Chris Guccione

Chris Guccione playing at the2016 French Open
Country (sports)	Australia
Residence	Greenvale, Australia[1]
Born	(1985-07-30)30 July 1985 (age 40) Melbourne,Victoria, Australia
Height	6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,761,876
Singles
Career record	45–65(inATP Tour events)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 67 (7 April 2008)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2004,2009)
French Open	2R (2005)
Wimbledon	2R (2007)
US Open	2R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	120–110(inATP Tour events)
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 38 (3 November 2014)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2017)
French Open	3R (2016)
Wimbledon	3R (2010,2012,2014)
US Open	QF (2009,2016)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	QF (2008)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	SF (2017)
Wimbledon	3R (2014)
Last updated on: 3 February 2020.

Christopher Luke Guccione (/ˌɡuːtʃiˈoʊni/GOO-chee-OH-nee; born 30 July 1985) is an inactive Australian professionaltennis player fromGreenvale, Victoria. He has won five ATP Tour doubles titles, and reached career-high rankings of singles world No. 67 in April 2008 and doubles world No. 38 in November 2014.

Guccione is of Italian descent on his father's side. He was anAustralian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.^[2] He is married to Andra Kucerak, with whom he has two children.

Guccione is coached by countryman and former ATP professionalAnthony Lane. Guccione is noted for his good service; he hit 50 aces in a three-set qualifying match at Wimbledon in 2005. The good service has led fellow Australian playerMark Philippoussis to call him a "Wayne Arthurs clone". He is aserve-and-volley player. Despite these strong assets in the game he has still yet to win any ATP titles and very rarely makes it past the first round of major tournaments. During his career, he has won 5ATP Challenger Series: hardcourt victories inBurnie andCanberra in 2005, clay court victories in 2006 atQuito andMedellín, and a victory on hardcourt atAptos in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

He has had greater success as a doubles player, often partnering with fellow AustraliansCarsten Ball andSam Groth. Guccione has represented his country in severalDavis Cup ties, compiling a winning record. In a 2011 tie against Switzerland, for example, he teamed withLleyton Hewitt to beat the Olympic gold medal-winning team ofRoger Federer andStan Wawrinka.

Guccione burst onto the scene at the 2004Medibank International tournament, where he defeated formerWorld No. 1 (and then-World No. 3)Juan Carlos Ferrero 6–3, 7–6. At that time Guccione was not even ranked in the top 400. Despite this momentous victory, he lost to world no. 32Wayne Ferreira of South Africa 7–6, 7–5 in the second round. In theAustralian Open he won his first round match against Australia'sAlun Jones 6–3, 7–6, 6–2. He was eliminated in the next round by AmericanRobby Ginepri 6–4, 6–3, 6–3. In November, he won the first singles tournament of his career inBerri, South Australia. He defeated fellow AustralianRobert Smeets in straight sets 6–4, 6–4 in the final.^{[citation needed]}

Guccione's first tournament of the year was theAustralian Open. He played world no. 12Guillermo Cañas and lost in straight sets 6–4, 6–2, 7–6. In February, Guccione won his first Challenger title of his career inBurnie, defeatingGouichi Motomura of Japan 6–3, 7–5. In April 2005 atCanberra, he won another Challenger title after he defeated Germany'sLars Uebel 7–5, 6–1 in the final. His next tournament was theFrench Open. It was his firstFrench Open of his career. Despite this, he defeated Spain'sSantiago Ventura in the first round 6–3, 2–6, 6–1, 3–6, 6–2. He was knocked out in the second round by home-favouritePaul-Henri Mathieu 6–3, 6–4, 6–4. He did not participate in any more grand slams in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2006 Guccione managed to once again defeatJuan Carlos Ferrero at theMedibank International. In February 2006, Guccione won the deciding fifth and final rubber against Switzerland'sGeorge Bastl in theDavis Cup. He continued this Davis Cup success in April atKooyong in Victoria when he defeated his more experienced opponent,Max Mirnyi, in the opening Quarter-final tie againstBelarus. Despite winning all but one of his 2006 Davis Cup matches, Guccione was dropped from theAustralian Davis Cup Team to make way for the returningMark Philippoussis.^{[citation needed]}

Guccione began his2007 season in Adelaide with awildcard entry at theNext Generation Adelaide International. There, he beat world number 93,Amer Delić 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, world number 58Benjamin Becker 7–5, 6–3, and world number 42Arnaud Clément 7–6, 7–6. Reaching his first ATP quarterfinal—the only Australian to do so in Adelaide—Guccione continued his run and upset number 2 seed and world number 18Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals 1–6, 6–3, 7–6 to reach his first ATP semifinal. In the semi-finals, he defeated another first-time semifinalist, 92nd rankedJuan Martín del Potro 5–7, 6–3, 7–5, to reach his first ever career ATP tour final, where he lost toNovak Djokovic of Serbia in the final 6–3, 6–7, 6–4, ending his run of victories over top-100 ranked players at five.

