Alejandro Falla

Alejandro Falla
Full name	Alejandro Falla Ramírez
Country (sports)	Colombia
Residence	Bogotá, Colombia
Born	14 November 1983 (age 41); Popayán, Colombia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	2000
Retired	2018
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$3,101,331
Singles
Career record	114–169 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 48 (16 July 2012)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2010, 2012)
French Open	4R (2011)
Wimbledon	3R (2012)
US Open	2R (2006, 2011)
Doubles
Career record	17–41 (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 130 (3 August 2009)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2010, 2012, 2013)
French Open	2R (2014)
Wimbledon	1R (2010, 2014)
US Open	1R (2010, 2014)
Medal record
Central American and Caribbean Games
	Last updated on: 9 April 2021.

Alejandro Falla Ramírez (Spanish pronunciation: [aleˈxandɾo ˈfaʎa raˈmiɾes];^[1] born 14 November 1983) is a retired professional male tennis player from Colombia. The left-hander turned pro in 2000 and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 48 in July 2012. At the 2006 Wimbledon tournament, Falla upset 9th seed Nikolay Davydenko and at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Open he beat 9th seed Tommy Haas in straight sets. He reached the semifinals of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon in 2007, beating players such as the 5th seed Ivan Ljubičić.

Career

The Colombian became the first player from his country to break into the top 100 of the ATP rankings since Mauricio Hadad in 1996. In 2006, Alejandro qualified a career-high five times into the main draw of ATP tournaments. In his second tournament of the year, he reached the final of the Mexico City Challenger. He then went on to earn points for his country in a Davis Cup tie against Paraguay Davis Team. Then later in April, he won the Bogotá Challenger. At Roland Garros, he reached the second round after defeating Justin Gimelstob, though he lost to Roger Federer in the second round. A few weeks later at Wimbledon, he managed to beat Nikolay Davydenko in a four-set thriller. His victory over Davydenko was his first win over a top-10 player, and a first ever for a Colombian player. However, he was then defeated in the second round by Philipp Kohlschreiber in another four-set match. He then reached the second round in the US Open. In the first round, he beat Juan Martín del Potro in four sets, before being defeated by Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets.

Falla almost caused a sensation in the first round of Wimbledon in 2010, winning the first two sets against defending champion Roger Federer and serving for the match at 5–4 in the fourth set (he was three points away from winning), before Federer eventually won 5–7, 4–6, 6–4, 7–6, 6–0.^[2]

His best result in a Grand Slam was in 2011 at the French Open. Falla reached the fourth round, where he lost to the unseeded Juan Ignacio Chela.

In the 2014 Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Falla rallied to beat 2011 champion Philipp Kohlschreiber 5–7, 7–6 (5), 6–4 to become the first Colombian to reach the final of a grass-court tournament. He lost to six-time champion Roger Federer in the final.

Juniors

Alejandro Falla made it to the semi-finals in the 2001 French Open, giving a big inspiration to Colombian players aspiring to achieve strong results in junior open tennis.

Doubles

In junior doubles at the French Open, he and compatriot Carlos Salamanca defeated the German duo Markus Bayer and Philipp Petzschner, the first junior title won by Colombians in a Grand Slam.

Tournament	2000	2001
Junior Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A
French Open	1R	W
Wimbledon	1R	1R
US Open	A	2R

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	2001	French Open	Clay	Carlos Salamanca	Markus Bayer Philipp Petzschner	3–6, 7–5, 6–4

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–2)

Titles by surface
Hard (0–1)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–1)

Titles by setting
Outdoor (0–2)
Indoor (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2013	Colombia Open, Colombia	250 Series	Hard	Ivo Karlović	3–6, 6–7^(4–7)
Loss	0–2	Jun 2014	Halle Open, Germany	250 Series	Grass	Roger Federer	6–7^(2–7), 6–7^(3–7)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–1)

Titles by surface
Hard (0–1)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)

Titles by setting
Outdoor (0–1)
Indoor (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Feb 2011	Pacific Coast Championships, United States	250 Series	Hard	Xavier Malisse	Scott Lipsky Rajeev Ram	4–6, 6–4, [8–10]

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 24 (14–10)

Legend
ATP Challenger (11–8)
ITF Futures (3–2)

