Mariano Zabaleta

Country (sports)	Argentina
Residence	Tandil, Argentina
Born	(1978-02-28)28 February 1978 (age 47) Tandil,Argentina
Height	1.82 m (5 ft11+1⁄2 in)
Turned pro	1996
Retired	2010
Plays	Right-handed (double-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$3,204,127
Singles
Career record	202–213
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 21 (3 April 2000)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2000)
French Open	4R (2002,2003)
Wimbledon	1R (2000,2001,2002,2003,2007)
US Open	QF (2001)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	3R (2000)
Doubles
Career record	12–35
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 174 (7 July 2003)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2003,2005,2006)
French Open	1R (2003,2007)
Wimbledon	2R (2003)
US Open	1R (2004,2005)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2000,2004)
Last updated on: 14 January 2022.

Mariano Zabaleta (born 28 February 1978) is a retired professionalmale tennis player fromArgentina. He had an unusual but effective service motion. His best shot was his forehand and his favourite surface wasclay. Zabaleta's career highlights include reaching the quarter-finals of the2001 US Open and the final of the1999 Hamburg Masters. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21.

Zabaleta was an outstanding junior in 1995 and finished the year as No. 1 with a junior career singles record of 84–7 (also reaching as high as No. 10 in doubles), with his only loss in 1995 being toPeter Wessels in the quarter-finals of theUS Open.^[1]

Zabaleta won three of the major junior events in 1995. TheItalian Open juniors without losing a set againstMartin Lee in the final 6–4, 6–2 and followed that up withFrench Open juniors which was also achieved without dropping a set and he defeated compatriotMariano Puerta 6–2, 6–3 as he had done four times in 1995 and not losing a set in the process. Zabaleta finished his junior career with victory in theOrange Bowl overTommy Haas 6–2, 3–6, 6–1 and that was the only set he dropped in the tournament.^[1]

Zabaleta struggled initially with the transition from juniors to seniors. In 1996 he won his firstChallenger event inBirmingham, Alabama overBill Behrens 6–4, 6–4 and his quarter final performance inBournemouth was his best showing on the main tour.

In 1997, he made the final of theGuayaquil Challenger losing toTomas Nydahl. In 1998 Zabaleta reached the third round of theFrench Open as a qualifier and defeated the number 2 player in the world and reigningAustralian Open championPetr Korda 6–0, 6–2, 3–6, 4–6, 6–3 before losing toHicham Arazi. Later in the year Zabaleta made his first semifinal inAmsterdam losing toMagnus Norman and then in November he won his first ATP title as a senior atBogotá defeatingRamón Delgado 6–4, 6–4 in the final.

In 1999, Zabaleta was a finalist on three occasions without winning a title, his best performance was reaching the final of theHamburg Masters againstMarcelo Ríos. Zabaleta had matchpoint in the fourth set and lost the set in the tiebreak and lost the match 7–6⁽⁵⁾, 5–7, 7–5, 6–7⁽⁵⁾, 2–6. Zabaleta lost to Rios again inSt Pölten and inAmsterdam toYounes El Aynaoui.

Zabaleta reached the third round of the 2000Australian Open his best ever showing at the event before losing toAndre Agassi, but he was involved in an Americas Zone GroupDavis Cup tie with rivalsChile inSantiago when Zabaleta was leading 7–5, 2–6, 7–6⁽¹⁾ 3–1, when sections of the Chilean crowd incensed by what was perceived to be bad calls against Nicolás Massú threw missiles, fruits, coins, bottles, plastic chairs among other things. Zabaleta's father was hurt in the disturbances and required 10 stitches and the Argentines did not complete the tie after they were escorted from the court by police.^[2] Zabaleta reached the third round of the Olympics in Sydney defeatingMarcelo Ríos andJeff Tarango before losing toMax Mirnyi.

While there were no titles in 2001 and 2002 for Zabaleta, he achieved his best everGrand Slam performance surprisingly at theUS Open where he made the quarter-finals on a fast hardcourt, whereas most of success has come on theclay. He defeatedSébastien Grosjean who was in the top 10 at the time, in the first round, thenTaylor Dent,Greg Rusedski andXavier Malisse were beaten beforeMarat Safin ended his run. He also reached the fourth round of the 2002French Open defeating top 10 playerYevgeny Kafelnikov and falling toÀlex Corretja.

2003 was Zabaleta's best year overall with a 33–25 record and for the first time a positive record on both hardcourt 12–11 and on clay 20–11. He made the semis inAuckland andScottsdale losing toGustavo Kuerten andMark Philippoussis respectively, he made first his final since 1999 atAcapulco in the process avenging the defeat inAuckland byGustavo Kuerten in the semi-finals before losing toAgustín Calleri.

Zabaleta matched his fourth round showing from the previous year at theFrench Open losing toGuillermo Coria in a match that lasted over 4 hours and 41 minutes and went to 5 sets. Then Zabaleta won his second title inBåstad defeatingNicolás Lapentti 6–3, 6–4. At the after match presentation the organisers played a recording of theABBA song "Money, Money, Money" that Zabaleta made withYounes El Aynaoui which the crowd enjoyed and had a good laugh about.^[3] Zabaleta followed up with a semi final inKitzbühel losing to reigningFrench Open championJuan Carlos Ferrero.

