Fernando González

Fernando González

Country	Chile
Residence	La Reina, Santiago, Chile
Date of birth	July 29, 1980 (1980-07-29) (age 30)
Place of birth	Santiago, Chile
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	82 kg (180 lb; 12.9 st)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$8,426,045
Singles
Career record	349–184
Career titles	11
Highest ranking	No. 5 (January 29, 2007)
Current ranking	No. 29 (August 16, 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	F (2007)
French Open	SF (2009)
Wimbledon	QF (2005)
US Open	QF (2002, 2009)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (2005, 2007)
Olympic Games	Silver medal (2008) Bronze medal (2004)
Doubles
Career record	105–95
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 25 (July 4, 2005)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2010)
French Open	SF (2005)
Wimbledon	2R (2005)
US Open	QF (2004)
Olympic Games	Gold medal (2004)
Last updated on: January 8, 2010.

Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (born July 29, 1980) is a professional tennis player from Chile. He is known for having one of the hardest-hitting forehands on the circuit.^[1] In Spanish he is called El Bombardero de La Reina ("The La Reina Bomber") and Mano de Piedra ("Stone Hand"). The English-language media has labeled him "Gonzo."

González is one of the few active players to have reached at least the quarter-final round of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his first major final at the 2007 Australian Open, losing to top-ranked Roger Federer. He is the fourth male tennis player in history to have won each Olympic medal (gold in doubles and bronze in singles at Athens 2004, and silver in singles at Beijing 2008). Throughout his career, he has defeated many former number-one players, including Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer (all while they held the top spot), Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Carlos Moyà, Gustavo Kuerten, Marat Safin and Pete Sampras. González has qualified twice for the year-end Masters Cup event and was runner-up at two Masters Series tournaments. He is arguably known as Chile's best tennis player of the 2000s.

Tennis career

Early years

At age four, González spent his time playing both soccer and tennis. His father, who was an amateur tennis player since his 20s, was able to convince his son to opt for tennis over soccer. He began playing tennis at the age of six. He moved in with his family to the La Reina commune in eastern Santiago, where he practiced with his coach Claudio González (no relation) at the Club La Reina, three times a week.

In 1988, at age eight, González and his father spent a month and a half in the United States, training and playing in tennis championships. In 1992 he moved in with his whole family to the U.S. for four years. They settled in Miami, where González perfected his play at the Patricio Apey Academy.

As a junior, González achieved the world number one ranking. He won the US Open boys doubles (with compatriot Nicolás Massú) in 1997, and the French Open singles (defeating a young Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final) and doubles (with Venezuelan José de Armas) in 1998. That year, aged 17, he made his Davis Cup debut in Chile's tie against Argentina, losing in four sets to Franco Squillari. He won his first Davis Cup tie in a doubles rubber partnering Massú.

González achieved success at futures level in 1998. In the three futures events held in Chile that year, he reached two semi-finals and defeated Italian Enzo Artoni in the final in Santiago.

1999-2004

González became a professional in 1999. In the early stages of the year he played mainly at futures level. He reached his first challenger quarter-final in Edinburgh. He played his first ATP tournament in Washington, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the first round before losing to Marc Rosset.

González won his first ATP title in May 2000 when he defeated Massú at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships final in Orlando, Florida. It was the first all-Chilean ATP final since Jaime Fillol defeated Ricardo Acuña in the 1982 Itaparica final.

In January 2001, González played at the Australian Open for the first time, losing in the first round to Guillermo Coria in four sets. In May he debuted at Roland Garros's main singles draw, reaching the second round. He continued to play challengers and smaller ATP events throughout the year. Notable results include a final at the Montevideo Challenger (losing to David Nalbandian), and semifinals, at Zagreb and Lima.

In February 2002, González won his second career ATP title in Viña del Mar by defeating Nicolás Lapentti in the final, and later that year he won his third title in Palermo, Italy and reached the semi-finals at the Cincinnati Masters (defeating seeded Tim Henman and Andy Roddick en route), and the quarterfinals at the US Open. In September he surpassed former number one player Marcelo Ríos as the top Chilean in the singles rankings, and was one of the most improved players on the ATP circuit, jumping 123 positions in the ATP singles rankings.

