Benjamin Balleret (born 15 January 1983) is a professional tennis player from Monaco. His father, Bernard Balleret, is former tennis player, while his cousin Arthur Rinderknech also plays the sport professionally. Balleret is a member of the

Monaco Davis Cup team The Monaco men's national tennis team represents Monaco in the Davis Cup tennis competition and are governed by the Fédération Monegasque de Lawn Tennis. Monaco currently compete in Europe Zone Group III. The team reached the top-8 in the Eur ...

Tennis career

Juniors

As a junior Balleret reached as high as No. 19 in the junior world singles rankings (and No. 29 in doubles) in 2001.

Pro tour

Balleret is best known for his April 2006 fairy tale run to the third round of the Monte Carlo Open, an ATP Masters Series. Entering the tournament, he was ranked 351st in the world and had competed only in challenger tournaments and several Davis Cup matches (he played for the Monegasque team in 2004 and 2005 and compiled a modest record of 4 wins and 5 losses). However, on 16 April 2006, he received a wild card into the qualifying draw of the Monte Carlo Open and won upsets over seeded, far more accomplished players than he including

clay court specialist A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. T ...

Albert Portas (at the time ranked 106th in the world and seeded 13th in the qualifying draw) as well as U.S. Open and Wimbledon semi-finalist Jonas Björkman (at the time ranked 71st in the world and seeded third in the qualifying draw). These wins earned Balleret a spot in the main draw, and his performance there is what earned him international headlines. He won upsets over Christophe Rochus (at the time ranked 44th in the world) and Sébastien Grosjean (at the time ranked 23rd in the world, number one in France, and seeded thirteenth in the main draw). Balleret's impressive run came to an end in the third round, in which he lost to world number one

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, including a record 237 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-e ...

. After Balleret's performance at this prestigious clay court event, he shot up 134 positions in the rankings to World No. 217. In 2013, Balleret and

Guillaume Couillard Guillaume Couillard (born 10 December 1975) is a professional Monaco, Monegasque former tennis player. Couillard reached his career-high ATP Tour singles ranking of World No. 569 in October 2002. He primarily played on the Futures tournaments, F ...

played the longest professional tiebreak in known tennis history, lasting 70 points (36–34). Balleret won the match 7–6(34), 6–1 in the third qualifying round for the USA F1 Futures in

Plantation, Florida Plantation is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 91,750. It is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The city's name comes from the previous part-owner of the land, the E ...

.Chase, Chris (2013)
"The Longest Tiebreak in Tennis?"
''USA Today'', 7 January 2013. He won the Pensacola Futures tournament in 2013.

References

External links

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Balleret Recent Match Results

Balleret World Ranking History

Monaco Men Recent Match Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balleret, Benjamin 1983 births Monegasque male tennis players Monegasque people of French descent Living people People from Monte Carlo