José "Pepe" Checa Calvo (born 2 April 1985) is a Spanish

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

coach and former professional player.

Career

Born in the town of

Las Pedroñeras Las Pedroñeras is a small town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, in the central region of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, southwestern Spain. ...

, Checa is a product of the Cuenca Tennis Club, where he trained with his elder sisters. He began competing professionally in 2003. Checa won 21 ITF singles titles during his career. On the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

, Checa was a

Montauban Montauban (, ; ) is a commune in the southern French department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, and the sixth most populated of Oc ...

semi-finalist in 2006 and beat world number 78 Bjorn Phau at the

Tampere Open The Tampere Open is a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It is currently part of the ATP Challenger Tour, and has been held annually at the Tampere Tennis Center in Tampere, Finland, since 2008 (and 2007 for the women's ITF). ...

in 2009. After winning six ITF titles in 2013, he attained a career high singles ranking of 230 in April, 2014. He never made an

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

main draw but featured in several qualifying tournaments including the 2014 Torneo Godó (ATP Tour 500), beating

Ante Pavić Ante Pavić (; born 7 March 1989) is an inactive Croatian professional tennis player. His highest singles ranking is No. 132 achieved on 13 October 2014. He qualified for the main draw in the 2014 French Open after saving a match point in the fin ...

in the first round. Forced to retire from professional tennis in 2015 due to injuries, Checa transitioned straight into a career as a tour coach, taking charge of

Santiago Giraldo Santiago Giraldo Salazar (, born 27 November 1987) is a Colombian former professional tennis player. He played on the ATP tour and represented Colombia Davis Cup team, Colombia in the Davis Cup competition. His best tournament result is reachi ...

. In 2017 he parted company with Giraldo and became coach of Andrey Kuznetsov. He was the coach of

Ilya Ivashka Ilya Uladzimiravich Ivashka (; ; born 24 February 1994) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Ivashka has a career-high singles ranking by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) of No. 40, achieved on 20 June 2022. He also has a car ...

, who rose to 50 in the world under his charge.

ITF Futures titles

Singles: (21)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Checa Calvo, Jose 1985 births Living people Spanish male tennis players Spanish tennis coaches Sportspeople from the Province of Cuenca 21st-century Spanish sportsmen