Paul Capdeville

Titles Won : 

Paul Capdeville is a professional tennis player from Chile. He began playing tennis at the age of nine and turned professional in 2002. In 2003, he advanced to his first Futures final at Santinago in Chile, losing to Marerro and also finished runner-up at a Futures event in Mexico (l. Engel). He also reached the semi-final at three other events. In 2004, Capdeville qualified for his first ATP tournament at Vina del Mar, losing to fellow countryman Garcia in the first round. His best results of the season came on the Futures tour when he reached three semi-finals in Chile as well as advancing to the same stage at the Bogota Challenge (l. Puerta).During the season he also made his Davis Cup debut in a tie against Ecuador, winning a dead rubber in the singles. Capdeville finished the 2005 season in the Top 150 for the first time after successful results on the Challenger circuit. In March he played for Chile in a Davis Cup tie against Russia, losing to Nikolay Davydenko in a singles rubber. A month later he won his first Challenger title at Bogota, defeating Columbian Pablo Gonzalez in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, in what was to be the start of a solid run of Challenger results. In his next tournament he reached the semi-final at Ljubljana in Slovenia, losing to Spain's Ruben Hidalgo Ramirez on clay. He then went on to reach his second Challenger final of the season at Sassuolo in Italy, losing to Austrian Oliver Marach. Capdeville made his Grand Slam debut after successful qualification at the US Open, defeating Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round before falling to Fernando Verdasco. He also went on to reach the quarter final stages or better in four other Challenger tournaments.

In 2006, Capdeville finished in the Top 150 for the second consecutive season after posting a 15-13 record in Challenger play and 9-11 on the ATP tour. He started the season by reaching the final of the Santiago Challenger, losing to Serbia's Boris Pashanski in straight sets. In February he reached his first ATP quarter final on the hard courts at Memphis, defeating world number 14 Tommy Robredo in the first round, Ivo Karlovic in the second round before falling to Belgium's Kristof Vliegen after taking the first set. In his next tournament he played at Las Vegas, losing to Vincent Spade in the first round 3-6, 2-6. Capdeville made his Masters Series debut at Indian Wells in March (l. Sanguinetti) and went on to play at the Masters Series in Miami (l. Tursunov). In April he played for Chile in the Davis Cup quarter-final in a tie against the United States, winning a singles rubber against James Blake 6-3, 6-4. In May he made his Roland Garros debut, reaching the second round after defeating Greg Rusedski but fell to Mario Ancic. In August, he reached his second final of the season at the Bronx Challenger in New York, losing to American Michael Russell in the final. In 2007, the Chilean finished in the Top 100 for the first time after compiling his best results on the ATP circuit and posting a 13-12 record. He advanced to his second ATP quarter final in Washington (l. Karlovic) and also won a Challenger title at Florianopolis (d. Guzman). He followed this up with a semi-final at the Naples Challenger (l. Reynolds). In Grand Slam play he reached the second round at the US Open, beating Schuettler in five sets before losing to eventual champion and world number one Roger Federer.

Capdeville finished the season just outside the Top 100 and as the country's number three, behind Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu. He started the season playing at Chennai in preparation for the Australian Open where he lost in the first round to Jurgen Melzer. At the Australian Open on his debut he reached the second round, falling to Paul-Henri Matheiu in four sets. At the end of April he reached back-to-back Challenger quarter finals at Tunis and Rabat, losing to Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci on both occasions. At Roland Garros he defeated Germany's Mischa Zverev in the first round before losing to Robin Soderling. His best ATP result of the season came at Indianapolis, advancing to the quarter final stages (l. Tursunov). In then went on to play at the Cincinnati Masters, losing to Jose Acasuso in the first round before winning his first Challenger title of the year at Binghampton (d. Ram). Capdeville won his second Challenger title in September 2008 at Aracaju in Brazil, defeating local favourite Thiago Alves in the final 7-5, 6-4. In the final months of the season he went on to reach the quarter final at the Florianopolis Challenger (l. Massu) and the final at the Challenger event in Cali, Colombia (l. Koellerer).