Etlis became a professional tennis player in 1995 and initially played on the ATP Challenger Tour . He was soon able to book his first successes and won games against Jaime Oncins and Karsten Braasch , among others . In June he won his first individual title on the Challenger Tour in Cali . In 1997 he reached the qualifier the quarter-finals of the ATP tournament of Key Biscayne . Three years later he won another Challenger individual title in Zagreb , followed by the Brasília title the following year . In 2003 he advanced to the semi-finals of the Brasil Open as a qualifier , but lost to the eventual tournament winner Sjeng Schalken . He was much more successful in doubles. Between 2002 and 2005 he won four tournaments alongside his doubles partner Martín Rodríguez . He has also been in a double-final ten times in the course of his career, five of them with Rodríguez. In 2004 they were together in the finals of the Masters tournament in Monte Carlo , but lost to Tim Henman and Nenad Zimonjić . He reached his highest ranking in the tennis world rankings in 2000 with position 114 in singles and in 2005 with position 17 in doubles.