Edgardo Massa (born 22 March 1981 in

Formosa, Argentina Formosa () is the capital city of the Argentine province of Formosa, on the banks of the Paraguay River, opposite the Paraguayan town of Alberdi, about north from Buenos Aires, on National Route 11. The city has a population of about 234, ...

) is an Argentine

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, who turned professional in 1998. Massa plays right-handed, and uses a

single-handed backhand The backhand is a shot used in most racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and pickleball, where the back of the hand precedes the palm when swinging the racket. Except in the phrase ''backhand volley'', the term refers to a groundstro ...

Career

Massa who is known by the nickname "Yayo", started playing tennis at the age of 5. He was part of the same generation that produced

David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached his highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006, during a career that spanned from 2000 to 2013. Nalbandian was runner-up in ...

and

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 ...

. Together with Nalbandian and Coria, Massa represented Argentina in the Junior Davis Cup in 1996 and 1997. As a junior, Massa won the Asunción Bowl junior, which was G1 level event, the level under the junior Grand Slams, Banana and Orange Bowls without losing where he defeated

Fernando González Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career, he reached at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major tournaments. He contested hi ...

in the quarter-finals and

Ricardo Mello Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delra ...

in the final.

1998–2000

Massa turned professional in 1998, where he started off playing

Futures tournaments The ITF Men's World Tennis Tour (formerly ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The tour represents the lowest rung of the men ...

. His best results of the year were losing in the Peru F3 semi finals to

Luis Horna Luis Horna Biscari (; born 14 September 1980 in Lima) is a former tour professional tennis player from Peru, who turned professional in 1998. Known by his nickname "Lucho", he won 2 career singles titles, reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 ...

and the quarter-finals of the Resistencia to

. In 1999, Massa won his first Futures tournaments in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

defeated

Martín Vassallo Argüello Martín Miguel Vassallo Argüello (born 10 February 1980) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His career-high ATP singles ranking is World No. 47, achieved in April 2009 shortly after reaching the semifinals of Acapulco. ...

and

Asunción Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...

over Leonardo Olguín. Massa played a mix of Futures and Challengers, where he won two Futures events in Argentina and Paraguay, before finishing the season by qualifying for the ATP Challenger event in Buenos Aires, defeating

Agustín Calleri Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is ''Gordo'' which means ''Fat'' in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay. Calleri served as ...

in the quarter-finals before losing to Guillermo Coria in the semi-finals.

2001–2003

The 2001 season started slowly for Massa, but in September he won two consecutive Challengers in

Florianópolis Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as we ...

and

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

defeating

Gastón Etlis Gastón Ariel Etlis (born 4 November 1974) is a former tennis player from Argentina. The right-hander won four career titles in doubles, and reached his highest ATP rankings of World No. 114 in singles May 2000 and World No. 17 in doubles in J ...

and

respectively, before losing to

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

in the following week and

Marcelo Ríos Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the first Latin American to reach the t ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

. Massa had a poor 2002 and returned to playing Futures events in late 2003 where he won two tournaments defeating

Carlos Berlocq Carlos Alberto Berlocq (; born February 3, 1983) is an Argentine former professional tennis player and coach nicknamed ''Charly'', ''Panther'' and ''Warlocq''. Berlocq's career-high singles ranking was World No. 37, achieved in March 2012. His ...

in Chile and Diego Hartfield in

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

2004–2008

2004 saw Massa make the final of the Forest Hills Challenger as a qualifier before retiring against

Juan Pablo Guzmán Juan Pablo Guzmán (born January 29, 1981) is a professional tennis player and coach from Argentina. In 2007, Guzmán won the ATP doubles title in Amersfoort with Juan Pablo Brzezicki where the Argentine duo defeated Robin Haase and Rogier Wass ...

in the final. In September Massa went on a run where he won 15 successive matches, with 14 of them won in straight sets. This run included the

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

Challenger where he qualified for the main draw and lost a total of 35 games in the tournament inclusive of the qualifying rounds. He followed that with a tournament victory in

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

over

Tomas Behrend Tomas Ugo Behrend (born 12 December 1974) is a German former professional tennis player. His career high ATP singles ranking was World No. 74, which he attained in October 2005. His career high in doubles was World No. 43 in October 2007. Behren ...

in the final. Massa's last Challenger tournament win was in 2005 in La Serena over

Mariano Puerta Mariano Rubén Puerta (; born 19 September 1978) is an Argentine tennis coach and former professional player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 9 singles ranking in August 2005. His career highlight is reaching the final of the French O ...

who would go on to make the Roland Garros final in that season. Injuries have been a significant factor in Massa's career as a professional. He has suffered three shoulder operations, hip operation, a stress fracture in his right hand. In April 2005, he had an accident in attempting to evade a girl at a tournament, he fell on his right shoulder and it was broken instantly. Massa's last injury was a hip problem. While the recovery was difficult, he hoped to retire on his own terms and not because of the injuries. His last tournament was 2008 La Serena Open, where he competed in the men's doubles event with

Gustavo Marcaccio Gustavo Marcaccio (born 3 May 1977) is an Argentine tennis coach and former professional player. Tennis career Marcaccio, a native of Buenos Aires, played collegiate tennis in the United States for Arizona State University in the late 1990s, via ...

Singles titles

References

External links

* *
Edgardo Massa world ranking history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massa, Edgardo 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Formosa, Argentina Argentine male tennis players Tennis players from Buenos Aires Tennis players at the 1999 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Argentina 21st-century Argentine sportsmen 20th-century Argentine sportsmen