Chris Guccione

Christopher Luke Guccione (born 30 July 1985) is an inactive Australian professional tennis player from Greenvale, Victoria.

In the semi-finals, he defeated another first-time semifinalist, 92nd ranked Juan Martín del Potro 5–7, 6–3, 7–5, to reach his first ever career ATP tour final, where he lost to Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final 6–3, 6–7, 6–4, ending his run of victories over top-100 ranked players at five.

After success at the Adelaide International Guccione reached a ranking of 107 in the world.

Guccione burst onto the scene at the 2004 Medibank International tournament, where he defeated former World No. 1 (and then-World No. 3) Juan Carlos Ferrero 6–3, 7–6.

At that time Guccione was not even ranked in the top 400.

Despite this momentous victory, he lost to world no. 32 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa 7–6, 7–5 in the second round.

In the Australian Open he won his first round match against Australia's Alun Jones 6–3, 7–6, 6–2.

He was eliminated in the next round by American Robby Ginepri 6–4, 6–3, 6–3.

In November, he won the first singles tournament of his career in Berri, South Australia.

He defeated fellow Australian Robert Smeets in straight sets 6–4, 6–4 in the final.

Guccione's first tournament of the year was the Australian Open.

He played world no. 12 Guillermo Cañas and lost in straight sets 6–4, 6–2, 7–6.

In February, Guccione won his first Challenger title of his career in Burnie, defeating Gouichi Motomura of Japan 6–3, 7–5.

Guccione is noted for his good service; he hit 50 aces in a three-set qualifying match at Wimbledon in 2005.

The good service has led fellow Australian player Mark Philippoussis to call him a "Wayne Arthurs clone".

He is a serve-and-volley player.

Despite these strong assets in the game he has still yet to win any ATP titles and very rarely makes it past the first round of major tournaments.

During his career, he has won 5 ATP Challenger Series: hardcourt victories in Burnie and Canberra in 2005, clay court victories in 2006 at Quito and Medellín, and a victory on hardcourt at Aptos in 2009.

He has had greater success as a doubles player, often partnering with fellow Australians Carsten Ball and Sam Groth.

Guccione has represented his country in several Davis Cup ties, compiling a winning record.

In April 2005 at Canberra, he won another Challenger title after he defeated Germany's Lars Uebel 7–5, 6–1 in the final.

His next tournament was the French Open.

It was his first French Open of his career.

Despite this, he defeated Spain's Santiago Ventura in the first round 6–3, 2–6, 6–1, 3–6, 6–2.

He was knocked out in the second round by home-favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu 6–3, 6–4, 6–4.

He did not participate in any more grand slams in 2005.

In January 2006 Guccione managed to once again defeat Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Medibank International.

In February 2006, Guccione won the deciding fifth and final rubber against Switzerland's George Bastl in the Davis Cup.

He continued this Davis Cup success in April at Kooyong in Victoria when he defeated his more experienced opponent, Max Mirnyi, in the opening Quarter-final tie against Belarus.

Despite winning all but one of his 2006 Davis Cup matches, Guccione was dropped from the Australian Davis Cup Team to make way for the returning Mark Philippoussis.

Guccione began his 2007 season in Adelaide with a wildcard entry at the Next Generation Adelaide International.

There, he beat world number 93, Amer Delić 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, world number 58 Benjamin Becker 7–5, 6–3, and world number 42 Arnaud Clément 7–6, 7–6.

Reaching his first ATP quarterfinal—the only Australian to do so in Adelaide—Guccione continued his run and upset number 2 seed and world number 18 Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals 1–6, 6–3, 7–6 to reach his first ATP semifinal.

Guccione began his second tournament of 2007 in the Medibank International beating Rafael Nadal in the first round.

He has won five ATP Tour doubles titles, and reached career-high rankings of singles world No. 67 in April 2008 and doubles world No. 38 in November 2014.

Guccione is of Italian descent on his father's side.

He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

He is married to Andra Kucerak, with whom he has two children.

Guccione is coached by countryman and former ATP professional Anthony Lane.

In a 2011 tie against Switzerland, for example, he teamed with Lleyton Hewitt to beat the Olympic gold medal-winning team of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.