Filippo Volandri

Rome Masters success & French open success

At the Rome Masters in 2007 Volandri, having entered as a wild card, recorded the biggest win of his career by beating the then world no. 1 Roger Federer in straight sets 6–2, 6–4. Volandri celebrated by doing a lap of honour around centre court, high-fiving spectators in the front rows.

Afterwards, Volandri hailed the victory as not only for himself, but for Italy, telling something of both the regard in which Federer, who holds the record for the longest spell as the world's top-ranked male player, is held and the relative under-achievement of Italy in men's tennis at the time. For his part Federer offered few excuses for his out-of-character display.

Hopes that this might be the start of Italy's re-emergence among the top nations of professional men's tennis were heightened when Volandri went on to beat the highly rated world no. 12 Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinal. The win meant that Volandri would be the first Italian to reach the event's semifinals since 1978. His run stopped in the semifinals, however, as he lost to Fernando González. In the French Open he was the 29th seed and he made it to the fourth round projecting him up to 25 th in the world, before losing in straight sets to Tommy Robredo.

Later career

Volandri has struggled greatly after the dropped match-fixing allegations, his only major success since 2007 is making it to the final of the 2012 Brasil Open where he beat then world 38 Thomaz Bellucci in the final he lost to then world 11 and top seed Nicolás Almagro in 3 sets. However, since then he has mainly competed on the ATP Challenger Tour, whilst since he reached the fourth round in the 2007 French Open he has not progressed past the 1st round of a grand slam.

Controversy

Volandri had earlier come under suspicion for betting and match fixing, and his name featured prominently in a list compiled by the ATP of matches under suspicion for corruption.

In January 2009, Volandri received a three-month ban from the ATP for a doping offence after testing positive for salbutamol during the Indian Wells tournament. Volandri had a medical exemption from the International Tennis Federation to use salbutamol, an asthma medication, but the ITF deemed that his use of the drug was beyond therapeutic needs. His suspension was to last until 14 April 2009 and required him to forfeit all prize money and ranking points earned from the date of the failed test until the beginning of his suspension.

In March 2009, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled the ATP decision and ruled that Volandri should be reinstated and his forfeited ranking points and earnings returned to him. Volandri stated that he intended to sue the ATP over the incident.

Singles performance timeline

Current as far as the 2016 Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

¹ Was played on hardcourt from 2002–2008.
² Held as Hamburg Masters until 2008 and Shanghai Masters from 2009.

Doubles performance timeline

Current as far as the 2012 US Open (tennis).