Vince Spadea

Vincent Spadea
Country (sports)  United States
Residence Boca Raton, Florida, USA
Born (1974-07-19) July 19, 1974
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro 1993
Retired 2011
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money US$ 5,004,680
Singles
Career record 311–359
Career titles 1
Highest ranking No. 18 (February 28, 2005)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open QF (1999)
French Open 3R (1999, 2002, 2003)
Wimbledon 4R (2004)
US Open 4R (1995, 1999)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games 2R (2004)
Doubles
Career record 65–114
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 90 (June 12, 2006)

Vincent Spadea [SPAY-dee-ya] (born July 19, 1974) is a former ATP Tour professional tennis player from the United States.

He reached a career high tenth position in the ATP Champions Race in April 2003, as well as a career-high ATP eighteenth ranking in February 2005. He has career prize money earnings of over $5,000,000. Spadea has ATP career singles wins over Roger Federer (1–2 record), Pete Sampras (1–4), Andre Agassi (2–4), Rafael Nadal (1–1), Andy Roddick (1–2), Patrick Rafter, Richard Krajicek, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Marat Safin, and Gustavo Kuerten. He is one of four players to defeat Federer 6–0 in a set at a main tour tournament, which he did at 1999 Monte Carlo. Spadea represented the United States at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Vince was also named twice to the USA Davis Cup Team in 2000(Captain John McEnroe) and 2004 (Captain Patrick McEnroe).

Spadea has one career ATP singles title and 3 career ATP doubles titles. He also has 11 USTA Challenger Pro singles titles.

Personal life

Spadea was born in Chicago in 1974. His mother is originally from Colombia.[1]

Tennis career

At the 1999 Australian Open, Spadea achieved his best performance in a major by reaching the quarter finals. In the fourth round at that tournament, he defeated the 1995 Australian Open champion, Andre Agassi. Spadea then lost to Tommy Haas in the quarter finals.

On September 13, 1999, Spadea achieved a top 20 ranking for the first time. From October 1999 to June 2000, Spadea suffered a record losing run of 21 losses in a row. Spadea's losing streak led the Associated Press to dub him "the Charlie Brown of tennis" (after the comic strip character who kept trying but failing to kick the football).[2] He ended the streak in the first round of 2000 Wimbledon with an opening round 6–3, 6–7(5), 6–3, 6–7(8), 9–7 win over 14th seed Greg Rusedski, in a five set marathon, which lasted for nearly four hours. Spadea's world ranking fell as low as 237 on October 23, 2000.

Working hard on the challenger circuit after his fall down the rankings, he successfully recovered and eventually won his only career ATP Tour singles title in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he defeated James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way in 2004. He continued his journey back up the world rankings and was back in the top 20 by late 2004, although US Davis Cup captain, Patrick McEnroe, declined to pick Spadea as his second singles player for the 2004 Davis Cup final against Spain, opting instead for the lower ranked Mardy Fish. Spadea achieved his career high world ranking of 18 on February 28, 2005.

In 2003, Spadea reached the semi-finals of a Masters event for the first time in his career, losing to World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. He went on to the Monte Carlo Masters a month later and reached his 2nd semi-finals in a Masters series. This helped him reach a career high position of No.10 in the ATP Champions Race in April.

In 2006 Spadea published his autobiographical book, Break Point: The Secret Diary Of A Pro Tennis Player.[3] Spadea criticized a number of tennis players including James Blake and Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe. He called out McEnroe for picking Mardy Fish ahead of him for the 2004 Davis Cup final where the Americans lost to Spain. Spadea criticized Blake for questionable character during a match where Blake allegedly "trash-talked" him. The book reached the top of the ranks in sports and tennis books during its debut month.

Spadea reached the third round at the 2008 Australian Open. In the first round he came back from two sets down to defeat former world number 8 Radek Štěpánek. He closed the season by winning two Challenger titles in Waco,TX and Calabasas,CA.

Vince had an injury-stricken season in 2009, plagued by an overuse tendonitis arm issue, as well as a lower extremity staph infection. He won only a handful of ATP level singles matches before the start of the clay season, but reached the semi-final of the Carson challenger.

The New York Times summarized his career by calling him "the epitome of a tennis journeyman" and then noted that "he has played in 15 United States Opens and has never reached the quarterfinals." [4]

Career finals

Singles

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. May 24, 1998 St. Pölten, Austria Clay Chile Marcelo Ríos 2–6, 0–6
Runner-up 2. August 22, 1999 Indianapolis, USA Hard Ecuador Nicolás Lapentti 6–4, 4–6, 4–6
Winner 3. March 1, 2004 Scottsdale, USA Hard Germany Nicolas Kiefer 7–5, 6–7(5–7), 6–3
Runner-up 4. September 20, 2004 Delray Beach, USA Hard Brazil Ricardo Mello 6–7(2–7), 3–6
Runner-up 5. July 10, 2005 Newport. USA Grass United Kingdom Greg Rusedski 6–7(3–7), 6–2, 4–6

Singles performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF R# RR Q# A P Z# PO G F-S SF-B NMS NH
(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent from tournament; played in a (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; won a (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated either at the conclusion of a tournament, or when the player's participation in the tournament has ended.
Tournament199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A 3R 2R A 3R QF 1R A A 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R 3R 1R A 12–12
French Open A A 1R 1R 1R 2R 3R 1R A 3R 3R 2R 2R 1R 1R 1R A A 9–13
Wimbledon A A 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R A 2R 1R 4R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R A 7–14
US Open 1R 2R 4R 3R 1R 1R 4R 1R A 2R 1R 2R 2R 3R 1R 1R Q1 A 14–15
Win–Loss 0–1 1–1 5–4 3–4 0–3 4–4 9–4 1–4 0–0 4–3 2–4 5–4 2–4 2–4 1–4 2–4 1–2 0–0 42–54
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells A A 1R A 1R 2R 1R 1R A A SF 3R 2R 2R 2R 1R 1R Q1 8–12
Miami 2R 2R 3R QF 3R 3R 4R 2R A A 2R SF 3R 2R 2R 1R Q2 A 24–14
Monte Carlo A A A A A A QF 1R A A SF 1R 1R A A A A A 7–5
Hamburg A A 1R A A A A 1R A A 1R 1R 1R A A A NM1 0–5
Rome A A 2R A A A 2R 1R A 1R 1R QF A A Q1 A A A 5–6
Canada A A A A 2R 3R 3R A A 2R 3R 2R 1R A Q1 A A A 9–7
Cincinnati A A 2R 2R 3R QF 1R 1R A A 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R A A A 8–11
Madrid1 A A A A A 1R 1R A A A 3R 3R 1R A Q1 A A A 3–5
Paris A A A A A 3R 1R A A A 1R 3R 1R 1R 1R A A A 3–7
Win–Loss 1–1 1–1 4–5 5–2 5–4 10–6 9–8 0–6 0–0 1–2 13–9 12–9 1–8 3–4 2–4 0–2 0–1 0–0 67–72
Year End Ranking 303 75 81 54 88 42 20 213 125 67 29 20 75 73 77 76 295 1517

1This event was held in Stockholm through 1994, Essen in 1995, and Stuttgart from 1996 through 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "Vincent Spadea - News and More". Tennis X. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=20000627&id=uu8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nAgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1776,7396932
  3. ↑ Dan Markowitz; Vince Spadea (2008). Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, Inc. ISBN 1-59670-324-5.
  4. ↑ Litsky, Frank (August 26, 2008). "Vincent Spadea, Journeyman". The New York Times.

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