Víctor Estrella Burgos

Víctor Estrella Burgos ( born August 2, 1980) is a Dominican former professional tennis player.

Estrella Burgos played his first junior match in July 1996 at the age of 15 at a grade 5 tournament in the Dominican Republic.

He did not play much junior tennis as he play just six tournaments in singles and five tournaments in doubles.

His best result was a semifinal appearance at a grade 4 tournament in El Salvador in singles and a final appearance at a grade 4 tournament in the Dominican Republic in doubles.

He did not play in any junior Grand Slams or any major junior tournaments.

Estrella Burgos ended his junior career with a high ranking of 360 in singles and 292 in doubles.

He had an overall win–loss record of 9–6 in singles and 10–5 in doubles.

Estrella has been a member of the Davis Cup team from the Dominican Republic since 1998, posting a record of 41–17 in singles and 21–22 in doubles.

Although playing his first ITF event in 2000, Estrella Burgos officially turned pro in 2002 at the age of 22.

He reportedly did not take his career seriously until he was 26 when he decided that a career on the ATP Tour was the best option.

For the first few years of his career, he played tournaments only located in The Americas.

Throughout 2002–2013, he earned a handful of ITF titles while also improving his year-end ranking.

Highlights during this period include qualifying for his first ATP tournament, the 2008 Cincinnati Masters which he qualified for but lost to Fernando Verdasco in the first round, winning his first challenger title in 2011, and winning a gold medal at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games and a bronze medal at the 2011 Pan American Games, both in singles.

It was not until 2011 where he started to play in other parts of the world.

In October 2012, Estrella Burgos suffered an elbow injury.

He was contemplating retirement during this time but returned to tennis in April 2013.

At the age of 32, Estrella Burgos picked up his first ATP win at the 2013 Colombia Open defeating Facundo Argüello in the first round.

In 2014, Estrella became the first Dominican to reach the top 100 in the ATP rankings.

He also became the first Dominican player to reach the semifinals in an ATP 250 tournament in Bogotá.

Since 2014 he belongs to the Dominican olympic program CRESO.

In early 2014, he became the first Dominican player to break into the top 100 and he started to qualify for ATP events and grand slams.

His first grand slam was the 2014 French Open where he got an automatic qualification due to ranking but lost in the first round to 22nd seed Jerzy Janowicz in 4 sets.

At the 2014 Colombia Open, he went into the tournament as 8th seed and made the semifinals defeating the 1st seed and world number 14 Richard Gasquet along the way.

He lost to eventual champion Bernard Tomic.

At the 2014 US Open, he made the third round which remains as his best result in a slam.

He lost to Milos Raonic in straight sets which all went to tiebreaks.

At the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games, Estrella Burgos repeated his gold medal feat from 2010 in singles and also won a bronze medal in mixed doubles.

Estrella Burgos would finish 2014 with a year-end ranking of 78 and a win–loss record of 9–10.

In 2015, he also became the first tennis player from his country to participate in all four Grand Slams, playing in the Australian Open.

In February 2015, he won his first career ATP title at the Ecuador Open, becoming the oldest first-time ATP tour winner in the Open Era.

Estrella Burgos reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 43, achieved on July 13, 2015.

He achieved a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 135, achieved on the same date.

Estrella Burgos began playing tennis at the age of 8.

At the 2015 Ecuador Open, Estrella Burgos made his first ATP final.

In the final, he defeated top seed and world No. 14 Feliciano López to win his first ATP title.

Not only did he become the first Dominican to win an ATP title, but the oldest first-time ATP champion in Open Era history.

He also made the final of the doubles draw partnering João Souza but lost to Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko in straight sets.

At the 2015 Barcelona Open, he recorded his only win over a top 10 player when he defeated world number 9 Marin Čilić.

He also beat future world number 3 Dominic Thiem during the tournament.

He successfully defended his title with a 100% winning record at the event in 2016 and 2017, but lost in the second round in 2018.