After success at the Adelaide International Guccione reached a ranking of 107 in the world. Guccione began his second tournament of 2007 in theMedibank International beatingRafael Nadal in the first round. Leading 6–5 with Nadal to serve, Nadal withdrew due to an injury.

Guccione was unable to continue his success into theAustralian Open, losing in the first round to BelgianOlivier Rochus 3–6, 7–6, 7–6, 6–7 9–7. Guccione's 2007 season then turned disastrous, not recording one win for over a month, Guccione then qualified forLas Vegas through a lucky loser handout. Guccione then qualified for the American doubleTennis Masters Series,Indian Wells andMiami but was unable to get past the first round in both tournaments.

At the 2007 Wimbledon Championships, Guccione's first round match was against Great Britain'sAlex Bogdanovic. Guccione won in straight sets 7–6, 6–4, 6–4. Chris Guccione's 2nd round match was against the 6th seed RussianNikolay Davydenko. Guccione squandered a 2 sets to 0 lead, losing the match in 5 sets.

Prior to the AO Series 2008,John Newcombe lashed out at Guccione for his lack of match fitness, saying that"with his height and his serve, he could be fucking lethal out there", and for not realising his considerable potential: "he should be top-30 in the world and trouble anyone if he was properly fit."^{[citation needed]}

Guccione's 2008 AO campaign commenced at the2008 Next Generation Adelaide International with a win overWayne Odesnik. However, Guccione was unable to defend his 2007 runner-up points at theNext Generation Adelaide International, succumbing to second seedPaul-Henri Mathieu in the second round.

Guccione responded with a run at theMedibank International in Sydney. Guccione won his first match against qualifier world number 138Alberto Martín. DespiteLleyton Hewitt's fantastic record against compatriot Australians, Guccione knocked him out in the second round. Showing signs of the form from the2007 Next Generation Adelaide International, Guccione scalped world number 14Tomáš Berdych and world number 32Radek Štěpánek storming his way to the final againstDmitry Tursunov. However, his dream run came to a halt as he was edged out. Guccione was unable to replicate his form at the2008 Australian Open, losing toHyung-Taik Lee in straight sets.

The American Tennis Tournament Series kick started at theRegions Morgan Keegan Championships, Memphis, and Guccione defeated world number 117Robert Kendrick and world number 54Thomas Johansson. The Sydney rematch against world number 34Radek Štěpánek in the quarter-finals went in favor of Stepanek.

Guccione failed to qualify for theIndian Wells Masters tournament. However, in the Sunrise challenger, a warm-up tournament for theMiami Masters, Guccione recorded his best ever win against world number 12Fernando González in the semifinals. However, he was unable to continue his form as he failed to qualify for theMiami Masters. Despite this, Guccione rose to his highest career singles ranking of 67 on 7 April.

Following Guccione's U.S. stint, he returned to Australia for the Oceania qualifying Davis Cup tie against Thailand. Guccione opened the tie against Thai number 1 Dani Udomchoke and was taken to 5 sets before winning.

However Guccione was unable to carry on the momentum he had created over the past couple of months, losing in the first round of 7 of his next 8 tournament appearances including first round losses at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Guccione finished the year ranked 96.

Guccione's 2009 season started in poor fashion, losing to AmericanAmer Delić in the first round of qualifying at the inaugural Brisbane International. Guccione had been upset prior to the commencement of the tournament after he had been shunned of a main draw wildcard in favor of younger playersBernard Tomic andBrydan Klein. After his match Guccione was too distraught to talk to the media.

However the following week at the2009 Sydney International, Guccione bounced back with an impressive 6–3, 6–4 win over 6th seed Tomáš Berdych before going on to lose in the following round to eventual finalistJarkko Nieminen, 7–6, 6–3.

Despite falling out of the top 100 after his loss in Sydney, Guccione went on to win his first match at the Australian Open since he made his debut in 2004, defeatingNicolas Devilder of France 6–4, 6–2, 6–4 before losing in four sets to 7th seedGilles Simon in the second round.

Guccione teamed up withLleyton Hewitt in March 2009 to play Thailand in the 2nd round of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone. After Hewitt lost toDanai Udomchoke in the 4th rubber, it was left to Guccione to defeat Kittiphong Wachiramanowong in the deciding match. He won 6–3, 7–5, 7–6, sending Australia into a 3rd round clash against India in May.

