Sergi Bruguera

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Sergi Bruguera

Country	Spain
Residence	Barcelona, Spain
Date of birth	January 16, 1971
Place of birth	Barcelona, Spain
Height	6 ft 2 in (187 cm)
Weight	167 lb (75 kg)
Turned Pro	1988
Retired	2002
Plays	Right
Career Prize Money	$11,632,199
Singles
Career record:	447-271
Career titles:	14
Highest ranking:	No. 3 (August 1, 1994)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4th (1993)
French Open	W (1993, 94)
Wimbledon	4th (1994)
U.S. Open	4th (1994, 97)
Doubles
Career record:	49-50
Career titles:	3
Highest ranking:	No. 49 (May 6, 1991)

Olympic medal record
Men's tennis
Silver	1996 Atlanta	Singles

Sergi Bruguera Torner (born on January 16, 1971, in Barcelona, Spain) is a retired professional tennis player from Spain. He is best remembered for winning two consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994.

Contents 1 Career 2 Grand Slam singles finals 2.1 Wins (2) 2.2 Runners-up (1) 3 Masters Series singles finals 3.1 Wins (2) 3.2 Runners-up (3) 4 Titles (17) 4.1 Singles (14) 4.2 Doubles (3) 5 Singles runner-up (21) 6 External links

[edit] Career

Bruguera was Spain's national junior champion in 1987. He turned professional in 1988. In his first full year on the tour, 1989, he won the Cairo Challenger title as a qualifier (defeating Jordi Arrese in the final) and reached the semi-finals in Rome. He finished 1989 ranked World No. 26, and was named the ATP's Newcomer of Year.

Bruguera earned a reputation as a top clay court player in the early 1990s, winning titles in Estoril, Monte Carlo and Athens in 1991, and in Madrid, Gstaad and Palermo in 1992.

In 1993, following wins over Pete Sampras and Andrei Medvedev, Bruguera reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where he faced two-time defending champion and the current world's No. 1 player Jim Courier. Courier was overwhelmingly favoured to win his third title, but ultimately Bruguera won a gruelling five-set final, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. The victory was one of five titles that Bruguera captured that year.

In 1994, Bruguera defended his title at the French Open, defeating, once again, Courier and Medvedev, and fellow Spaniard Alberto Berasategui in the final, 6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.

Bruguera won the men's singles Silver Medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was defeated in straight sets in the final by Andre Agassi 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.

Bruguera reached the French Open final for the third time in 1997 and was considered the clear favourite to win his third title against the unseeded Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten. But Kuerten surprisingly defeated Bruguera in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. (Kuerten was completely unknown at the time, but would go on to become the World No. 1 ranked player in 2000.)

Outside tennis, Bruguera is a long-time fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and would often attend their games while playing at tournaments in United States. On March 28, 1997, after beating the World No. 1 Pete Sampras in the semi-finals of a tournament in Miami, Bruguera sank three shots (layup, free throw, top of key) during a time-out of a game between the Lakers and the Miami Heat to earn $500 which was given to ATP Charities in his name.

Bruguera earned the ATP's Comeback Player of Year award in 1997 after returning from an ankle injury the previous year and improving his ranking from No. 81 to No. 8.

Bruguera won a total of 14 top-level singles titles and 3 doubles titles during his career. His career-high singles ranking was No. 3. He is currently the director of Bruguera Tennis Academy Top Team.

