Marcelo Ríos Chilean Tennis Player From Santiago

Early life

Marcelo Ríos was born on 26 December 1975 in Santiago, Chile, and attended Santiago College. He took up tennis at 11 at a club in Vitacura, in greater Santiago, next to the family home. As a junior he reached the world number one ranking in singles. In 1993 he reached the semi-finals of the junior French Open without dropping a set and won the junior US Open, losing only one set along the way. That year he also won his first Satellite tournament in Chile.

Career

Ríos, who is left-handed, turned professional in 1994. At Roland Garros that year he lost in straight sets to Pete Sampras in the second round, and his long hair and backwards visor drew the attention of the media. He won a Challenger event in Dresden later that season. In 1995 he took his first tour title in Bologna in May, then won in Amsterdam, in singles and doubles, and in Kuala Lumpur, and he ended the year ranked 25th. In 1996 he became the first Chilean to reach the top ten and finished the year 11th.

His breakthrough at the top level came in 1997, when he won the Monte Carlo Masters and lost the Rome final to the same opponent, Alex Corretja. He was the only player that year to reach at least the fourth round at all four Grand Slam tournaments, and he finished the season in the top ten.

The peak of his career was 1998. He won in Auckland, reached the Australian Open final, and lost it to Petr Korda in straight sets. He then won the Indian Wells Masters, beating Greg Rusedski in the final, and on 29 March he beat Andre Agassi in the Miami final. Two days later, on 30 March, he became the first Latin American and the first Spanish-speaking player to hold the world number one ranking. Thousands of people celebrated in the streets of Chile, and he was received by president Eduardo Frei at the La Moneda presidential palace. He held the top spot for four weeks, lost it after an injury, and regained it for two weeks in August. That year he also won the Rome Masters and the Grand Slam Cup and finished at number two, behind Sampras, with seven titles on the season.

The following year, 1999, he won the Hamburg Masters after a final against Mariano Zabaleta that lasted more than four hours, and he finished ninth. He was a top-ten player for three straight years, 1997 to 1999. From 2000 on, repeated injuries kept him from the form he had shown the previous decade. Even so, he won titles in Umag in 2000, in Doha and Hong Kong in 2001, and he won a Challenger event in Santiago that year. In 2002 he reached the Stockholm final and the semi-finals of the Miami Masters and ended the year ranked 24th. In 2003 he played for Chile in the World Team Cup alongside Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu, and the team won the title in Dusseldorf. He also took silver medals in singles and doubles at that year's Pan American Games. His last tour-level match came at the 2003 French Open.

On 16 July 2004 he announced his retirement at a press conference in Santiago. He gave a farewell tour across Chile, with clinics and friendly matches against players including Korda and Goran Ivanisevic, and he played his last match against Guillermo Coria on 22 December 2004. In 2006 he joined the ATP Champions Tour for former players, won six tournaments in a row and ended the year as the top-ranked player on that circuit. That made him the only player to have held the number one ranking as a junior, a professional and a veteran. In 2008 he beat Sampras in an exhibition marking ten years since he reached number one.

Recognition

Ríos won 18 ATP singles titles, including five Masters events. He was the first player to win all three of the clay-court Masters tournaments, Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg, since the series began in 1990, and he completed the Indian Wells and Miami double in 1998. He remains the only player to have been ranked number one without winning a Grand Slam singles title. In Chile he was named Sportsman of the Year in 1993 and again in 1998.

Public roles

During 2004 Ríos worked as a sports commentator for a radio station in Chile. In 2018 he served as an assistant to the Chilean Davis Cup team.