Luis Horna

Infobox Tennis player
playername= Luis Horna
nickname= Lucho


country= PER
residence= Lima, Peru
datebirth= birthdate and age|1980|9|14
placebirth= Lima, Peru
height= height|m=1.80
weight= convert|81|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro= 1998
plays= Right-handed; one-handed backhand
careerprizemoney= $2,454,558
singlesrecord= 137–137
singlestitles= 2
highestsinglesranking= 33 (August 30, 2004)
AustralianOpenresult= 3rd (2006)
FrenchOpenresult= 3rd (2008)
Wimbledonresult= 1st (2003 - 2008)
USOpenresult= 2nd (2006)
doublesrecord= 72–65
doublestitles= 6
highestdoublesranking= 16 (September 8, 2008)
grandslamsdoublesresults =yes
AustralianOpenDoublesresult= 1st (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008)
FrenchOpenDoublesresult= W (2008)
WimbledonDoublesresult= 1st (2004, 2005)
USOpenDoublesresult= 2nd (2007, 2008)
updated= September 21, 2008

Luis Horna Viscari (born September 14, 1980 in Lima) is a tennis player from Peru, who turned professional in 1998. Horna plays right-handed, he has a strong serve for a relatively short player and the forehand is his best stroke. He uses a single-handed backhand and his favourite surface is clay. He is the current Men's Doubles Champion of the 2008 French Open with his Uruguayan teammate Pablo Cuevas.

Career

Horna is known by his nickname "Lucho", which comes from his first name. Horna was an outstanding junior player in both singles and doubles. He made the final of the boys singles at the French Open in 1997 losing to Daniel Elsner. Horna won the French Open and Wimbledon doubles with Jose de Armas and Nicolas Massu respectively.

Horna turned professional in 1998 and he moved up over 1000 places in the rankings with victories in the Ecuadorian and three Futures events in Peru and in 1999 made his first ATP Challenger final in Aschaffenburg. In 2000 he was finalist in Salinas and again in Aschaffenburg and it was not until 2001 that Horna was able to get his first win on the ATP tour in Umag defeating Martin Damm and made another Challenger final in Curitiba losing to Flavio Saretta.

2002 was a successful year for Horna when he became the first Peruvian since Jaime Yzaga to finish in the top 100 in the end of season rankings, who finished 34th in 1994. This was achieved through winning three Challenger titles in Zagreb, Furth, and Weiden defeating Dominik Hrbaty, Jürgen Melzer and Zeljko Krajan respectively and finalist in the São Paulo Challenger losing to Franco Squillari.

Horna made his debut in the four Grand Slam events in 2003. At the French Open Horna defeated Roger Federer who was one of the pre tournament favourites and was the last time that Federer has 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". cite news
title = French Open: Federer out, Agassi in second round
url = http://www.rediff.com/sports/2003/may/27french.htm
publisher = Rediff
date = 2008-05-15
accessdate =] Horna lost his second round match after having a match point against eventual finalist Martin Verkerk. He won another Challenger title in Seville and was a three time semi finalist in Amersfoort, Sopot and Palermo.

In 2004 Horna reached his career-high world ranking is no. 33, which was achieved on August 30. Horna won the Bermuda Challenger over Martin Vassallo Arguello and made his first ATP final in Long Island losing to Lleyton Hewitt. Horna also made three semi finals at the Brasil Open, Houston and Munich. Horna finished inside the top 50 at the end of the year equalling the same feat by Jaime Yzaga.

2005 was not as successful for Horna and his singles ranking slipped to outside the top 50. He won his first doubles title with Argentine Martin Garcia in Amersfoort and achieved his best ever performance at the French Open making the third round and defeating the seeded Tim Henman in the second round before losing to Victor Hanescu.

Despite Horna winning his first ever ATP singles title defeating Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 7–6(5), 6–4 in Acapulco. After winning the title he said "Acapulco will stay in my heart. I've had an unbelieveable experience here,". "It's like being at home". cite news
title = Horna conquers Chela in Acapulco
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/4775732.stm
publisher = BBC News
date = 2008-05-15
accessdate =] . As well as reaching the third round of the Australian Open for the first time defeating Gael Monfils before losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu and winning his second doubles title with Martin Garcia in Palermo. Horna finished 2006 ranked outside the top 50 and had various injury problems relating to his arm and shoulder which impacted on 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' specialist Max Mirnyi, after being frustrated by the umpire's refusal to eject an abusive heckler 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, defeating Nicolás Massú for the first and only time in 7 matches 7–5, 6–3 in Viña del Mar, Chile, without losing a set in the tournament. In September, Horna and Iván Miranda took the Peruvian team of Davis Cup to the World Group for the first time by beating Belarus in Lima 4–1.

