Marco Chiudinelli

Biography

Marco is the only child of father Lorenzo Chiudinelli and mother Reni, (both information technology specialists). Marco grew up in Münchenstein in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. He attended schools in Münchenstein and Basel. Marco speaks German, (dialect Baseldytsch), English, and French. In his childhood, he met Roger Federer and Roger Brogle. The pair often played squash, table tennis, football, and tennis together. A region-wide top tennis group was formed when the pair was eight years old; despite playing for different clubs, they became members.

Career

Marco Chiudinelli turned professional in 2000. He has competed for the Switzerland Davis Cup team from 2005–2007 and in 2009 and 2012, winning four matches and losing five. His best performances at a Grand Slam were at the 2006 US Open and the 2009 US Open, where he reached the third round as a qualifier both times.

At the 2006 US Open as a qualifier, he defeated Feliciano López in the second round. He then fell to 25th seed Richard Gasquet. At the 2009 US Open, he again reached the third round as a qualifier. He defeated Potito Starace, and then defeated former top-10 player Mikhail Youzhny. He lost to eighth seed Nikolay Davydenko.

Marco entered the 2009 PTT Thailand Open as a qualifier. He defeated German qualifier Florian Mayer in the first round and followed that up with a second-round win over former world no. 1 Marat Safin. Chuidinelli lost a three-set match to top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals.

Chiudinelli reached the semifinals in Basel, his hometown tournament. He defeated eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber. He defeated his countryman, qualifier Michael Lammer. He defeated Richard Gasquet to reach the semifinals, before losing to compatriot and world no. 1 Roger Federer.

Chiudinelli qualified for the main draw of the 2010 Australian Open and reached the second round, taking a set off world no. 3 Novak Djokovic. Two weeks later as a result of his play in 2009, he was awarded the Comeback Player of the Year Award in the 2009 ATP World Tour Awards.

At the 2010 French Open, Chiudinelli was accepted into the main draw by direct entry and beat Somdev Devvarman to advance to the second round for the first time. There he lost to American John Isner in a match that extended over two days because of rain.

He also played the longest doubles match ever with Stanislas Wawrinka, being defeated by Lukáš Rosol and Tomáš Berdych of the Czech Republic in the first round of the 2013 Davis Cup. The match, played on 2 February 2013, lasted 7 hours, 2 minutes.

Chiudinelli represented Switzerland in the 2014 Davis Cup World Group first round, partnering with Michael Lammer to winover Serbia. His doubles victory with Lammer clinched the first-round victory over Serbia, allowing Switzerland to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004. Switzerland went on to win its first Davis Cup in history.

At the 2014 Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Chiudinelli played doubles with childhood friend and compatriot Roger Federer. They reached the final and held championship points, but lost a close tiebreaker.

In 2016, Chiudinelli qualified for the 2016 US Open and beat fellow qualifier Guilherme Clezar in the first round in four sets. This was Chiudinelli's first main-draw Grand Slam tournament victory since the 2010 US Open. In the second round, he faced Lucas Pouille. Chiudinelli was two sets and a break up in the third set and was serving for the match at 5-4, but was broken. He then lost the resulting tiebreaker and could not regain his form in the last two sets. Chiudinelli then received a wildcard into the 2016 Swiss Indoors tournament where he took on compatriot Stan Wawrinka in the first round and lost in three sets 7-6^(7-1), 1-6, 4-6, despite leading the match against the newly crowned 2016 US Open champion.

Singles performance timeline

Current till 2017 Davis Cup World Group Play-offs.

Davis Cup (9 wins, 19 losses)