In 2004, Zabaleta had defended his title inBåstad against childhood friend andFrench Open championGastón Gaudio 6–1, 4–6, 7–6⁽⁴⁾. He made the semi-finals of theItalian Open defeatingTim Henman andNicolás Massú who were both in the top 15 at the time, before losing toCarlos Moyà. He also had quarter final appearances inViña del Mar,Buenos Aires andKitzbühel.

Zabaleta started 2005 with quarter final appearances inViña del Mar losing toFernando González. After pushing the world number 1Roger Federer to 3 sets inMiami Masters. In the third round of theMonte Carlo Masters, Zabaleta was leadingDavid Ferrer by a set and had to be carried off the court with a foot injury which kept him out for two months and he missed theFrench Open in the process. He came back to play inBåstad and lost in the quarter-finals toTomáš Berdych and made the semi-finals inKitzbühel and after a series of poor results, then he had surgery on hisknee.

Zabaleta continued to suffer knee problems in 2006 and finished outside the top 100 for the first time since 1997. He started 2007 by winning theLa Serena Challenger defeatingJuan-Pablo Brzezicki and was a finalist inFlorianópolis losing toÓscar Hernández. After qualifying for theU.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, Zabaleta reached the final without losing a set and in the process defeated both finalists from 2006Mardy Fish andJürgen Melzer before losing to CroatIvo Karlović. Zabaleta won theBermuda Challenger and with this victory took him back inside the top 100 in theATP rankings.

In 2008, Zabaleta suffered very poor results, which led to him dropping beyond top 1000. In March 2009, he lost the2009 Challenger de Providencia final inSantiago de Chile against countrymanMáximo González.

After playing on the Challenger circuit in 2009, Zabaleta retired from tennis in 2010 and is now taking part on a TV show onESPN[1]Archived 2010-04-06 at theWayback Machine

In 2004 he started his own show calledTenis Pro in which he takes the video camera with him to all the tournaments and highlights life on tour in a light hearted manner and along withJuan Ignacio Chela conduct various interviews with other players, along with other various skits.

Zabaleta has no relation to the formerWest Ham United andManchester City footballerPablo Zabaleta, although the latter was interviewed by the former for a football website.^[4]

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1995	French Open	Clay	Mariano Puerta	6–2, 6–3

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Nov 1998	Bogotá, Colombia	International Series	Clay	Ramón Delgado	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1–1	May 1999	Hamburg, Germany	Masters Series	Clay	Marcelo Ríos	7–6(7–5), 5–7, 7–5, 6–7(5–7), 2–6
Loss	1–2	May 1999	St Pölten, Austria	International Series	Clay	Marcelo Ríos	4–4 ret.
Loss	1–3	Aug 1999	Amsterdam, Netherlands	World Series	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	0–6, 3–6
Loss	1–4	Feb 2003	Acapulco, Mexico	Championship Series	Clay	Agustín Calleri	5–7, 6–3, 3–6
Win	2–4	Jul 2003	Båstad, Sweden	International Series	Clay	Nicolás Lapentti	6–3, 6–4
Win	3–4	Jul 2004	Båstad, Sweden	International Series	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	6–1, 4–6, 7–6(7–4)
Loss	3–5	Apr 2007	Houston, United States	International Series	Clay	Ivo Karlović	4–6, 1–6

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Apr 1996	Birmingham, United States	Challenger	Clay	Bill Behrens	6–4, 6–4
Loss	1–1	Oct 1997	Guayaquil, Ecuador	Challenger	Clay	Tomas Nydahl	0–6, 3–6
Loss	1–2	Nov 2006	Guayaquil, Ecuador	Challenger	Clay	Sergio Roitman	3–6, 6–4, 1–6
Win	2–2	Jan 2007	La Serena, Chile	Challenger	Clay	Juan-Pablo Brzezicki	6–2, 6–4
Loss	2–3	Feb 2007	Florianopolis, Brazil	Challenger	Clay	Óscar Hernández	5–7, 6–7(6–8)
Win	3–3	Apr 2007	Paget, Bermuda	Challenger	Clay	Frank Dancevic	7–5, 5–7, 6–3
Loss	3–4	Mar 2009	Santiago, Chile	Challenger	Clay	Máximo González	4–6, 3–6

¹This event was held in Stuttgart from 1996 through 2001.

• Mariano Zabaleta at theAssociation of Tennis Professionals
• Mariano Zabaleta at theInternational Tennis Federation
• Mariano Zabaleta at theDavis Cup (archived)
• Zabaleta World ranking history

• 1978 births
• Living people
• Argentine male tennis players
• French Open junior champions
• Hopman Cup competitors
• Olympic tennis players for Argentina
• Sportspeople from Tandil
• Tennis players from Buenos Aires Province
• Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles
• 20th-century Argentine sportsmen
• 21st-century Argentine sportsmen

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