In a 2006 interview featuring questions from fans by the BBC Sport website, a question was asked about the frequent comparisons between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras. In his reply, Bruguera claimed that Federer is ten times better than Sampras.[1]

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1993	French Open	Jim Courier	6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
1994	French Open (2)	Alberto Berasategui	6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1

[edit] Runners-up (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1997	French Open	Gustavo Kuerten	6-3, 6-4, 6-2

[edit] Masters Series singles finals

[edit] Wins (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1991	Monte Carlo	Boris Becker	5-7, 6-4, 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
1993	Monte Carlo (2)	Cédric Pioline	7-6(2), 6-0

[edit] Runners-up (3)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1994	Monte Carlo	Andrei Medvedev	7-5, 6-1, 6-3
1995	Rome	Thomas Muster	3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3
1997	Key Biscane	Thomas Muster	7-6(6), 6-3, 6-1

[edit] Titles (17)

[edit] Singles (14)

Legend Grand Slam (2) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (2) ATP Tour (10)

Titles by Surface Hard (1) Grass (0) Clay (13) Carpet (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score
1.	April 7, 1991	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Karel Nováček	7-6(7), 6-1
2.	April 28, 1991	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Boris Becker	5-7, 6-4, 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
3.	October 6, 1991	Athens, Greece	Clay	Jordi Arrese	7-5, 6-3
4.	May 3, 1992	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Carlos Costa	7-6(6), 6-2, 6-2
5.	July 12, 1992	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Francisco Clavet	6-1, 6-4
6.	October 4, 1992	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	6-1, 6-3
7.	April 25, 1993	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Cédric Pioline	7-6(2), 6-0
8.	June 6, 1993	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Jim Courier	6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
9.	July 11, 1993	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Karel Nováček	6-3, 6-4
10.	August 8, 1993	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Andrei Chesnokov	7-5, 6-4
11.	September 19, 1993	Bordeaux, France	Hard	Diego Nargiso	7-5, 6-2
12.	June 5, 1994	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1
13.	July 10, 1994	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Guy Forget	3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1
14.	August 7, 1994	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	6-3, 6-4

[edit] Doubles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	May 13, 1990	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Jim Courier	Udo Riglewski Michael Stich	7-6, 6-2
2.	June 17, 1990	Florence, Italy	Clay	Horacio de la Peña	Luiz Mattar Diego Perez	3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3.	September 15, 1991	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Marc Rosset	Per Henricsson Ola Jonsson	3-6, 6-3, 6-2

[edit] Singles runner-up (21)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	July 15, 1990	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Martín Jaite	6-3, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2
2.	September 16, 1990	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Horst Skoff	7-6, 7-6
3.	April 14, 1991	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	6-4, 7-6, 6-2
4.	July 14, 1991	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	6-1, 6-4, 6-4
5.	April 5, 1992	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Carlos Costa	4-6, 6-2, 6-2
6.	September 20, 1992	Bordeaux, France	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	6-3, 1-6, 6-2
7.	October 11, 1992	Athens, Greece	Clay	Jordi Arrese	7-5, 3-0 retired
8.	February 14, 1993	Milan, Italy	Carpet (I)	Boris Becker	6-3, 6-3
9.	April 11, 1993	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	6-7(7), 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
10.	May 2, 1993	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Stefan Edberg	6-3, 6-3, 6-2
11.	October 3, 1993	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Thomas Muster	7-6(2), 7-5
12.	February 6, 1994	Dubai, UAE	Hard	Magnus Gustafsson	6-4, 6-2
13.	April 24, 1994	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	7-5, 6-1, 6-3
14.	May 1, 1994	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Thomas Muster	6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5
15.	May 21, 1995	Rome, Italy	Clay	Thomas Muster	3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3
16.	July 28, 1996	Olympic Games, Atlanta, USA	Hard	Andre Agassi	6-2, 6-3, 6-1
17.	March 2, 1997	Milan, Italy	Carpet (I)	Goran Ivanišević	6-2, 6-2
18.	March 23, 1997	Key Biscane, USA	Hard	Thomas Muster	7-6(6), 6-3, 6-1
19.	June 8, 1997	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	6-3, 6-4, 6-2
20.	July 27, 1997	Umag, Croatia	Clay	Félix Mantilla	6-3, 7-5
21.	July 30, 2000	San Marino, San Marino	Clay	Alex Calatrava	7-6(7), 1-6, 6-4

[edit] External links

• ATP Tour profile for Sergi Bruguera
• Sergi Bruguera Biography
• Bruguera Tennis Academy