Horacio Zeballos

Personal

Zeballos is of native Argentine of Spanish descent. He enjoys music, ping-pong, and swimming. His father is also called Horacio Zeballos, and his mother is called Carolina. He has one sister, Carolina Jr. His favorite surface is clay, and he was coached by Alejandro Lombardo until 22 March 2012.

Tennis career

Zeballos has competed primarily on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he has won five singles titles and six doubles titles.

2009

He reached his first ATP Tour final at the St. Petersburg Open, defeating Yuri Schukin, Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., Ernests Gulbis and Igor Kunitsyn before falling in the final to Stakhovsky in a third-set tiebreak.

2010

Zeballos started the singles season in a slump, falling in the first round four times. He lost to countryman Juan Mónaco in Auckland and German Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Australian Open, before losing in three sets after taking the opener against Łukasz Kubot in Santiago. He retired in the second set when already a set down against Spain's Marcel Granollers in his first clay match of the year in Brazil. Horacio, though, had an excellent start to the doubles season. In his first tournament, the Heineken Open, Zeballos and Rogier Wassen defeated world no. 1 team Bob and Mike Bryan. Zeballos then reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open with countryman Leonardo Mayer, and reached the final at the Movistar Open with Italian Potito Starace. Zeballos then turned to the clay in the Copa Telmex in Argentina, where in the first round, he defeated countryman and former French Open champion Gastón Gaudio. It was Zeballos' first ATP singles win since he reached the final in St. Petersburg. Zeballos next defeated former world no. 1 Carlos Moyá and reached his first ATP quarterfinal since October, where he then lost to countryman Juan Mónaco. In doubles, Zeballos and countryman Sebastián Prieto were the fourth seeds and won the title against Simon Greul and Peter Luczak. It was Zeballos' first career ATP title. The next week, at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Zeballos lost in the first round to Łukasz Kubot. He made it to the doubles semifinals, partnered with Mónaco, when Mónaco withdrew.

Zeballos then was selected for the Argentine Davis Cup team for the first time. He played doubles with David Nalbandian against the Swedish pair of Robert Lindstedt and Robin Söderling. They won in straight sets. Next, Zeballos played the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Zeballos lost to Ricardo Mello. Then, he redeemed himself by winning his first-round match at the Sony Ericsson Open against Andreas Seppi. After that, Zeballos reached a career milestone as he defeated his first-ever top-25 player, 24th ranked Gilles Simon in the second round. He then lost in the third round to eventual finalist Tomáš Berdych.

His next tournament was the US Men's Clay Court Championships. He defeated Taylor Dent in the first round and then Israeli Dudi Sela. He then defeated world no. 11, Fernando González, for his first top-15 win and the biggest one of his career. He then faced eventual champion Juan Ignacio Chela in the semifinals, where he lost in straight sets.

At the Monte Carlo Masters he lost in the first round in straight sets to Spain's Tommy Robredo and in the Barcelona Open to Pablo Cuevas. He then lost to John Isner in Rome, but defeated Peter Polansky in Belgrade in his next match. In the second round of the Serbia Open, he lost to Filip Krajinović. However, he beat new rival Krajinovic in the ARAG World Team Cup, where Argentina won in the title when Zeballos defeated American Robby Ginepri in the second rubber of the final. In the first round of the French Open, Zeballos defeated qualifier Martin Fischer. He lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in the second round. At Wimbledon, Horacio lost to Lu Yen-hsun in the first round, but in doubles with partner Leonardo Mayer, defeated fifth seeded pair of Łukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach. Horacio later won a Davis Cup doubles rubber with Eduardo Schwank, and Argentina went into the semifinal.

Horacio next played the Atlanta Tennis Championships. He was fourth seed and received a bye into the second round, where he lost to Taylor Dent. He then lost in Los Angeles, won one match in Washington, and lost in New Haven to Máximo González. At the US Open, Horacio recorded the biggest win of his career. In singles, he lost to Igor Andreev. In doubles, with Eduardo Schwank, he won the first round and in the second round, came back from serving 2–4, 15–40 in a third set to win in a tiebreak against the world no. 4 team, Max Mirnyi and Mahesh Bhupathi. They then defeated Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecău for Horacio to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. They defeated Kubot and Marach to get to the semifinals. Their great run was ended there, losing to Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.

Horacio then went to play two tournaments in France, the first being Davis Cup. In Argentina's loss to France, he and Schwank lost to Michaël Llodra and Arnaud Clément. Horacio next made his Davis Cup singles debut against Clement. He lost the match. A month later, Horacio played in Moscow, Russia. He made it to the quarterfinals, with a great upset of Janko Tipsarević on the way. After losing in St. Petersburg, Horacio made his way back to the Challenger tour. In his first three tournaments, he made two quarterfinals and lost in the second round of the Copa Topper to countryman Juan Pablo Brzezicki.

2011

Horacio started the season playing Challengers. First, in São Paulo, he beat Júlio Silva, before falling to 448th ranked qualifier Rafael Camilo. He rebounded in Bucaramanga by beating veteran Iván Navarro in the first round, before losing to Moroccan Reda El Amrani in the second.

His victories were good enough to maintain his ranking of 108, and to get into the main draw of the Movistar Open in Santiago. Horacio beat qualifier Ricardo Hocevar in the first round, before taking on David Nalbandian in the second.

2012

Zeballos played mostly on the Challenger circuit in singles. He did not make it past the second round in any ATP events. He had more success in doubles. He made it to the semifinals in Viña de Mar and Buenos Aires. At Roland Garros, he and partner Oliver Marach made it to the quarterfinals, where they were beaten by the Bryan brothers. He partnered with João Souza in Båstad and again reached the quarterfinals.

2013

Horacio had a great run at Viña del Mar, making it to the final in singles, where he played and defeated Rafael Nadal, in Nadal's comeback tournament.

2014

In the first round of the 2014 Heineken Open, Zeballos beat Filippo Volandri in straight sets 6–0, 7–6.

2017

Zeballos' first match in the 2017 Australian Open was a 5 hour and 15 minute loss to Ivo Karlović, the second longest match by time at the Australian Open in the Open Era.

At Roland Garros, he had his best ever performance at a Grand Slam, reaching the fourth round. He was beaten by 6th seed Dominic Thiem in straight sets.

Singles performance timeline

Current till 2017 US Open.

Doubles performance timeline

Current till 2017 Wimbledon Championships.