While Horna has only made one semi final in 2008 in Acapulco, he has won 3 doubles titles in Auckland with Juan Monaco, in Buenos Aires with Agustin Calleri and the 2008 French Open with the uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. The 2008 Australian Open started an unusual sequence for Horna, in which he played against his sometime doubles partner and friend Agustin Calleri in his first four tournaments of the year in addition to the Australian Open, the others were Viña del Mar, Buenos Aires and Acapulco cite news
title = Horna and Calleri Head to Head
url = http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/?player1=Horna%2C+Luis&player2=Calleri
publisher = ATP
date = 2008-05-15
accessdate =] . 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 Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, the duo became the first all-South American doubles team to win a Grand Slam title. It was a surprise that Cuevas said "We were not expecting to go that far." [Source: [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/07/sports/EU-SPT-TEN-French-Open-Mens-Doubles.php] ] Horna and Cuevas were unseeded and defeated four seeded teams starting with Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement in the first round, Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy in the third round. In the quarter finals they defeated the number 1 ranked team Bob and Mike Bryan and in the final defeated the number 2 seeded team of Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor cite news
title = 2008 Roland Garros Mens Doubles Draw
url = http://www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/scores/draws/md/mddraw.pdf
publisher = French Open
date = 2008-06-08
accessdate =] . The trophy was presented by Andres Gomez 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." cite news
title = Cuevas-Horna beat Nestor-Zimonjic for men's French Open doubles title
url = http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/07/sports/EU-SPT-TEN-French-Open-Mens-Doubles.php
publisher = International Herald Tribune
date = 2008-06-08
accessdate =] Horna also became the first player from Peru to win a Grand Slam title in the professional era. The Peruvian Alex Olmedo won two before the Open era, Wimbledon and Melbourne (Australian Open) in 1959 but representing the United States.

Miscellaneous

* Horna is a fan of Alianza Lima football team.
* He is married with 2 children.
* He shares coach Francisco Mastelli with Juan Monaco and Mastelli was the former coach of current Argentine Davis cup captain Alberto Mancini
* Horna was a member of the crowd in Lima when Peru failed to qualify against Australia, when the current captain Jaime Yzaga was playing.cite news
title = 2007 Davis Cup Qualification to World Group
url = http://www.daviscup.com/news/newsaudio.asp?articleid=14367
publisher = ITF
date = 2008-06-08
accessdate =]

Grand Slam finals

Doubles

Winner (1)

ingles runner-up (1)

*2004: Long Island (lost to Lleyton Hewitt)

Doubles wins (6)

{| class="wikitable"
- bgcolor="#efefef"
No.
Date
Tournament
Surface
Partnering
Opponents in the final
Score
-
1.
July 24, 2005
Amersfoort, Netherlands
Clay
flagicon|ARG Martín García
flagicon|CHI Fernando González
flagicon|CHI Nicolás Massú
6–4, 6–4
-
2.
October 1, 2006
Palermo, Italy
Clay
flagicon|ARG Martín García
flagicon|POL Mariusz Fyrstenberg
flagicon|POL Marcin Matkowski
7–6(1), 7–6(2)
-
3.
July 30, 2007
Kitzbuhel, Austria
Clay
flagicon|ITA Potito Starace
flagicon|GER Tomas Behrend
flagicon|GER Christopher Kas
7–6(4), 7–6(5)
-
4.
January 13, 2008
Auckland, New Zealand
Hard
flagicon|ARG Juan Mónaco
flagicon|BEL Xavier Malisse
flagicon|AUT Jürgen Melzer
6–4, 3–6, [10–7]
-
5.
February 24, 2008
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Clay
flagicon|ARG Agustín Calleri
flagicon|AUT Werner Eschauer
flagicon|AUS Peter Luczak
6–0, 6–7(6), [10–2]
- bgcolor="#e5d1cb"
6.
June 7, 2008
French Open, France
Clay
flagicon|URU Pablo Cuevas
flagicon|CAN Daniel Nestor
flagicon|SRB Nenad Zimonjic
6–2, 6–3

References

External links

*
*
* [http://steveghelper.com/MatchResults.php?players=Horna&weeks=12 Horna Recent Match Results]
* [http://steveghelper.com/RankingHistory.php?player=Horna Horna World Ranking History]