Nicolas
Lapenti
Male
Ecuador
1976-08-13
Guayaquil, Ecuador
Lapentti began playing tennis at the age of six.
He first came to the tennis world's attention an outstanding junior player who won the Orange Bowl in Florida in 1994, when he also captured the junior doubles titles at the French Open (partnering with Gustavo Kuerten) and the US Open.
Lapentti turned professional in 1995 and won his first top-level singles title later that year at Bogotá.
In 1999, Lapentti was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, defeating Thomas Johansson, Magnus Norman, Mikael Tillström, Andrew Ilie and Karol Kučera before losing to Thomas Enqvist. He also won two tour singles titles that year and reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 6 that November.
In 2002, Lapentti won his fifth tour singles title at St Pölten, beating Fernando Vicente in straight sets in the final. In the second round of that tournament, his rival, Irakli Labadze, faced four match points but was not able to convert any of them. Lapentti finally won that tough match 5–7, 7–6(1), 7–6(6).
His brother, Giovanni, is also a professional tennis player, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 110 in May 2005. In addition, another brother, Leonardo, has been active at the lower levels of professional tennis.
In the Cincinnati Open 2008, Lapentti defeated David Ferrer in second round, Fernando Verdasco in the third round and faced No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals where he lost in straight sets. With that victory over Lapentti, Nadal clinched the World No. 1 ranking for the first time.
In his last participation in a Grand Slam, he unfortunately had to retire against Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2009 French Open.
In 2017, it was announced that Nicolás would compete in the Ecuador Open doubles draw alongside brother Giovanni, playing in the final event of his career.
1997 - 2010
0
6
1
Round 1
Viktor Troicki 1 *
Nicolas Lapenti
4-6
6-3
6-1
6-3
Round 1
Slava Dosedel 1 *
Nicolas Lapenti
6-3
6-2
0-6
6-1
Round 1
Nicolas Lapenti 1 *
Adrian Voinea
7-6(8)
6-3
4-6
2-6
8-6
Round 2
Wayne Sean Arthurs 1 *
Nicolas Lapenti
7-5
7-6(7)
7-5
Round 1
David Prinosil 1 *
Nicolas Lapenti
4-6
6-3
6-4
6-3
Round 1
Francisco Clavet 1 *
Nicolas Lapenti
7-5
6-1
6-3