In May 2003, González reached the quarters of Hamburg and the French Open. In between, he won the World Team Championship clay event for Chile, winning all his singles and doubles matches. Later in the year he reached the finals of Washington and Metz and made the Stuttgart semis. In doubles, he and partner Tommy Robredo reached the semi-finals at Miami.

In February 2004, González repeated his Viña del Mar title by defeating Gustavo Kuerten in the final. In August, at the Olympic Games in Athens, he and doubles partner Massú gave their country its first ever Olympic gold medal, when they defeated Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schüttler of Germany to win the men's doubles tournament. He also won a bronze medal in the men's singles.

2005

Fernando González at training for the World Team Cup, in 2005.

González began the season by taking the title in Auckland, New Zealand — his first hard court title — in January. In April he won his first ATP doubles tournament (and second after the Olympics), in Valencia (clay) with doubles partner Martín Rodríguez. After reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in June, he went on to win the ATP tournament in Amersfoort (clay), The Netherlands in the following month. He further proved his all-court versatility by winning the indoors-carpet singles title at Basel as well as winning the doubles title in the same tournament with partner Agustín Calleri. The results for 2005 were enough for him to attend the year-end Masters Cup in Shanghai, first as a reserve, and then as a player due to the withdrawal of Andre Agassi after his first match. González became the first Chilean to win a Masters match when he beat Mariano Puerta and just missed out on making the semifinal — and finishing the year as number 11 — after losing to Gastón Gaudio in a match in which he had three match points.

2006

In April González became the third Chilean (after Ríos and Massú) to break into the top ten singles ranking. He reached number 10 in the world after winning a quarterfinal match at the Monte Carlo Masters — shortly after parting ways with longtime coach Horacio de la Peña, who was then replaced by Larry Stefanki in May. After reaching his first Masters Series singles final in Madrid (losing to Roger Federer in straight sets) in October, he ascended to world number seven. He finished the year at number ten.

2007

In January González reached the Australian Open singles final, thereby becoming the first Chilean to have reached the quarterfinal round in all four Grand Slam tournaments, and the fourth Chilean (third male) to have reached a Grand Slam tournament final. He beat — in succession — Evgeny Korolev, Juan Martín del Potro, Lleyton Hewitt, James Blake, world number two Rafael Nadal, and Tommy Haas en route to the final, which he lost to world number one Roger Federer in (relatively close) straight sets. On January 29 he jumped to number five, his best career singles ranking, and only five points behind number four. In May he became the first Chilean to reach the finals of the Rome Masters since Ríos won the title in 1998. At the US Open, González was upset by Teimuraz Gabashvili in a five-set thriller. From July to August, González went on a five-match losing streak, which ended in September, when he captured the China Open tournament title in Beijing. In November he became the first Chilean since Ríos in 1998 to directly qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup. On his opening match, he staged a huge upset by beating top-ranked Federer for the first time in eleven encounters. He then lost to Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko, finishing last of his group. He ended the season at number seven, his highest year-end ranking to date.

2008

At the Australian Open, in January, González failed to defend the totality of the points obtained the year earlier, and fell from 7th to 24th place in the ATP Singles Ranking. He bounced back the following week, winning his home event of Viña del Mar for the third time, rising to number 16. In May he won his 10th ATP title at the BMW Open in Munich. The following month, he reached the quarters of the French Open for the second time, losing to number-one seed Roger Federer in four sets. In August, González represented Chile at the Beijing Olympic Games in both singles and doubles events. At the Games' opening ceremony, he was his country's standard bearer. As in Athens 2004, he partnered with Massú in doubles, but was unable to defend his gold, exiting in the first round. In singles, he improved his Olympic record, clinching a silver medal, after beating James Blake of the United States in the semifinals in a match clouded in controversy. In the gold medal match, he lost in straight sets to Spain's Rafael Nadal.

González made the semi-finals of the 2009 French Open, his best performance at the tournament to date.

