Albert Costa (tennis player)

Albert Costa (tennis player)
Nation:	Spain
Birthday:	June 25, 1975
Size:	180 cm
1st professional season:	1993
Resignation:	2006
Playing hand:	Right
Prize money:	$ 7,685,228
singles
Career record:	385: 273
Career title:	12
Highest ranking:	6 (July 22, 2002)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	30:57
Career title:	1
Highest ranking:	102 (January 12, 2004)
Grand Slam record
Olympic games
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Albert Costa i Casals (born June 25, 1975 in Lleida ) is a former Spanish tennis player . He is often wrongly listed as Alberto Costa . In his career he won 12 tournaments in singles, all on clay. His greatest achievement was winning the French Open in 2002.

Career

Albert Costa started playing tennis at the age of five and was one of the best players in his last season on the Junior Tour in 1993. He reached the junior final of the French Open that year and won the Orange Bowl . In 1994 he played his first full professional season and was able to win a Challenger tournament at the beginning of the year. During the season, Costa won another tournament in this category and reached the semi-finals of three events on the ATP Tour . This season, in which he only appeared in two tournaments that were not played on clay, Costa finished in 52nd place in the world rankings . In 1995 he reached two finals in the first few months, but went as a loser in both Casablanca and Estoril . In the quarter-finals of the French Open , Costa only had to admit defeat to eventual tournament winner Thomas Muster from Austria in the fifth set ; He underlined his qualities as one of the best clay court players on the tour. He then won his first career title in Kitzbühel, and in the final he was able to take revenge against Muster. Costa inflicted the only defeat on the Austrian in 12 finals on clay in 1995. Costa ended the year at position 24 in the world rankings.

In 1996, Costa won a total of three tournaments, which he should only succeed again in the 1999 season. In the first half of the season he remained without a title and he failed at the French Open in the second round. At the Super Nine tournaments in Monte Carlo and Rome, he drew in the final, respectively. Semi-finals against Muster the shorter one and thus missed the first victory at a major European clay court event. Later that year, Costa celebrated three tournament wins - in Gstaad, San Marino and Bournemouth - which ended the season in 13th place in the world rankings. The 1997 season he began with a push into the quarter-finals at the Australian Open , where he (on hard court) had to admit defeat to eventual tournament winner Pete Sampras only after five sets . This success remained Costa's best Grand Slam result outside of the French Open. Before Paris, he won his fifth career title in Barcelona and led his country to win the World Team Cup with four individual victories . As a result, he made it into the top ten of the world rankings for the first time . In Roland Garros, Costa failed again relatively early - in the third round. Despite several semi-finals in the second half of the season and another tournament victory in Marbella, the Spaniard slipped to 19th position.

In the 1998 season, Costa achieved the first and only tournament victory of his career in a Super Nine tournament. In the final in Hamburg he defeated his compatriot Àlex Corretja . He missed another possible tournament victory in Rome, where he could not compete in the final. In Roland Garros he lost this time in the round of 16. After that, Costa won for the second time in his career in Kitzbühel and ended the season in 14th place in the world rankings. In 1999 he lost early in the important clay court tournaments, but with tournament victories in Estoril, Gstaad and Kitzbühel he was able to prevent him from slipping further than 18th in the world rankings. For the fourth time in a row he was able to end a season among the top 20 players.

In the 2000 season, Costa remained without a tournament victory for the first time in five years, but made the quarter-finals again at the French Open for five years. There he lost in four sets against the Argentine Franco Squillari . He ended the season without making it into the finals just outside the top 25 players. In December Costa won the Davis Cup with the Spanish team in the final against Australia , where he lost his only game. Another success of the season was winning the bronze medal in doubles at the Olympic Games in Sydney alongside Corretja. The 2001 season was similar to the previous season. Costa reached the final a fourth time in Kitzbühel, but lost to Nicolás Lapentti . In the meantime, he slipped to 65th place, also because he lost his opening match in Roland Garros this time. The round of 16 at the US Open helped to end the season in the top 40.

In 2002 Costa was no longer one of the favorites for the big clay court titles, too often in the past few years he was eliminated in the early stages of the French Open. Nevertheless, he achieved good results on clay and reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo and Rome, and even the final in Barcelona, ​​which he lost to Gastón Gaudio . At the French Open, Costa also made it to the quarter-finals with only one set loss. After defeating defending champion Gustavo Kuerten in three sets in the previous round, he beat Guillermo Cañas in a hard-fought five-set match in the quarterfinals before defeating Alex Corretja in the semifinals. In the final, Costa won the first two sets 6: 1 and 6: 0 against Juan Carlos Ferrero, and the loss of the third set could no longer prevent the only Grand Slam title in his career. Winning the French Open in 2002 should also be his last title and with this victory he made the jump back into the top ten of the world rankings. A few weeks later, when he reached the final in Amersfoort, he was in 6th place - the best position of his career. Until the end of the year, Costa was able to maintain the position in the top 10 and take part in the Tennis Masters Cup for the first time , where he won the group stage. He finished the season in 9th place.

