| Andre Sa |
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Information AboutAndre Sa |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ANDRé Sá | |
| 1977 births | |
| living people | |
| brazilian people | |
| brazilian tennis players | |
| olympic tennis players of brazil | |
| tennis players at the 2004 summer olympics | |
André Rezende Sá (born May 6 , 1977 ) is a professional Brazil ian tennis player. He is (as of April 23 , 2007 ) number 63 for doubles, and 169 for singles. PERSONAL André Sá atarted playing tennis at the age of eight, encouraged by his older brother. At the age of 12 and ranked number 1 in Brazil, he moved to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy , Bradenton, Florida , where he stayed 5 years. In 1996 , he graduated from Brandenton Academy, where he played Basketball for three years. PROFESSIONAL CAREER 1993 to 1997 André Sá played his first professional match in 1993, in a chellenger in his home town of Belo Horizonte , where he lost in the first round at the age of 16. In 1997 , he started travelling around South America , reaching his first Challenger Semifinal, in Quito , losing to Mariano Puerta . In August, he reached his first final, again in his Home Town , losing to Brazilian Roberto Jabali . He also reached the semifinal in Guadalajara , Mexico . In 1997 , he played his first Davis Cup match, against Alistair Hunt , from New Zealand , in Florianopolis , for the World Group Qualifying Round. It was the 5th match of the rubber, with a 5-0 win for Brazil. In October, he played his first ATP-Tour match, in Mexico City , where he reached the quarter-final. 1998 In 1998 , Sá won his first Challenger, on February 23 , in Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam , beating Juan Antonio Marin , from Costa Rica 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Two weeks later, he won the Salinas Challenger in Ecuador , beating Guillermo Cañas in the final, and on August, he won the Gramado Challeger title over Hideki Kaneko , from Japan . This year saw his first Grand Slam participation, in Wimbledon , where he would reach his best result ever a few years later. He lost to Todd Martin on the first round. 1999 }} Sá participated in 4 ATP-Tour tournaments, reaching the 2nd Round in Wimbledon, losing to Karol Kucera , 13th of the World at the time. In five weeks, he won three Challenger titles: Austin , beating American Glenn Weiner , Tulsa and Dallas , beating Jimy Szymanski in the two latter. He had a 13 games winning streak at the time. 2000 At the beginning of the year, he reached the final in Waikoloa, Hawaii Challenger and his first ATP semifinal in Memphis , where he lost to eventual winner Swedish Magnus Larsson . He participated in three Grand Slams: Roland Garros (lost 1st round), Wimbledon (lost 1st round) and US Open (lost 2nd round). Sá was part of the Brazilian Davis Cup team that reached the semifinals, losing to Australia 5-0. Sá played the 4th match against Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 1-6. 2001 Again, he played in 3 Grand Slams: Australian Open (lost 2nd round), Wimbledon (lost 1st round to Arvind Parmar , who also beat him last year) and US Open (lost 2nd round). He won 2 Challenger titles: Calabasas , beating Michael Russel , Salvador , winning over Brazilian Alexandre Simoni . Sá also reached the Hong Kong ATP semifinal, losing to German Rainer Schuettler . 2002 2002 saw, undoubtfully, his best result ever. Even without winning a single title, Sá reached his career-best ranking: 55, after 3 excellent ATP results. He participated in all four Grand Slams with a ''quarterfinal'' in Wimbledon . He beat France's Antony Dupuis (1st), Austria's Stefan Koubek (2nd), Brazil's Flavio Saretta (3rd) and Spain's Feliciano Lopez (4th). In a 3h10min match, he lost a berth at the semifinals to home-hero Tim Henman , 3-6, 7-5, 4-6, 3-6, winning a career-record of U$102,198. On the following month, he reached the Amersfoort 's quarterfinal and the Kitzbuhel 's third round, making Sá get to 55th place in the rankings. 2003 After an excellent year of 2002, André Sá had a terrible 2003 . With 13 first-round defeats on a row, he only saw his first win at the Grass of Queen's , beating Belgium's Gilles Elseneer , but losing at the second round. Sá plummeted on the rankings aftera horrible losing streak and only a second round in Wimbledon, failing to retain his points. He dropped to 138th after the British Grand Slam. 2004 2004 was a fine year for the Brazilian player, winning 2 challengers, one in São Paulo and the other in College Station . He also reached Covington final. 2005 In 2005 , Sá won the Challenger of Campos Do Jordão and reached the final in Dallas , along with two other semifinals. 2006 In 2006 , he reached two Challenger finals ( Bogotá and Belo Horizonte , finishing the year with a ranking of 179, as the 5th Brazilian. 2007 Doubles Discarding the 2002 Wimbledon semifinal, Sá reached his best results on doubles. With 21 Challenger and 2 ATP-Tour titles, along with 11 Challenger and 6 ATP-Tour finals, Sá is considered one of the best Brazilian doubles player of all time, reaching the respoectable 46th place in the ranking. Partnering with Brazilian Flávio Saretta , he reached the quarterfinals at the 2004 Australian Open and with Paraguayan Ramon Delgado , a 3rd round at the 2006 Wimbledon . Representing Brazil , he won the ''gold medal'' at the 1999 Pan American Games , in Winnipeg , partnering with Paulo Taicher , besting the Mexican couple Marco Osorio and Oscar Ortiz , 7-6(6), 6-2. In singles, he lost in the 3rd round to David Nalbandian . In 2004, Sá participated at the 2004 Summer Olympics , in Athens , along with Flávio Saretta at the doubles tournament. They beat the Spanish duo Carlos Moyá / Rafael Nadal in the first round 7-6(6), 6-1, losing to Zimbabwe 's Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett , 3-6, 4-6. Sá was the second last Brazilian to secure his place at the Olímpiadas 2004, 06 August , 2004 He and his doubles partner Marcelo Melo were involved in the longest match in Wimbledon history on July 4 2007 . It lasted six hours 13 minutes, and lasted 102 games (10 less than the world record - Passarell vs Gonzalez in 1969). Sá and Melo won in the fifth set 28-26. Davis Cup Sá played 17 David Cup matches, in 12 ties. He won 10 matches and lost 7. In doubles, he has a good record of 7 wins and 3 losses. He was part of the 2000 Brazilian team that reached the World Group Semifinals . SINGLES TITLES DOUBLES TITLES Doubles finalist (6) REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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