Nicolás Massú

Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried (born October 10, 1979), nicknamed Vampiro (Spanish: "vampire"), is a Chilean former tennis player, a former World No. 9 in singles, and a winner of two Olympic gold medals. He is the only male player to have won both the singles and doubles gold medals during the same games in modern Olympic tennis (since 1988). Massú also reached the final of the 2003 Madrid Masters and won six singles titles.

Tennis career

Early years

Massú was born in a family of Palestinian and Hungarian-Jewish descent and introduced to tennis at age five by his grandfather, Ladislao Fried. From age 12, he was trained at the Valle Dorado tennis academy, near Villa Alemana, by Leonardo Zuleta, with whom he perfected his forehand and double-handed backhand. He later trained at the Nick Bollettieri academy, in Florida, United States, alongside Marcelo Ríos, and later at the High Performance Center in Barcelona, Spain.

Juniors

Massú became a professional tennis player in 1997. That year, he won the prestigious juniors year-end Orange Bowl tournament. He also claimed the boys doubles competitions at Wimbledon (with Peru's Luis Horna) and the US Open (with countryman Fernando González), and was junior doubles world champion in 1997 (and No. 5 in singles).

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