At the 2008 U.S. Open in September, he lost in the 4th round to former local champion, Andy Roddick, 2-6, 4-6, 1-6. He ended the season at number 15. In November, at the end of the season, Stefanki ceased coaching González after a job offer from Roddick.^[2] On December 12, González announced he had hired former Argentine player Martín Rodríguez as his new full-time coach for 2009.^[3][4]

2009

In the first round of the Australian Open, González prevailed over Lleyton Hewitt in a five-set thriller which lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes. In the third round González came back from two sets down to defeat Richard Gasquet of France, 3-6, 3-6, 7-6(10), 6-2, 12-10, in a match that lasted over four hours. He bowed out of the tournament with a straight sets defeat against world number one and eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the 4th round.

At the Viña del Mar tournament in February González was victorious again, taking the title for the fourth time in five finals. He overpowered all of his opponents with a solid display of tennis, and did not drop a set throughout the whole tournament. He defeated his good friend José Acasuso, 6-1, 6-3 in the final. With this win he returned to the top 15 in singles.

In early March González missed the Davis Cup tie against Croatia due to a back injury. In April he resigned from the Chilean Davis Cup team, citing a violation of a confidentiality agreement, after the local tennis federation disclosed the amount of money won by the players at the tie against Australia. He conditioned his return on the resignation of the federation's current directive, promising he would relinquish all of his future Davis Cup proceeds to the "benefit of younger players."^[5]

At the start of the claycourt season González reached the semis at Barcelona and Rome. He withdrew from Munich and Madrid, after twisting his ankle while signing autographs in Rome. At the French Open he reached the semifinals for the first time, beating third seed Andy Murray in the quarters. In the semis, he played by Robin Söderling, who had previously defeated top seed Rafael Nadal and Nikolay Davydenko. González came just two games away from winning that match during the fifth set, after holding an advantage of 4-1.

At the US Open, González reached the quarterfinals for the second time, beating 7th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round. He was defeated by 3rd seed Rafael Nadal in a match repeatedly delayed by rain. The match was suspended on Thursday night with González trailing 6-7(4), 6-6, down 3-2 in the tiebreaker. When the match resumed on Saturday, González was visibly flat, losing the remaining four points in the tiebreaker, and didn't win a game in the third set.

With his notable performances at the French and US Open, González achieved a career high of 14 victories in Grand Slam events during the year.

2010

Having defeated Olivier Rochus, Marsel Ilhan and Evgeny Korolev in the Australian Open, González was defeated by Andy Roddick in the 4th round in a tense, yet controversial five-set match lasting 3 hours and 25 minutes.

He entered the 2010 Movistar Open, held in Santiago for the first time this year (previously at Viña del Mar), as the two time defending champion. He made the semi finals, losing out to Thomaz Bellucci in three sets (after being a break up in the 2nd set and two games away from victory).

He also made the semi finals at the 2010 Abierto Mexicano Telcel. He beat all of his opponents; Sam Querrey, Victor Hănescu and Eduardo Schwank, in three sets before losing badly to David Ferrer, but was also a three-set match.

Personal life

González was born in Santiago, Chile. His father, Fernando González Ramírez, is the manager of the Molino Balmaceda flour mill in Santiago and his mother, Patricia Ciuffardi Muñoz, a housewife. He has an older sister, Patricia, and a younger sister, Jéssica. He studied primary school at Colegio de La Salle and finished secondary school at Colegio Terra Nova.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0-1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2007	Australian Open	Hard	Roger Federer	6–7(2), 4–6, 4–6

Olympic finals

Singles: 2 (1 silver, 1 bronze medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Bronze	2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Taylor Dent	6–4, 2–6, 16–14
Silver	2008	Beijing Olympics	Hard	Rafael Nadal	3–6, 6–7(2), 3–6

Doubles: 1 (1 gold medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Gold	2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Nicolás Massú	Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler	6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(7), 6–4

Masters Series finals

Singles: 2 (0-2)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2006	Madrid	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	5–7, 1–6, 0–6
Runner-up	2007	Rome	Clay	Rafael Nadal	2–6, 2–6

Career finals

Singles: 22 (11-11)

