Flávio Saretta Filho (born June 28, 1980) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

who turned professional in 1998.

Tennis career

Saretta has won one

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

doubles title, the 2004

Croatia Open Umag The Croatia Open (currently sponsored by Plava laguna) is a men's ATP tennis tournament held in Umag, Croatia that is part of the 250 series of the ATP Tour. The tournament began in 1990 when it was part of Yugoslavia, and is the oldest tennis ...

with

José Acasuso José Javier "Chucho" Acasuso (; born 20 October 1982) is a former professional male tennis player from Argentina. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he favoured clay. He was known for his strong serve and his hard groundstrokes off both side ...

, defeating

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

players Jaroslav Levinský and

David Škoch David Škoch (born 6 November 1976) is a professional doubles tennis player from the Czech Republic. He was the Wimbledon boys' singles champion in 1992. In 2012–2019 he played in ITF tournaments with Petr Nouza, recently in May 2019 in Jabl ...

in the final. In 2004 he competed in the Tennis Olympic Tournament in both the singles and doubles tournaments. He was eliminated by

Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals ( Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Ope ...

in the singles tournament round of 64 and, playing together with André Sá, he reached the doubles tournament round of 16, where he was eliminated by

Wayne Black Wayne Hamilton Black (born 17 November 1973) is a former professional tennis player from Zimbabwe. The son of former player Don Black, Black turned professional in 1994 and reached his highest singles ranking of 69 on 30 March 1998. He is the y ...

and

Kevin Ullyett Kevin Ullyett (born 23 May 1972) is a former professional tennis player from Zimbabwe. His primary success on the tour was in men's doubles. Ullyett won 34 doubles titles during his career, including two Grand Slams at the 2001 US Open and t ...

, from

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

. He reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on September 15, 2003, when he became the number 44 of the world, capping what would be the best season of his professional career. He had his best results in all 4 of the Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the Round of 16 at Roland Garros. His clay court prowess was also evident when he was successful in defending his crown at the

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

Challenger tournament in April. During the

Hamburg Masters The Hamburg European Open (formerly ''German Open Tennis Championships'') is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a mal ...

in 2006, Saretta scored one of his biggest wins against the Russian former World No. 1

Marat Safin Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; tt-Cyrl, Марат Мөбин улы Сафин; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian retired world No. 1 tennis player an ...

, 5–7, 6–0, 6–4. Flávio Saretta won the Rio Pan-American Games 2007, after saving 2 match-points at semi and at final against, respectively, Eduardo Schwank and Adrián García. In the end of 2007 Saretta had one of the biggest injuries of his entire career and he is out of the circuit since then. In 2009, Saretta announced that he will stop playing professionally because he is tired of "fighting against the pain" of his injuries. He had an unsuccessful comeback in 2014, losing all his matches that year in three tournaments played in Brazilian soil. In 2015 Saretta became a tennis commentator for

BandSports BandSports is a Brazilian cable television network that has its programming based on all sports, launched in 2002 by Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação. Sports Programming Athletics * Diamond League * European Athletics Championship Bask ...

, a Brazilian sports cable channel.

Titles (12)

Singles (7)

Doubles (5)

Runners-up (14)

Singles (6)

Doubles (8)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saretta, Flavio Living people 1980 births People from Americana, São Paulo Brazilian people of Italian descent Brazilian male tennis players Olympic tennis players of Brazil Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2007 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in tennis Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games Sportspeople from São Paulo (state)