Fernando González

This article is about the tennis player Fernando González. For the architect and sculptor see Fernando González Gortázar ; for agent Fernando González, see Miami Five .

Fernando González
Fernando González at Wimbledon in 2011
Nickname:	El Bombardero de La Reina (The Bomber of La Reina), Mano de Piedra (Stone Hand)
Nation:	Chile
Birthday:	July 29, 1980
Size:	183 cm
Weight:	82 kg
1st professional season:	1999
Resignation:	2012
Playing hand:	Right
Trainer:	Martin Rodriguez
Prize money:	$ 8,829,366
singles
Career record:	367: 198
Career title:	11
Highest ranking:	5 (January 29, 2007)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	109: 98
Career title:	3
Highest ranking:	25 (July 4th 2005)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Olympic games
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (born July 29, 1980 in Santiago de Chile ) is a former Chilean tennis player . In his career he won eleven individual titles. The greatest success of his career, however, was winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at the side of his compatriot Nicolás Massú .

life and career

González, who was born in Santiago , moved with his family to the community of La Reina, east of Santiago, where his father was president of a tennis club. Fernando began playing tennis himself at the age of seven and attracted attention early on through success on the junior tour. Among other things, he reached first place in the junior world rankings. He also won the 1997 US Open junior competition in doubles with Nicolás Massú. The following year he won two junior titles at the French Open , in singles against Juan Carlos Ferrero and in doubles with José de Armas . For the 1999 season González switched to the professional tour.

The first professional years (1999-2003)

In his first professional season he mostly participated in tournaments of the lower categories, he only played two games in tournaments of the highest category. In the 2000 season González won his first tournament victory on the ATP Tour at the US Men's Clay Court Championships in Orlando. He could not build on this success in 2001, he only got one final and two semi-finals in tournaments of the Challenger series.

His breakthrough came in the 2002 season when he celebrated tournament victories in Viña del Mar and Palermo . He also caused a stir at the Grand Slam tournaments with a quarter-finals at the US Open and reaching the round of 16 at the Australian Open . González finished the season in 18th place in the world rankings ; he overtook Marcelo Ríos and was the best-run Chilean in the ranking for the first time. The year 2003 was rather disappointing; he remained in the entire season without a tournament win, but he reached his second Grand Slam quarter-finals at the French Open .

Olympic victory in doubles and the years 2004 to 2006

In the 2004 season González managed to win the title again in Viña del Mar, but the greatest success of his young career was to follow at the Olympic Games in Athens. There he succeeded in the finals of the doubles competition alongside Nicolás Massú ; the Chileans were able to defeat the German doubles with Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler after they had awarded five match points. On the same day González had already won the bronze medal in the individual competition by beating Taylor Dent . In both games combined, González was on the pitch for over seven hours that day.

In the 2005 season he won three tournaments - in Auckland , Amersfoort and Basel . He also reached his third Grand Slam quarter-finals at Wimbledon . Through these successes he was able to participate as a reservist in the season-closing Tennis Masters Cup . After Andre Agassi left, González moved into the main draw of the tournament, beating Mariano Puerta but narrowly missing out on the semi-finals. The year 2005 he finished in 11th place in the world rankings. In 2006 he moved even further forward, although he remained without a title. At the end of the year he reached three finals in a row ( Vienna , Madrid , Basel). However, he was denied a final victory and, as tenth in the world rankings, he just missed out on participating in the Masters Cup again.

2007 season

At the beginning of the 2007 season González reached the final of the Australian Open ; At that time he was one of only five active players who had managed to reach the quarterfinals at least once in all four Grand Slam tournaments. In the round of the last eight, he defeated world number two Rafael Nadal 6: 2, 6: 4, 6: 3 and thus reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. There he met Tommy Haas , whom he impressively defeated 6: 1, 6: 3 and 6: 1. What was remarkable was the fact that he did not allow a single break chance against himself during the entire course of the match and only made three unforced mistakes himself. In the final, he met defending champion Roger Federer , against whom he lost 6: 7 ² , 4: 6 and 4: 6.

After a long time without great success, González reached the final of the Masters in Rome in May . In the semifinals he beat Filippo Volandri there , who had defeated world number one Federer in the second round. In the final, the Chilean was defeated by Rafael Nadal 2: 6 and 2: 6. At the French Open , a first round defeat against Radek Štěpánek followed with 2: 6, 2: 6, 4: 6 . At the Grand Slam tournament in Wimbledon he reached the third round with a 3: 6, 7: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2 over Robby Ginepri and another win over Alejandro Falla , in which he won Janko Tipsarević 3: 6 , 6: 3, 3: 6, 6: 4, 6: 8 just lost.

In November he was able to take part in the Masters Cup in Shanghai for the second time, where he sensationally won his first game against Roger Federer 3: 6, 7: 6 ¹ , 7: 5. It was González's first victory over Federer after ten defeats. The rest of the tournament was disappointing; he could not win a single match and again missed the semi-finals.

2008 season

At the Australian Open , González could not repeat the final from the previous year. After his third round, he slipped from 7th to 24th in the world rankings. In February, however, he won his home tournament in Viña del Mar for the third time and in May he celebrated the 10th tournament victory of his career at the BMW Open in Munich. In Roland Garros he was defeated by Federer 6: 2, 2: 6, 3: 6, 4: 6 in the quarterfinals.

