Potito Starace

Potito Starace
Country (sports) Italy
ResidenceCervinara, Italy
Born (1981-07-14) 14 July 1981 (age 43)
Cervinara, Italy
Height1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro2001
Retired2015
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize moneyUS$3,784,550
Singles
Career record162–193
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 27 (15 October 2007)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open1R (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
French Open3R (2004, 2007)
Wimbledon2R (2009)
US Open2R (2004, 2011)
Doubles
Career record110-114
Career titles6
Highest rankingNo. 40 (18 June 2012)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open3R (2011, 2012)
French OpenSF (2012)
Wimbledon2R (2006)
US Open3R (2011)
Last updated on: 15 March 2016.
Starace at the 2008 Pilot Pen Tennis tournament.

Potito Starace (Italian pronunciation: [poˈtiːto staˈraːtʃe];[1][2] born 14 July 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player on the ATP Tour. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world no. 27 on October 15, 2007. He was a clay court specialist, and was coached by Umberto Rianna.

Starace was banned from tennis for life by the Italian Tennis Federation and by the Tennis Integrity Unit for betting offences.

Career

One of the most memorable runs of Starace's career was when he made the men's doubles semifinals of the 2012 French Open, partnering Daniele Bracciali, before succumbing to top seeds Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi.

In singles, he made four ATP finals but lost in all of them. On the Challenger tour, he won the San Marino CEPU Open three times, a record for the tournament, and the Tennis Napoli Cup four times, also a record. Its also noticed the match at the tennis club Napoli against the well known couple called "cugini di campagna",where potito and his friend Volandri lost and after this retired from the professional career. In doubles, he won six ATP titles.

He represented Italy at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he lost to eventual gold medallist Rafael Nadal in the first round.[3]

Betting scandal

Following Alessio di Mauro's 9-month ban in November 2007, Starace and Daniele Bracciali were each fined and given short suspensions from playing. Starace received a fine of £21,400 and a 6-week ban from January 1, 2008.

Starace's case revolved around his final in Casablanca against the Spaniard Pablo Andújar, which the Italian lost. Starace had led their head-to-head 5-0 going into the match. Bookmaker Massimo Erodiani asked via Skype if Starace had received a certified cheque to lose the match and received an affirmative answer, explaining that all bets were safe on a Starace loss.[4]

In 2015, the Italian Tennis Federation banned Bracciali and Starace for life.[5] In 2019, he was banned by the Tennis Integrity Unit for life, subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[6]

ATP career finals

Singles: 4 (0–4)

Winner – Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–1)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–3)
Titles by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–4)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Apr 2007 Valencia, Spain Clay Spain Nicolás Almagro 6–4, 2–6, 1–6
Loss 0–2 Jul 2007 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Argentina Juan Mónaco 7–5, 3–6, 4–6
Loss 0–3 Aug 2010 Umag, Croatia Clay Spain Juan Carlos Ferrero 4–6, 4–6
Loss 0–4 Apr 2011 Casablanca, Morocco Clay Spain Pablo Andújar 1–6, 2–6

Doubles: 9 (6–3)