Wins (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	May 7, 2000	Orlando, USA	Clay	Nicolás Massú	6–2, 6–3
2.	February 17, 2002	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Nicolás Lapentti	6–3, 6–7(5), 7–6(4)
3.	September 29, 2002	Palermo, Italy	Clay	José Acasuso	5–7, 6–3, 6–1
4.	February 15, 2004	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	7–5, 6–4
5.	January 16, 2005	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Olivier Rochus	6–4, 6–2
6.	July 24, 2005	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Agustín Calleri	7–5, 6–3
7.	October 30, 2005	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Marcos Baghdatis	6–7(10), 6–3, 7–5, 6–4
8.	September 16, 2007	Beijing, China	Hard	Tommy Robredo	6–1, 3–6, 6–1
9.	February 3, 2008	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Juan Mónaco	walkover
10.	May 4, 2008	Munich, Germany	Clay	Simone Bolelli	7–6(4), 6–7(4), 6–3
11.	February 8, 2009	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	José Acasuso	6–1, 6–3

Other wins

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score	Notes
Bronze	1.	August 21, 2004	Athens Olympics	Hard	Taylor Dent	6–4, 2–6, 16–14	Bronze medal match

Runners-up (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	October 27, 2002	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	David Nalbandian	4–6, 3–6, 2–6
2.	August 3, 2003	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Tim Henman	3–6, 4–6
3.	October 5, 2003	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
4.	July 18, 2004	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Martin Verkerk	6–7(5), 6–4, 4–6
5.	February 6, 2005	Viña del Mar, Chile	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	3–6, 4–6
6.	October 15, 2006	Vienna, Austria	Hard (i)	Ivan Ljubičić	3–6, 4–6, 5–7
7.	October 22, 2006	Madrid, Spain	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	5–7, 1–6, 0–6
8.	October 29, 2006	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Roger Federer	3–6, 2–6, 6–7(3)
9.	January 28, 2007	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Roger Federer	6–7(2), 4–6, 4–6
10.	May 13, 2007	Rome, Italy	Clay	Rafael Nadal	2–6, 2–6
11.	August 17, 2008	Summer Olympics, Beijing, China	Hard	Rafael Nadal	3–6, 6–7(2), 3–6

Doubles: 4 (3-1)

Wins (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	August 21, 2004	Summer Olympics, Athens, Greece	Hard	Nicolás Massú	Nicolas Kiefer Rainer Schüttler	6–2, 4–6, 3–6, 7–6(7), 6–4
2.	April 10, 2005	Valencia, Spain	Clay	Martín Rodríguez	Lucas Arnold Ker Mariano Hood	6–4, 6–4
3.	October 30, 2005	Basel, Switzerland	Carpet (i)	Agustín Calleri	Stephen Huss Wesley Moodie	7–5, 7–5

Runner-up (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	July 24, 2005	Amersfoort, Netherlands	Clay	Nicolás Massú	Martín García Luis Horna	4–6, 4–6

Team competition wins

• 2003 - World Team Championship, Düsseldorf, Germany (Clay)
• 2004 - World Team Championship, Düsseldorf, Germany (Clay)

Performance timeline

Singles

A = Did not participate in the tournament.
Q = Lost in qualifying draw.
NM = Not a Masters event.
1. The win total does not include walkovers.

References

External links

• Official site
• Fernando González at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Fernando González at the International Tennis Federation
• Fernando González at Davis Cup

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten Chilean male singles tennis players as of November 29, 2010 1. Fernando González (68 1) 2. Paul Capdeville (165 1) 3. Nicolás Massú (187 6) 4. Jorge Aguilar (223 1) 6. Guillermo Rivera-Aranguiz (369 40) 6. Adrián García (420 ) 7. Hans Podlipnik (470 20) 8. Cristóbal Saavedra-Corvalán (502 22) 9. Guillermo Hormazábal (516 6) 10. Rodrigo Pérez (749 5)

Association of Tennis Professionals Top ten male singles tennis players from the Americas as of November 29, 2010 1. Andy Roddick (8 ) 2. Mardy Fish (16 ) 3. Sam Querrey (18 ) 4. John Isner (19 ) 5. Juan Mónaco (26 ) 6. David Nalbandian (27 ) 7. Thomaz Bellucci (31 ) 8. Juan Ignacio Chela (39 ) 9. Pablo Cuevas (63 1) 10. Santiago Giraldo (64 1)