Other Archives - 2002, 2001, 2000/1999

6 November 2003 - Results in Brazil

Already Nico has beaten Zabaleta (6-3, 7-6).  There are six players, 2 groups of 3 - (A) and (B).  The timetable and results so far are as follows: Saretta bt Gaudio (B) and Nico bt Zabaleta (6-3, 7-6) (A); 
Guga bt Zabaleta (A) and Gonzalez bt Gaudio (B); Guga bt Nico (A) and Saretta bt Gonzalez (B) and in the final Guga beat his compatriot Saretta at the weekend.

4 November 2003 - South American Masters Cup?????????

End of Season Round up!

Basel has been the highlight of Nico's autumn on the ATP Tour - where he reached the quarter finals of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors.  His ATP season is now over and Nico will shortly return to Guayaquil to do the next most important bit of Lapentti family business - welcome a new nephew to the world.  Nico and Giovann's sister Carolina gave birth to her first son last week and he has been called Giovanni.   

Overall - it has been a mixed year for Nico on the ATP Tour.  The main highlight came in Bastad where he reached his only singles final of 2003 and followed this up with a quarter final appearance in one of his favourite tournaments - Kitzbuhel.   In the Grand Slams, Nico reached the third round at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and the second round at both Wimbledon and the US Open.  There have been some 5 set matches to savour, losses to Costa at Roland Garros and Schalken at Wibmedon but then there were two fabulous 5 set victories in Davis Cup in September.

23 October 2003 - Nico reaches Quarter Finals in Basel

After coming up short in the events in Lyon and Madrid, Nico has finally manged to get back to winning ways at the ATP tournament in Basel, Switzerland.   After Nico's original first round opponent, Mark Philippoussis was forced to pull out with a virus, Nico actually faced Ivo Heuberger (a Swiss lucky loser in the qualifying) in his opening match which was played extremely late on the Tuesday evening.   As per usual with Nico, the match went the distance (3 sets) with Nico finally breaking serve in the 12th game of the final set to take the match 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. 

The second round saw him up against German Thomas Behrend.  After another tense opening set which Nico eventually won on a tie break, the momentum swung towards Nico and he forged his way through the second set to gain a 7-6, 6-1 win and get to the quarter finals.  He now plays Ivan Ljubicic who beat Wimbledon Champion and home favourite Roger Federer in three long sets.

15 October 2003 - Davis Cup diary - finally available

Apologies for the delay.  I have been busy at work and only now think I have something ready to share with you.  I know that the Davis Cup play-off tie is long over and that we all know the result – this is just my own personal thoughts and diary of a great weekend. I hope you enjoy it. [Let me know if you do – maybe I might be persuaded to write some other diaries for future tournaments!]

Nico showed that yet again he always produces his best tennis in Davis Cup.   Together with his brother, the Lapentti boys played the best Davis Cup tie that I have ever witnessed.  All five rubbers went to the maximum 5 sets and the total number of games was 283 over 3.5 days - taking the record for the most number of games in a tie since the introduction of the tie break (in 1989). 

Although at the conclusion of the feast of tennis, the records will show that Romania kept their place in the World Group, leaving Team Ecu to ponder their lost chances, the real winners were Ecuador and the public who had the opportunity to witness the Lapentti boys being the pride of Ecuador in their attempt to put their country into the World Group.  The tennis spectacle was tense and extremely emotional; for Nico and Giovanni it was very stressful - both mentally and physically - as they were pushed to the limit by the players from Romania.  The story of the tie will follow on the News page - just as soon as I have had a chance to write it.  The draw for the 2004 competition took place late last week and Ecuador have been seeded along with Brazil in Americas Group 1.  After a bye in the first round, Ecuador will have to play the winner of the tie between Chile and Peru in April.  For the record, Ecuador would be away vs Chile and home vs Peru.   

31 August 2003 - Nico ends his US Open campaign

Having played for a mammoth 4 hours in the first round, to beat Karol Beck, Nico was not at his best when he took on Flavio Saretta (from Brazil) in the second round.   He lost in straight sets and afterwards admitted that he was not feeling as focussed as he should have done. 