Winner – Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (2–2)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (4–1)
Titles by surface
Hard (2–0)
Clay (4–3)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Mar 2006 Acapulco, Mexico Clay Italy Filippo Volandri Czech Republic František Čermák
Czech Republic Leoš Friedl 		5–7, 2–6
Win 1–1 Mar 2007 Acapulco, Mexico Clay Argentina Martín Vassallo Argüello Czech Republic Lukáš Dlouhý
Czech Republic Pavel Vízner 		6–0, 6–2
Win 2–1 Jul 2007 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Peru Luis Horna Germany Tomas Behrend
Germany Christopher Kas 		7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–5)
Win 3–1 Oct 2008 Moscow, Russia Hard (i) Ukraine Sergiy Stakhovsky Australia Stephen Huss
United Kingdom Ross Hutchins 		7–6(7–4), 2–6, [10–6]
Loss 3–2 Feb 2010 Santiago, Chile Clay Argentina Horacio Zeballos Poland Łukasz Kubot
Austria Oliver Marach 		4–6, 0–6
Loss 3–3 Feb 2010 Acapulco, Mexico Clay Italy Fabio Fognini Poland Łukasz Kubot
Austria Oliver Marach 		0–6, 0–6
Win 4–3 Oct 2010 St. Petersburg, Russia Hard (i) Italy Daniele Bracciali India Rohan Bopanna
Pakistan Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 		7–6(8–6), 7–6(7–5)
Win 5–3 Sep 2011 Bucarest, Romania Clay Italy Daniele Bracciali Austria Julian Knowle
Spain David Marrero 		3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Win 6–3 Feb 2013 Viña del Mar, Chile Clay Italy Paolo Lorenzi Argentina Juan Mónaco
Spain Rafael Nadal 		6–2, 6–4

Performance timelines

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Current through 2015 French Open.

Tournament 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A 1R 1R 1R A 1R 1R 1R 1R Q1 Q3 A 0–7
French Open 3R A 1R 3R 1R 2R 2R 1R 1R A 1R Q1 6–9
Wimbledon 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R A A A 1–9
US Open 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R A A A A 2–8
Win–loss 3–3 0–3 0–4 2–4 0–3 2–4 1–4 1–4 0–3 0–0 0–1 0–0 9–33
Olympic Games
Summer Olympics A Not Held 1R Not Held A Not Held 0–1
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters A 1R A Q1 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R A A A 1–6
Miami Masters A 1R A 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R A A A 1–7
Monte Carlo Masters A 1R 2R A 1R Q1 A 1R 2R A Q2 A 2–5
Rome Masters A 2R 2R 3R 2R 1R 2R 3R 1R 2R A A 9–9
Madrid Masters A A A 1R A A A 1R Q1 A A A 0–2
Canada Masters A A A A A A A A A A A 0–0
Cincinnati Masters A A A A A A A A A A A 0–0
Shanghai Masters Not Masters Series A A A A A A 0–0
Paris Masters A A A 1R A A 1R A A A A 0–2
Hamburg Masters A A A A 2R Not Masters Series 1–1
Win–loss 0–0 1–4 2–2 3–4 2–5 1–3 1–5 2–4 1–4 1–1 0–0 0–0 14–32
Career statistics
Titles–Finals 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–2 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–4
Year-end ranking 76 105 83 31 72 62 47 58 164 152 163

Doubles

Current through 2013 Wimbledon Championships.

Tournament 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open 1R 2R A 1R 2R 3R 3R 2R 7–7
French Open QF 1R 1R A 3R QF SF 2R 13–7
Wimbledon 2R 1R A 1R 1R 1R A 1R 1–6
US Open 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R 3R A A 4–6
Win–loss 4–4 1–4 1–2 0–3 4–4 7–4 6–2 2–3 26–26

Top 10 wins

  • Starace has a 2–23 (.080) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
Season 2004 2005 Total
Wins 1 1 2
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score
2004
1. France Sébastien Grosjean 10 Roland Garros, Paris, France Clay 2R 7–6(8–6), 6–3, 6–4
2005
2. Spain Carlos Moyá 8 Rome, Italy Clay 1R 6–4, 7–6(9–7)

References

  1. ^ Luciano Canepari. "Potito". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  2. ^ Luciano Canepari. "Starace". DiPI Online (in Italian). Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  3. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Potito Starace". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18.
  4. ^ "Scommesse, dopo il calcio tocca al tennis: Sotto inchiesta le gare di Bracciali e Starace". 15 October 2014.
  5. ^ Italian tennis players Daniele Bracciali, Potito Starace banned for fixing
  6. ^ "Bracciali gets life ban for match-fixing". BBC Sport.