Alberto César Mancini (born 20 May 1969) is a former professional
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 ...
player from
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
. He won three top-level singles titles and four tour doubles titles. His career-high rankings were World No. 8 in singles and No. 79 in doubles (both in 1989).
Player career
Mancini turned professional in 1987. In 1988, he won his first top-level singles title at
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, and his first tour doubles title at
St. Vincent.
Mancini won the two most significant titles of his career in 1989. In April that year he won the
Monte Carlo Open, defeating
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...
in the final 7–5, 2–6, 7–6, 7–5. In May he won the
Italian Open, beating
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
in the final 6–3, 4–6, 2–6, 7–6, 6–1, saving match point in the fourth set. Both events were part of the
Grand Prix Championship Series. Mancini also reached the quarter-finals of the 1989
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
, his career-best performance at a
Grand Slam event. He defeated
Simon Youl
Simon John Arthur Youl (born 1 July 1965) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.
Tennis career
Youl was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder from 1981 to 1984.
Juniors
As a junior player, Youl formed a successf ...
,
Martín Jaite,
Paul Haarhuis
Paul Vincent Nicholas Haarhuis (; born 19 February 1966) is a Dutch tennis coach and a former professional player. He is a former world No. 1 doubles player, having reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in November 1995. He has ...
and
Jakob Hlasek before losing to
Stefan Edberg
Jan Stefan Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), one of two players in the ...
.
Mancini reached the final of the Italian Open again in 1991, but was forced to retire during the final against
Emilio Sánchez with Sánchez leading 6–3, 6–1, 3–0. The last major final of Mancini's career was at the
Lipton International players Championships in
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
in 1992, where he lost to
Michael Chang
Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked world No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1996. Chang is the youngest man in history to win a singl ...
7–5, 7–5.
Mancini, a competitor at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, retired from the professional tour in 1994.
Coaching career
In February 2003, Mancini became the coach of
Guillermo Coria
Guillermo Sebastián Coria (born 13 January 1982), nicknamed ''El Mago'' (''The Magician'' in Spanish), is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP world No. 3 Singles (ten ...
. Under Mancini's guidance, Coria won the tournaments at
2003 Hamburg,
2003 Stuttgart,
2003 Kitzbühel,
2003 Sopot and
2003 Basel, as well as reaching the final of
2003 Monte Carlo, the semi-finals of the
2003 French Open, and the quarter-finals of the
2003 US Open. Coria finished 2003 as world number 5. Despite these successes, Coria surprisingly decided to part ways with Mancini in February 2004, soon after an upset first round loss at the
2004 Australian Open
The 2004 Australian Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament held in Melbourne, Australia from 19 January to 1 February 2004.
Andre Agassi was unsuccessful in defending his 2003 title, being defeated in the semi-finals by Mara ...
.
Mancini went on to become captain of the
Argentina Davis Cup team, and led Argentina to the Davis Cup final in both 2006 and 2008. However, Argentina lost both finals. Mancini resigned his position as captain of the team after losing in Argentina to
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
in the 2008
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
final.
In 2010 he was granted the
Konex Award Merit Diploma as one of the five best coaches of the last decade in Argentina.
In November 2020, Mancini became the coach of
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. Fognini's most successful surface is Clay court#Red clay, ...
. He is currently coaching
Daniel Altmaier
Daniel Altmaier (; born 12 September 1998) is a German professional tennis player. He has a career high ATP singles ranking of world No. 47, achieved on 2 October 2023. He is the current German No. 2.
Personal life
Altmaier's father Jurij is Ukr ...
.
Performance timeline
Singles
ATP career finals
Singles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)
Doubles (4 wins, 2 losses)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 2 (1–1)
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mancini, Alberto
1969 births
Living people
Argentine male tennis players
Olympic tennis players for Argentina
Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent
People from Posadas, Misiones
Tennis players from Rosario, Santa Fe
Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
20th-century Argentine sportsmen