Juan Ignacio Chela Argentine tennis player. Date of Birth: 30.08.1979 Country: Argentina

Biography of Juan Ignacio Chela

Juan Ignacio Chela is an Argentine professional tennis player who was ranked as the 24th best player in the world as of August 29, 2011. Like most Argentine athletes, he excels on clay courts and has won all six of his titles on that surface. His highest ranking was 15th in the world, achieved on August 9, 2004. Chela stands at 190 cm tall, weighs 75 kg, and has a two-handed backhand.

Chela turned professional in 1998 and is coached by Pablo Fuente, with Fernando Aguirre serving as his fitness trainer and close friend. He has earned a total of $5,601,394 in prize money throughout his career. Born on August 30, 1979, in Ciudad Evita, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Chela currently resides in Buenos Aires. He began playing tennis at the age of six with his older sister Eugenia.

As a junior, Chela won the Latin American Junior Championships in 1997. He has a passion for music, particularly rock and roll from the Argentine band 'Los Redondos'. Due to his tall and lean physique, he has earned the nickname "Flaco," which means "skinny" in Spanish.

Chela has participated in all four Grand Slam tournaments. His best performance in the Australian Open was reaching the fourth round in 2006. In the French Open, he reached the quarterfinals in 2004 and 2011. At Wimbledon, he made it to the second round on four occasions (2003, 2004, 2007, and 2011). In the US Open, he reached the quarterfinals in 2007.

In 2005, Chela was involved in a scandal during a match against Australian player Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open. Frustrated by Hewitt's comments following his own mistake, Chela spat at him, which was caught on camera. He was fined $2000 and forced to apologize. This incident, along with other disputes with Argentine players, made Hewitt the most unpopular foreign athlete among Argentine fans.

In 2006, Chela "got his revenge" against Hewitt at the Australian Open, defeating him in four sets. As a member of the Argentine Davis Cup team, Chela holds a record of six wins and four losses, with his most significant victory coming in April 2006 when Argentina secured the decisive point to defeat Croatia in the quarterfinals.

In May 2007, Chela reached the quarterfinals of six different Masters tournaments in Rome. He had his best performance in Rome, defeating players like Marc Gicquel, Igor Andreev, and Andy Roddick, who was ranked third in the world at the time. This was Chela's best performance since his victory over the third-ranked player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, in May 2000.

In 2010, Chela won the US Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston, which marked his first ATP Tour Level Championship victory in three years (including another win over Lleyton Hewitt). He also won the BCR Open Romania in both singles and doubles. The singles title brought him his sixth career ATP World Tour title.