Luis Horna Biscari (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈlwisˈoɾna]; born 14 September 1980 inLima) is a former tour professionaltennis player fromPeru, who turned professional in 1998. Known by his nickname "Lucho", he won 2 career singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the2004 Madrid Masters and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 33 in August 2004.
Horna was an outstanding junior player, reaching as high as No. 4 in the world in singles 1997 (and No. 3 in doubles). He made the final of the boys singles at theFrench Open in 1997 losing toDaniel Elsner. Horna won the French Open andWimbledon doubles withJosé de Armas andNicolás Massú respectively.
Horna turned professional in 1998 and he moved up over 1,000 places in the rankings with victories in theEcuadorian, where he defeatedSergio Roitman as a qualifier and three Futures events inPeru and in 1999 made his firstATP Challenger final inAschaffenburg. In 2000 he was finalist inSalinas and again inAschaffenburg and it was not until 2001 that Horna was able to get his first win on the ATP tour inUmag defeatingMartin Damm. He also made another Challenger final inCuritiba losing toFlávio Saretta.
Horna made his debut in the four Grand Slam events in 2003. At the French Open, Horna defeatedRoger Federer who was the fifth pre-tournament favourite and was the last time that Federer lost in the first round of a Grand Slam event. At the time Horna said after the victory that it was "the best feeling I have had in my whole life".[1] Horna lost his second round match after having a match point against eventual finalistMartin Verkerk. He won another Challenger title inSeville and was a three time semi finalist inAmersfoort,Sopot andPalermo.
2005 was not as successful for Horna and his singles ranking slipped to outside the top 50. He won his first doubles title with ArgentineMartín García inAmersfoort and achieved his best ever performance at the French Open making the third round and defeating the seededTim Henman in the second round before losing toVictor Hănescu.
Despite Horna winning his first everATP singles title defeatingJuan Ignacio Chela ofArgentina 7–6(5), 6–4 inAcapulco. After winning the title he said "Acapulco will stay in my heart. I've had an unbelievable experience here,". "It's like being at home".[2] As well as reaching the third round of the Australian Open for the first time defeatingGaël Monfils before losing toPaul-Henri Mathieu and winning his second doubles title with Martín García inPalermo. Horna finished 2006 ranked outside the top 50 and had various injury problems relating to his arm and shoulder which affected his final end-of-year ranking.
Horna had an unfortunate start to 2007 by losing his first round match at the Australian Open to doubles' specialistMax Mirnyi, after being frustrated by the umpire's refusal to eject an abusiveheckler in the fifth set. His concentration was disturbed by the calls of "Well done, Beast" (Max Mirnyi's nickname) and "C'mon,roadkill". In February of that year he won his second ATP singles title, defeatingNicolás Massú for the only time in 7 matches 7–5, 6–3 inViña del Mar,Chile, without losing a set in the tournament. In September, Horna andIván Miranda took thePeruvian team ofDavis Cup to the World Group for the first time by beatingBelarus in Lima 4–1.
While Horna has only made one semi final in 2008 inAcapulco, he has won 3 doubles titles inAuckland withJuan Mónaco, inBuenos Aires withAgustín Calleri and the 2008 French Open with the UruguayanPablo Cuevas. The 2008 Australian Open started an unusual sequence for Horna, in which he played against his sometime doubles partner and friend Agustín Calleri in his first four tournaments of the year in addition to the Australian Open, the others wereViña del Mar, Buenos Aires andAcapulco.[3] This sequence was broken by Horna's elbow injury that caused him to withdraw from Costa do Sauipe.
The highlight of 2008 was the unexpected win in the 2008 French Open men's doubles crown, partnering UruguayanPablo Cuevas, the duo became the first all-South American doubles team to win a Grand Slam title in theOpen Era.[4] It was a surprise that Cuevas said "We were not expecting to go that far."[5] Horna and Cuevas were unseeded and defeated four seeded teams starting withMichaël Llodra andArnaud Clément in the first round,Leander Paes andLukáš Dlouhý in the third round. In the quarter-finals they defeated the No. 1 ranked teamBob and Mike Bryan and in the final defeated the No. 2 seeded team ofNenad Zimonjić andDaniel Nestor.[6] The trophy was presented byAndrés Gómez Horna said that "Gomez has been like an idol for us Peruvians,". "To have a trophy from him is, I think, one of the important moments in my professional career."[7]
While having doubles success, Horna struggled in his singles and finished outside the top 100 since 2001.[6] He won theLugano Challenger without losing a set defeatingNicolas Devilder in the final.
Horna became the first player fromPeru to win a Grand Slam title in the professional era. The PeruvianAlejandro Olmedo won two before the Open era,Wimbledon andMelbourne (Australian Open) in 1959 but representing the United States.
2009 was Horna's last season on tour, and played his final tournament atLima Challenger,[8] where he lost in the second round to ChileanJorge Aguilar.
Horna plays right-handed, he has a strong serve for a relatively short player and the forehand is his best stroke. He uses asingle-handed backhand and his favourite surface is clay.
He previously shared coach Francisco Mastelli withJuan Mónaco and Mastelli was the former coach of current Argentine Davis cup captainAlberto Mancini.[1]
Horna is currently the Peruvian Davis Cup captain.
Peru
Pablo Cuevas
Daniel Nestor
Nenad Zimonjić
Lleyton Hewitt
Juan Ignacio Chela
Nicolás Massú
Jaroslav Levinský
Mark Knowles
Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Potito Starace
Tomas Behrend
Xavier Malisse
Jürgen Melzer
Michal Mertiňák
Marcos Daniel
Nicolas Coutelot
Zeljko Krajan
Guillermo García López
Rudy Rake
Juan Antonio Marín
Fred Gil
Ramón Delgado
Roger Federer
Tim Henman
José de Armas
Jaco Van Der Westhuizen
