Marcelo Rios
Nicknamed ‘El Chino’ meaning ‘The Chinese’, Marcelo was the first latin-american tennis player ever to reach number one in the world rankings. He also holds the less enviable record of being the only male world number one in the open era never to have won a Grand Slam. He is almost certainly the most talented player never to win a Grand Slam tournament. There are no limits to what he is able to do with a tennis racquet in his left hand.
Ríos began playing tennis at the age of 11 at the Sport Française country club in Santiago, adjacent to his house. His talent was later nurtured at the famous Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy in Florida. After developing his precocious talent on the junior circuit, Ríos became professional in 1994 and by May the following year, had won his first tournament title in Bologna, Uruguay.
Marcelo achieved his greatest success on Tour in 1998, reaching the Australian Open final and then attaining the World Number One ranking in May of that year after winning three consecutive Masters Series tournaments. Though he notched up some more notable tournament wins in 1999, it was in that year that his career began to be blighted by injury. Repeated ankle operations and back injuries meant that Marcelo became unable to maintain a top ten ranking, and by 2001 the Chilean slid out of the top 50 for the first time since 1994.
Marcelo had a final flourish on the Tour in 2002, reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals and climbing back to number 25 in the World. That was to be his final Grand Slam quarter final appearance, and after a long absence from the Tour due to injury, he officially announced his retirement in 2004.