In 2003 Costa caused a sensation again at the French Open when he played his way through to the semi-finals as defending champion. On the way there he won a total of four five-movement games; against Sergio Roitman, Nicolas Lapentti and Tommy Robredo , he was able to make up a 2-0 set deficit. In the semifinals he was then defeated by his compatriot Ferrero in three sets. In the remaining tournaments, Costa only made it past the round of 16 in Miami, but lost the semi-finals there against Andre Agassi . A year later he was only able to advance in Rome (semi-final defeat against David Nalbandian ) and Stuttgart (quarter-final defeat against Nikolai Dawydenko ). In the world rankings, Costa slipped to 56th place. In 2005 he could not stop relegation, despite two semi-finals in smaller tournaments in Doha and Valencia. In July 2005, Costa dropped out of the top 100 in the world rankings for the first time since 1994 .

The Spaniard ended the 2006 season prematurely and declared his career end on April 21, 2006 after he was eliminated in the round of 16 at the tournament in Barcelona. The now 30-year-old justified his resignation with injuries and a lack of motivation.

In December 2008 Albert Costa was named the new Davis Cup captain of the Spanish team. In 2009 and 2011 , Spain won the trophy under his leadership. Following the second title, Costa gave up the office, he was succeeded by Àlex Corretja.

Others

Five days after his triumph at the French Open in June 2002, Costa married his long-time friend Cristina Ventura, who gave birth to twin daughters Claudia and Alma in April 2001. His best friend Àlex Corretja was best man.

successes

Legend Grand Slam (1) Tennis Masters Cup ATP Masters Series (1) ATP International Series Gold (1) ATP International Series (8)

Title after covering Hard Court (1) Sand (12) Lawn (0) Carpet (0)

singles

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	August 6, 1995	Kitzbuhel (1)	sand	Thomas Muster	4: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6 3 , 2: 6, 6: 4
2.	July 14, 1996	Gstaad (1)	sand	Félix Mantilla	4: 6, 7: 6 2 , 6: 1, 6: 0
3.	August 11, 1996	San Marino	sand	Félix Mantilla	7: 6 7 , 6: 3
4th	September 15, 1996	Bournemouth	sand	Marc-Kevin Goellner	6: 7 4 , 6: 2, 6: 2
5.	April 20, 1997	Barcelona	sand	Albert Portas	7: 5, 6: 4, 6: 4
6th	September 14, 1997	Marbella	sand	Alberto Berasategui	6: 3, 6: 2
7th	May 10, 1998	Hamburg	sand	Alex Corretja	6: 2, 6: 0, 1: 0 task
8th.	August 1, 1998	Kitzbuhel (2)	sand	Andrea Gaudenzi	6: 2, 1: 6, 6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 1
9.	April 11, 1999	Estoril	sand	Todd Martin	7: 6 4 , 2: 6, 6: 3
10.	July 11, 1999	Gstaad (2)	sand	Nicolás Lapentti	7: 6 4 , 6: 3, 6: 4
11.	August 2, 1999	Kitzbuhel (3)	sand	Fernando Vicente	7: 5, 6: 2, 6: 7 5 , 7: 6 4
12.	June 11, 2002	French Open	sand	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6: 1, 6: 0, 4: 6, 6: 3

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 26, 1995	Casablanca	sand	Gilbert Schaller	4: 6, 2: 6
2.	April 9, 1995	Estoril	sand	Thomas Muster	4: 6, 2: 6
3.	January 18, 1996	Dubai	Hard court	Goran Ivanišević	4: 6, 3: 6
4th	April 28, 1996	Monte Carlo	sand	Thomas Muster	3: 6, 7: 5, 6: 4, 3: 6, 2: 6
5.	May 17, 1998	Rome	sand	Marcelo Ríos	Where
6th	September 20, 1998	Bournemouth	sand	Félix Mantilla	3: 6, 5: 7
7th	July 30, 2001	Kitzbühel	sand	Nicolás Lapentti	6: 1, 4: 6, 5: 7, 5: 7
8th.	April 28, 2002	Barcelona	sand	Gastón Gaudio	4: 6, 0: 6, 2: 6
9.	July 21, 2002	Amersfoort	sand	Juan Ignacio Chela	1: 6, 6: 7 4

Double

Tournament victory

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	January 9, 2005	Doha	Hard court	Rafael Nadal	Andrei Pavel Mikhail Juschny	6: 3, 4: 6, 6: 3

Web links

• ATP profile of Albert Costa (English)
• ITF profile Albert Costa (English)
• Davis Cup Statistics for Albert Costa (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Alberto Costa" on olympic.org