Spotlight on: Carlos Berlocq
Originally published on: 12/04/12 00:00
Ranked at a career-high No.37 in the world, Carlos Berlocq has made himself particularly prominent on the tennis radar this week after becoming the first player to win through to the quarter-finals at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston. Here’s a swift run down of the key things you need to know about the 29-year-old Argentine…
– Born in Chascomus, a 30,000 strong city also credited with producing Team Saxo Bank cyclists Juan Jose Haedo and Lucas Sebastian Haedo, Berlocq now lives 76 miles north in capital city Buenos Aires.
– Nicknamed Charlie, Carlos has one of the biggest families on the ATP circuit, with three sisters and two brothers. He married his wife Maria Noel Serrano when he was 23 – six years ago – and has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter called Stefania.
– Berlocq reached his first ATP final this February in Vina del Mar, Chile, beating three Argentines en route to the final before losing to another – fellow Buenos Aires resident Juan Monaco.
– Fond of clay, Berlocq reached three consecutive ATP quarter-finals in February, falling to Nicolas Almagro in Sao Paulo, David Nalbandian in Buenos Aires and Santiago Giraldo in Acapulco.
– He has scored two top 20 wins this season, beating Frenchman Gilles on both occasions in Buenos Aires and Acapulco.
– Berlocq won five challenger titles in 2011 – three in Italy (Turin, Todi, Palermo) followed by back-to-back wins in Buenos Aires and Montevideo (Uruguay) last November. His collective winnings for those five titles amounted to approximately $29,800 dollars.
– Berlocq went 14-23 for the entire season in 2011 but has already recorded 13 wins to just eight defeats in 2012.
– He has won one ATP doubles title, alongside Eduardo Schwank in Stuttgart in 2010, and made three finals in the team discipline, in Umag in 2008, Moscow in 2011 and Vina del Mar this year.
– A fan of the red stuff, Berlocq has served 30 aces on clay to date this year, with that figure set to rise after the conclusion of this week’s Houston tournament.
Now get the WORLD’S BEST TENNIS MAGAZINE here