Nico turned his attention to doubles with Feliciano Lopez.  The pair won their first match against the pair of Coupe and Spadea quite easily and then were lucky to receive a walkover in the second round when one of their opponents Radek Stepanek and Jiri Novak had to withdraw with injury but then ran into the more experienced partnership of Todd Woodbridge and Jonas Bjorkman.  In some ways this was quite lucky since the inclement rainy weather of the second week would have meant lots of waiting around.  Instead Nico was able to fly home to Ecuador to rest and prepare for the big mental task of Davis Cup which begins in a fortnight.   

27 August 2003 - Nico wins tough opener

Nico is also in the doubles event with Feliciano Lopez and their first match is not scheduled until at least Thursday. 

25 August 2003 - Nico US Open Draw News

5 August 2003 - Nico loses to Ruedski in Montreal

After a week's rest from the ATP Tour, Nico returned to action in Montreal at the Masters Series Canada event.  In the first round he drew Briton Greg Rusedski (so I was lucky enough to see this match, courtesy of British TV).  Nico had chances to break Greg's serve early on in the first set but as the match went on and Greg got more confident on court, Nico had more and more trouble with his opponent's leftie serve and seemed to be inhibited with his usual solid groundstrokes.  Having said that, Nico managed to stay in the first set by holding his own serve until the 12th game when he lost his serve and thus the set 5-7.  Once a set and then an early break down, Nico began to look more dispondent and never seemed to find his rhythm.  Greg eventually won 7-5, 6-3 (only one break in each set).  Nico is not playing doubles this week so will no doubt spend time practicing and preparing for the next Masters event in Cincinnati. 

29 July 2003 - Kitzbuhel update

Saturday 12 July 2003 - NICO REACHES THE FINAL

Nico is playing better and better this week.  Nico is gaining confidence with every victory and hopefully peaking at just the right time as he reached his first final of the year.   After saving 5 match points against Nadal on Friday, Nico had a fairly comfortable match in the semi final against Robredo (who had to complete his quarter final earlier).   "I was focused the whole time and I knew I had the advantage over him" said Nico.  Nico won in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 and will now face fellow South American, Mariano Zabaleta in the final.  This will be Nico's first final of the year, the first since winning in St Polten and the 11th ATP final of his career. 

To end on a positive note, I remember Nico facing match points on his run to the title in Lyon in 1999 - so maybe this is a good omen!!!  (I think it was 5 match points against him that time too!)  More news soon.    Nico's future tournaments will be Stuttgart and Kitzbuhel. 

Saturday 12 July 2003 - Nico reaches Semi Finals in Bastad

With victories over Horna and Voinea, Nico had renewed confidence when he tacked his quarter final opponent, the "much talked about" Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal.  The hype about this boy is well founded.   I watched him play 3 matches at Wimbledon and he is fantastic (reminds me a little of a cross between Nico and Lleyton Hewitt) - he is going to go far that kid!  For the first set, Nico was given the same treatment as Nadal has been dishing out to other victims recently (so far this year he has victories over Carlos Moya, Albert Costa, Tommy Robredo (on clay) and Mario Ancic (Wimby)) and lost the first set.  However, Nico used his brain, changed his tactics and started to net rush the Spaniard in the second set and won out in the end 6-3.  With the score level (in every way including games), the third set was a battle of attrition.  Nadal was serving first and had a matchpoint at 5-4 up and three more at 6-5 but Nico held firm to take the match into a final set ("do or die") tie break.

Continuing his net rushing tactics, Nico went to a 5-2 lead in the breaker before Nadal came back, won the next 4 points and held another match point, this time on his serve.  As we all know, Nico can be lethal when he is down and proved it again to save that 5th match point and then he took the match 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).  His semi final opponent is Tommy Robredo - who had to complete his quarter final match this morning. 

1 July 2003 - Doubles news - Wimbledon

After losing in singles, Nico turned his attention to the doubles event at Wimbledon where he and brother Giovanni ("the Brit killers" in Davis Cup) had been granted a wild card invitation to the event.  In the first round, they played seeded players Robbie Koenig and Chris Haggard from South Africa.  After losing the first set, when they seemed to start slowly, Nico and Giova really started to show just how good they are by winning the next 3 sets (2 on tie breaks) to progress.  Their play and performance was exciting to watch and they thoroughly deserved to reach the second round.