Guccione andGeorge Bastl beatAndy Ram andJonathan Erlich in doubles 7–5, 7–6, to win the final of the IsraelRamat HaSharon Challenger tournament in May 2009.^[3] He had reached the third round of the Cincinnati masters, defeatingPhilipp Kohlschreiber in the first round and world number 7Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second. Guccione lost toTomáš Berdych in the third round 4–6, 3–6, and then suffered an Achilles injury on the foot while playing doubles at Washington which affected his preparations before theUS Open. He lost in the first round in singles toPablo Cuevas. At the same tournament he reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal partnering fellow AustralianCarsten Ball as alternate pair where they lost to top seeds theBryan brothers. The injury caused him to miss part of the 2010 season.^{[citation needed]}

After recovering from the Achilles injury that had Guccione sidelined for over 6 months, he had finally made his comeback appearance at the Wimbledon tune-up event; the2010 Aegon Championships. He facedDudi Sela in the opening round and lost in three tight sets.

Guccione played a number ofATP Challenger Tour events in order to further recover from his Achilles injury and gain match fitness, in addition to entering both singles and doubles qualifying draws at majors. In doubles, he often paired with fellow AustralianCarsten Ball and the pair won back-to-back titles in the Sacramento and Tiburon $100,000 Challenger events in October, in the latter tournament defeating a strong team ofSam Querrey andSteve Johnson 6–1, 5–7, [10–6].^{[citation needed]}

Guccione reached two Major quarterfinals in doubles at the2016 US Open withAndré Sá and the2017 Australian Open withSam Groth.

Guccione made a return to tennis at the inaugural2020 ATP Cup with a win in doubles withJohn Peers.

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jan 2007	Adelaide International, Australia	International	Hard	Novak Djokovic	3–6, 7–6(8–6), 4–6
Loss	0–2	Jan 2008	Sydney International, Australia	International	Hard	Dmitry Tursunov	6–7(3–7), 6–7(4–7)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2010	Hall of Fame Open, United States	250 Series	Grass	Carsten Ball	Santiago González Travis Rettenmaier	6–3, 6–4
Win	2–0	Jul 2014	Hall of Fame Open, United States(2)	250 Series	Grass	Lleyton Hewitt	Jonathan Erlich Rajeev Ram	7–5, 6–4
Win	3–0	Jul 2014	Colombia Open, Colombia	250 Series	Hard	Sam Groth	Nicolás Barrientos Juan Sebastián Cabal	7–6(7–5), 6–7(3–7), [11–9]
Loss	3–1	Sep 2014	Shenzhen Open, China	250 Series	Hard	Sam Groth	Jean-Julien Rojer Horia Tecău	4–6, 6–7(4–7)
Loss	3–2	Oct 2014	Kremlin Cup, Russia	250 Series	Hard (i)	Sam Groth	František Čermák Jiří Veselý	6–7(2–7), 5–7
Win	4–2	Jun 2015	Nottingham Open, United Kingdom	250 Series	Grass	André Sá	Pablo Cuevas David Marrero	6–2, 7–5
Loss	4–3	Oct 2015	Shenzhen Open, China	250 Series	Hard	André Sá	Jonathan Erlich Colin Fleming	1–6, 7–6(7–3), [6–10]
Loss	4–4	Jan 2016	Brisbane International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	James Duckworth	Henri Kontinen John Peers	7–6(7–4), 6–1
Loss	4–5	Apr 2016	Romanian Open, Romania	250 Series	Clay	André Sá	Florin Mergea Horia Tecău	5–7, 4–6
Loss	4–6	Jun 2016	Queen's Club, United Kingdom	500 Series	Grass	André Sá	Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut	3–6, 6–7(5–7)
Win	5–6	Jul 2016	Hall of Fame Open, United States(3)	250 Series	Grass	Sam Groth	Jonathan Marray Adil Shamasdin	4–6, 3–6

Current through the2020 Australian Open.

• Chris Guccione at theAssociation of Tennis Professionals
• Chris Guccione at theInternational Tennis Federation
• Chris Guccione at theDavis Cup (archived)
• Chris Guccione atTennis Australia
• Recent match results
• World ranking history

• 1985 births
• Living people
• Australian Institute of Sport tennis players
• Australian male tennis players
• Australian people of Italian descent
• Sportspeople of Italian descent
• Olympic tennis players for Australia
• Tennis players from Melbourne
• Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
• People from the City of Hume
• Sportsmen from Victoria (state)
• 21st-century Australian sportsmen

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