled to play Fernando González in the final, but Gonzalez was granted a walkover due to a left ankle injury sustained by Monaco during the doubles final. Despite this, his performance during the week elevated Monaco to a career-high ranking of world no. 14.
He defeated Fabio Fognini in the second round of the 2010 BNP Paribas Open. He then faced Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round; this was their third straight meeting, with Ferrero prevailing in the other two. He upset Ferrero for the first time in a match than lasted over 3 hours. He then defeated Guillermo García López to reach his first hardcourt Master Series quarterfinal. He lost to eventual champion Ivan Ljubičić in a three-set match. In the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open, he lost in the third round to Fernando González, after defeating Marsel İlhan in the second round.
He was seeded 14th in Rome and won his first two matches against Adrian Ungur, and Radek Štěpánek, before losing to defending champion and world no. 1 Novak Djokovic.
At the French Open, he first faced Frenchman Guillaume Rufin. He then cruised passed Lukáš Rosol. In the third round he had a tough match against the big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic and converted 3/16 break points and saved all break points he faced, the Argentinian won the match. He made it to the fourth round, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.[11] He was broken twice in the first set and pulled a double bagel in the second and third, although he had a couple of break opportunities of his own in the second.
At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, he finally notched his first career win on grass by beating compatriot Leonardo Mayer in the first round. He then followed it up with a win over Jérémy Chardy. In the third round, he lost to Viktor Troicki despite leading the 1st set by a break and coming back from a break in the second.
Juan Mónaco then played the 2012 MercedesCup, he cruised past Tobias Kamke and Pavol Červenák in straight sets after receiving a bye in the first round. He then faced Guillermo García-López and was leading 5–0 in the third set; he then lost 5 games in a row but eventually won 7–5. In the final he lost to top seed Janko Tipsarević, even after coming back from 1–4 in the second and had momentum in the third. He then played at the 2012 International German Open, he first met Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the first round and won in three tight sets, being down 5–4 in the final set with Stebe serving for the match. He then won in straight sets against Daniel Muñoz de la Nava and Jérémy Chardy. In the semifinals he faced top seed Nicolás Almagro losing the first set, he came back and won the second. He was down 4–2 in the third but won the last 4 games to advance to the final. In the final he faced local man and wild card Tommy Haas and won being 4–1 down in the first. With the win he entered the top ten for the first time in his career.[12]
2012 proved to be Monaco's best year so far, with four singles titles.
2013
He lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Andrey Kuznetsov, suffering with a back injury.[14] He then continued to play singles in the Davis Cup against Germany, where he won both matches defeating Florian Mayer and Tobias Kamke, and his team won 5–0.[15] In doubles, he played with Rafael Nadal in his comeback and reached the final of the VTR Open, losing to Italians Paolo Lorenzi and Potito Starace. Monaco made five first-round exits in the main draw of ATP events. In the Davis Cup quarterfinals against France, he hit back with a solid win over Gilles Simon in the second rubber, but lost his second match to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
In 2014, Monaco failed to win consecutively until May in Düsseldorf, where he was the defending champion. He reach the quarterfinals after beating Benjamin Becker and Marcel Granollers. After the tournament, his ranking was down to no. 76 due to the loss of points he had been defending. At Gstaad, he defeated Guillermo García López and Robin Haase on the way to the final, where he was beaten by Pablo Andújar.
He reached the semifinals in Kitzbühel, where he was beaten by Dominic Thiem. He made a first-round exit at the US Open, falling to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
He made it to the semifinals of the Shenzhen Open, beating Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals, but unable to overcome Andy Murray. At the 2014 Shanghai Rolex Masters, he defeated João Sousa and eighth-seeded Milos Raonic to reach the third round, where he lost to Mikhail Youzhny. He ended the year at the Kremlin Cup, again losing to Youzhny in the second round.
January 2015 was not a good month for Monaco, as he failed to make it past the first round of any tournament. In February, he made it to the quarterfinals of the Rio Open, falling to David Ferrer. He had continued success on the South American clay courts at the Argentina Open, making it to the final against Rafael Nadal, but unable to overcome him.
Monaco made it to the third round at Indian Wells and the quarterfinals in Miami, falling to Thanasi Kokkinakis and Tomáš Berdych, respectively.
He made a series of second-round exits on the European clay courts, until Nice, where he made the quarterfinals. Then, he made another series of second-round exits, including at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. He did not make past the second round for the rest of the year, and finished the year with a first round loss to Robin Haase.
Monaco started 2016 with a second-round loss to Rafael Nadal in Buenos Aires and a first-round loss to Daniel Gimeno Traver in Rio de Janeiro. After two disappointing Masters 1000, Monaco won his first tournament since 2013 in Houston, beating Jack Sock in the final in three sets. In May, after losing at the Masters in Madrid, Monaco defeated Stan Wawrinka at the Rome Masters, but pulled out in the quarterfinals. The rest of the season was not successful, failing to make it past the second round in any tournament, save at the Japan Open, where he made it to the quarterfinals.
He played one tie Argentina's successful Davis Cup campaign of 2016, losing his match in the Quarter Finals, but being a part of the team overall to win the 2016 Davis Cup.
2017: Retirement
Monaco began his season at Indian Wells, losing in the first round to Adrian Mannarino. He was no more successful at the Miami Open, also losing in the first round, this time to Federico Delbonis. In April, Monaco lost to Dustin Brown in the first round in Houston, and announced his retirement the following month on 15 May.[18]