The highlight of the year was winning the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing. In the semifinals against the American James Blake (4: 6, 7: 5, 11: 9) he was able to fend off several match points, in the final he was defeated by Rafael Nadal 3: 6, 6: 7 ² , 3: 6. With the two medals from Athens (gold in doubles, bronze in singles), González now had Olympic medals in all three colors.

The last sixteen at the US Open finally brought him back to the top ten in the world rankings.

2009 season

At the Australian Open González defeated Lleyton Hewitt 5: 7, 6: 2, 6: 2, 3: 6, 6: 3 in the first round and Guillermo Cañas 7: 5, 6: 3, 6 in the next two rounds : 4 and Richard Gasquet with 3: 6, 3: 6, 7: 6 ¹⁰ , 6: 2, 12:10. In the last sixteen, however, he failed because of the eventual tournament winner Nadal. In February he won the tournament in Viña del Mar for the fourth time , beating José Acasuso 6-1, 6-3 in the final .

At the French Open he reached the semi-finals, where he led 4-1 against Sweden's Robin Söderling in the fifth set and still lost 3: 6, 5: 7, 7: 5, 6: 4 and 4: 6 in the end . By participating in the semi-finals, González was back in the top ten of the world rankings.

successes

Legend (number of victories) Grand Slam Tennis Masters Cup Olympic Games (1) ATP Masters Series ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ATP International Series Gold ATP World Tour 500 ATP International Series ATP World Tour 250 (13)

Title after covering Hard Court (3) Sand (9) Lawn (0) Carpet (2)

singles

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	May 7, 2000	Orlando	sand	Nicolás Massú	6: 2, 6: 3
2.	February 17, 2002	Viña del Mar (1)	sand	Nicolás Lapentti	6: 3, 6: 7 5 , 7: 6 4
3.	September 29, 2002	Palermo	sand	José Acasuso	5: 7, 6: 3, 6: 1
4th	February 15, 2004	Viña del Mar (2)	sand	Gustavo Kuerten	7: 5, 6: 4
5.	January 16, 2005	Auckland	Hard court	Olivier Rochus	6: 4, 6: 2
6th	July 24, 2005	Amersfoort	sand	Agustín Calleri	7: 5, 6: 3
7th	October 30, 2005	Basel	Carpet (i)	Marcos Baghdatis	6: 7 10 , 6: 3, 7: 5, 6: 4
8th.	September 16, 2007	Beijing	Hard court	Tommy Robredo	6: 1, 3: 6, 6: 1
9.	February 3, 2008	Viña del Mar (3)	sand	Juan Mónaco	walkover
10.	May 4, 2008	Munich	sand	Simone Bolelli	7: 6 4 , 6: 7 4 , 6: 3
11.	February 8, 2009	Viña del Mar (4)	sand	José Acasuso	6: 1, 6: 3

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	October 27, 2002	Basel	Carpet (i)	David Nalbandian	4: 6, 3: 6, 2: 6
2.	August 3, 2003	Washington DC	Hard court	Tim Henman	3: 6, 4: 6
3.	October 5, 2003	Metz	Hard court (i)	Arnaud Clément	3: 6, 6: 1, 3: 6
4th	July 18, 2004	Amersfoort	sand	Martin Verkerk	6: 7 5 , 6: 4, 4: 6
5.	February 6, 2005	Viña del Mar	sand	Gastón Gaudio	3: 6, 4: 6
6th	October 15, 2006	Vienna	Hard court (i)	Ivan Ljubičić	3: 6, 4: 6, 5: 7
7th	October 22, 2006	Madrid	Hard court (i)	Roger Federer	5: 7, 1: 6, 0: 6
8th.	October 29, 2006	Basel	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	3: 6, 2: 6, 6: 7 3
9.	January 28, 2007	Australian Open	Hard court	Roger Federer	6: 7 2 , 4: 6, 4: 6
10.	May 13, 2007	Rome	sand	Rafael Nadal	2: 6, 2: 6
11.	August 17, 2008	Beijing Olympic Games	Hard court	Rafael Nadal	3: 6, 6: 7 2 , 3: 6

Double

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	August 21, 2004	Olympic Games Athens	Hard court	Nicolás Massú	Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler	6: 2, 4: 6, 3: 6, 7: 6 7 , 6: 4
2.	April 10, 2005	Valencia	sand	Martín Rodríguez	Lucas Arnold Ker Mariano Hood	6: 4, 6: 4
3.	October 30, 2005	Basel	Carpet (i)	Agustín Calleri	Stephen Huss Wesley Moodie	7: 5, 7: 5

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 24, 2005	Amersfoort	sand	Nicolás Massú	Martín Alberto García Luis Horna	4: 6, 4: 6

Performing in Grand Slam tournaments

singles

Tournament¹	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Australian Open	-	1	AF	2	1	3	1	F.	3	AF	AF	-	-
French Open	-	2	3	VF	1	3	2	1	VF	HF	2	-	-
Wimbledon	-	-	2	1	3	VF	3	3	2	3	-	3	-
US Open	2	-	VF	3	1	3	3	1	AF	VF	1	1	-

1 - 3 = tournament round, AF = round of 16, VF = quarter-finals, F = final

Web links

Commons : Fernando González  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Fernando González (English)
• ITF profile of Fernando González (English)
• Davis Cup Statistics for Fernando González (English)