Nicolas Massu life and biography

Nicolás Massú , nicknamed Vampiro (Spanish: "vampire"), is a Chilean tennis player, a former world number nine in singles, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the only male player to have won both the singles and doubles gold medals in the same Olympic Games in modern (1988 ff.) Olympic tennis.

CAREER:

Singles Titles
2006: Costa Do Sauipe
2004: Athens Olympics, Kitzbuhel
2003: Palermo, Amersfoort
2002: Buenos Aires

Doubles Titles
2004: Athens Olympics

In May 2000, Massú reached his first ATP tournament final, at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Orlando, Florida, where he lost to Fernando González. Later in August, he lost again to another Chilean—Marcelo Ríos—on his US Open debut. In January 2001, Massú reached his second ATP event final, in Adelaide, Australia.

Massú's first ATP title came in February 2002 in Buenos Aires, where he defeated Argentine Agustín Calleri in a three-set final, after being down match point. At the 2003 event, Calleri took revenge and defeated him in the first round, a loss that pushed Massú out of the top 100 in singles and forced him to play challengers once again. In April 2003, he reached the Bermuda challenger final.

Massú claimed his second ATP title in July 2003 in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. The following week he reached the final of the Kitzbühel, Austria tournament, cracking the top 50 in singles for the first time. In September he made three consecutive tournament finals, including a win at a challenger event and his third ATP title at Palermo, Italy. In October, he reached the final at the Madrid Tennis Masters Series tournament, losing to Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final. He ended the year at number 12.

In mid-2004, Massú parted ways with Argentine coach Gabriel Markus, whom he replaced with Chilean Patricio Rodríguez. In July 2004 Massú won his fourth ATP title in Kitzbühel, and then went on to win two gold medals at the Athens Olympics in August (see below). Thanks to his outstanding performance at the Olympics, he reached his best ATP Singles Ranking to date, at number 9. In November he underwent groin surgery, and therefore entered the 2005 season off top form. He ended an unremarkable 2005 with a six-match losing streak.

In January 2006, Massú lost his hometown event at Viña del Mar to José Acasuso in the final. In February he won his sixth ATP event at Costa do Sauipe, Brazil. In April he reached the final of the Casablanca event in Morocco. In July he lost to Novak Đoković in the final of the Amersfoort tournament.

In January 2007, Massú repeated his Viña del Mar showing of 2006, losing to Luis Horna in straight sets. In July he began an eight-match losing streak, ended in October in Saint Petersburg.

Massú had an early exit at the Viña del Mar tournament in January, 2008, losing to Sergio Roitman in the first round. Because he defended points from a final showing in 2007, the following week he fell to number 97 in the world. In July his singles ranking plummeted to #138, his worst since November 1999. Later in the year he won the Florianópolis II challenger event and was finalist in two other tournaments of this level.

Massú began 2009 by not winning a match during his first five tournaments, and losing his opening Davis Cup singles match against Croatia in March. He broke his losing streak at the Indian Wells Masters, beating Argentine Eduardo Schwank in three sets in the first round.

PERSONAL:
Full name is Nicolas Alejandro Massu Frir
Began playing at age five with older brother Jorge and Hungarian grandfather Ladislao
Father, Manuel, is an engineer from Palestine, and mother, Sonia, is a housewife from Hungary
Younger brother, Stefano
Junior No. 5 in singles and No. 1 in doubles in 1997
Captured Orange Bowl in singles (d. Rake) and won doubles at Wimbledon (w/Horna) and US Open (w/Gonzalez)
Enjoys soccer and favorite team is Everton from Vina del Mar
Has a 29-15 career Davis Cup record (19-8 in singles) in 22 ties
Carried Chilean flag during opening ceremonies at Sydney Olympics in 2000
Honored by Chile president Ricardo Lagos (along w/Gonzalez) on Sept. 14, 2004 and greeted by 6,000 fans in Santiago after Olympic win
Coached by Leonardo Zuleta.

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