The second round was played in several parts because of rain.  Nico and Giovanni played the Aussie/Argentine pair of Kerr and Prieto.  Again the boys did not start "too hot" and lost the first set before the rain came. In the second set Nico and Giovanni starting to control things by playing their game and dictating the points.   The second and third sets went to tie breaks and Nico and Giova won them both (by the score of 7-3 on each occasion) adding to their reputation in doubles as exciting players.  With the light fading fast and the air damp, the score reached 3-3 in the fourth set before play was suspended for the night. 

Knowing from previous experience that the boys tend to come onto court without being totally "hot" I was very nervous how N and G would cope with returning to court the next day knowing they just had to win the fourth set and quickly.  However, if I had had these thoughts obviously so did Nico, Giovanni and their respective coaches.   The boys were hot..... and ripped off the first 3 games of the day to take the match 2-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3 and reached the third round in their first Grand Slam event together.

In another rain affected day on the second Monday, Nico and Giovanni put up a tremendous fight against the 5th seeds Rikl and Paes and unusually for them they won the first set, before losing in four sets.  Let's hope it is the start of a long term partnership which we - the fans - can see again and again in the coming weeks, months and years. 

Lapentti and Lapentti - the new Woodies??!!!

26 June 2003 - Singles Update Wimbledon

The second round pitted Nico against another quarter finalist from 2002, Sjeng Schalken.  Sjeng took the opening set, but then Nico came back to take the second set to level things out.  The third set went to a tie break which somehow Nico won and he looked to be on course for victory when he seemed to have the upper hand in the fourth set.  When the set went to another tie break, Nico had a 3-0 lead in the breaker before he let things slip and there was a crucial bad line call from the umpire who will remain nameless (Mohammed!) and the irritating Dutch idiot came back to level the match at two sets all.  The final set was just heartbreaking to watch, Nico played so well but the Dutchman was so consistent, he hardly comitted any unforced errors and Nico could do nothing to stop Schalken from progressing.  Nico will now take a tumble down the rankings a few places but he has nothing to be ashamed of, he played as well as he could.

12 June 2003 - Nico and Guga in exhibition action in Guayaquil

31 May 2003 - Costa upsets Nico's progress at the French

30 May 2003 - Nico wins again in Paris

Nico continued to show that he was mentally back when he registered a 4 set victory over Argentinian Franco Squillari.  After losing the first set, Nico started to turn up the pressure, substantially improved his success on service and return and registered another very well deserved victory over his fellow South American 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to progress through to the third round for the second time in his career.  Nico now will play Albert Costa for a place in the last 16.

27 May 2003 - Nico finally wins in singles in Paris

I WILL FILL IN THE GAP SHORTLY!

21 January 2003 - Nico and Todd - Doubles News

Nico and Todd more than did themselves justice in the doubles event in Melbourne.  After beating Gambill and Oliver in the first round, the boys followed it up with a straight forward two set victory over the European pairing of Cermak/Friedl before the piece de resistence of the tournament.  On Monday the played the second seeds, Bob and Mike Bryan and came through triumphant 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 but only after saving match points!   In the quarter finals they played the French pair Michel Llodra and Fabrice Santoro (who were the 8th seeds) and were beaten 4-6, 4-6. 

17 January 2003 - Nico defeated in Melbourne

15 January 2003 - Another dashing performance from Nico

13 January 2003 - Nico wins 6-0, 6-4, 6-0 vs Benneteau

Nico produced a pretty conclusive performance earlier today when he swept aside the Frenchman, Julien Benneteau, in under 2 hours - in straight sets - 6-0, 6-4, 6-0.  All in all, Nico produced a 78% first serve percentage, won 8 (out of 12) break points and underlined his intentions in Melbourne.

12 January 2003 - Nico draws Benneteau in Melbourne

5 January 2003 - Nico pioneers a new racket for 2003 - a 3rd Millennium Racket