Cristina Tessi (born 20 July 1972) 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.

Biography

Tessi, who comes from

Ingeniero Maschwitz Ingeniero Maschwitz, known simply as Maschwitz, is a town in the Escobar Partido of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the urban conurbation of Greater Buenos Aires. This is the small town where International evangelist Luis Pal ...

, began to play tennis at the age of three and as a child was taught by her father Atilio and brother Ricardo.

Tennis career

Excelling as a teenager, she topped the world rankings for juniors in 1988, which led to calls in the press that she would be the next

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. As a 15 year old she made the quarter-finals of the doubles in her debut WTA Tour tournament, the 1987 Argentine Open, partnering

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. Tessi played in a

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

tie for Argentina in 1988, against Greece in Melbourne, which they won 3–0, with Tessi and

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winning a dead rubber doubles match. Over the next few years her ranking steadily improved with her first WTA Tour singles quarter-final coming at Guaruja in 1989 and another at São Paulo in 1990, beating

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en route. She ended 1990 by winning three matches to make the quarter-finals at the end of year Danone Open in Brisbane. Her best WTA Tour performance came early in 1991 when she reached the semi-finals at Auckland. At the 1991 Italian Open she had a win over

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and lost a close two set match to fellow young talent

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. Later in the 1991 season she made the quarter-finals in Palermo to reach her career best ranking of 56 in the world. She featured in the main draw of all four grand slam tournaments in her career and made the second round of both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1992. Her second round loss to

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at the 1992 Wimbledon Championships went deep into the third set, eventually decided 6–8. Not long after her Wimbledon appearance she injured an abductor and decided to return to school. She didn't her tennis career until she completed her studies and when she came back it was with a limited impact, only featuring in lower level ITF tournaments.

Life after tennis

Tessi is now a clinical doctor in Buenos Aires with endocrinology as a specialty.

ITF finals

Singles (3–0)

Doubles (0–1)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tessi, Cristina 1972 births Living people Argentine female tennis players Tennis players from Buenos Aires Province