Finals by surface
Hard (3–4)
Clay (11–6)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Jun 2002	Bogotá, Colombia	Futures	Clay	Pablo González	6–7^(6–8), 6–7^(2–7)
Loss	0–2	Jun 2002	Bogotá, Colombia	Futures	Clay	Eduardo Bohrer	6–7^(3–7), 6–7^(1–7)
Win	1–2	Jan 2003	San Salvador, El Salvador	Futures	Clay	Jorge Aguilar	6–4, 6–4
Win	2–2	May 2003	Pereira, Colombia	Futures	Clay	Thiago Alves	7–5, 6–3
Win	3–2	Oct 2003	Bogotá, Colombia	Futures	Clay	Marco Mirnegg	7–5, 6–3
Loss	3–3	Feb 2004	Waikoloa, United States	Challenger	Clay	Dmitry Tursunov	5–7, 6–7^(4–7)
Win	4–3	Mar 2004	Bogotá, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Adrián García	4–6, 6–1, 6–2
Win	5–3	Mar 2004	Salinas, Ecuador	Challenger	Hard	Gilles Müller	6–7, 6–2, 6–2
Loss	5–4	Jul 2005	Pozoblanco, Spain	Challenger	Hard	Marcos Baghdatis	3–6, 3–6
Loss	5–5	Jul 2005	Binghamton, United States	Challenger	Hard	Andy Murray	6–7^(3–7), 3–6
Loss	5–6	Apr 2006	Mexico City, Mexico	Challenger	Clay	Ramón Delgado	3–6, 6–4, 4–6
Win	6–6	Apr 2006	Bogotá, Colombia (2)	Challenger	Clay	André Sá	6–4, 6–2
Loss	6–7	Nov 2007	Bratislava, Slovakia	Challenger	Hard	Simone Bolelli	6–4, 6–7^(7–9), 1–6
Win	7–7	May 2009	Pereira, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Horacio Zeballos	6–4, 4–6, 6–2
Win	8–7	Sep 2009	Cali, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Horacio Zeballos	6–3, 6–4
Win	9–7	Oct 2009	Rennes, France	Challenger	Hard	Thierry Ascione	6–3, 6–2
Loss	9–8	Apr 2010	Bogotá, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	João Souza	6–4, 4–6, 1–6
Win	10–8	Sep 2011	Cali, Colombia (2)	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Schwank	6–4, 6–3
Loss	10–9	Oct 2011	Medellín, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Víctor Estrella Burgos	7–6^(7–2), 4–6, 4–6
Win	11–9	Apr 2012	Barranquilla, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Horacio Zeballos	6–4, 6–1
Win	12–9	Jul 2012	Bogotá, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Santiago Giraldo	7–5, 6–3
Win	13–9	Jan 2014	Nouméa, New Caledonia	Challenger	Hard	Steven Diez	6–2, 6–2
Win	14–9	Jan 2014	Bucaramanga, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Paolo Lorenzi	7–5, 6–1
Loss	14–10	Jan 2016	Nouméa, New Caledonia	Challenger	Hard	Adrian Mannarino	7–5, 2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 20 (10–10)

Legend
ATP Challenger (6–5)
ITF Futures (4–5)

Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (9–6)
Grass (0–1)
Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Oct 2000	Colombia F2, Bogotá	Futures	Clay	Pablo Gonzalez	Leonardo Azzaro Eyal Ran	2–6, 2–6
Win	1–1	Aug 2001	Spain F4, Denia	Futures	Clay	Pablo Gonzalez	J. Fernandez-Rubio A-J Martin-Arroyo	2–6, 6–2, 6–2
Win	2–1	Jun 2002	Colombia F2, Bogotá	Futures	Clay	Carlos Salamanca	Eduardo Bohrer Fernando Araujo	3–0 ret.
Loss	2–2	Aug 2002	Spain F11, Irun	Futures	Clay	Carlos Salamanca	Marc Fornell Mestres F. Ventura-Martell	6–7^(3–7), 1–6
Loss	2–3	Sep 2002	Spain F14, Madrid	Futures	Hard	Carlos Salamanca	Gabriel Trujillo Soler A-J Martin-Arroyo	4–6, 4–6
Loss	2–4	Jan 2003	El Salvador F2, La Libertad	Futures	Hard	Carlos Salamanca	Juan Pablo Brzezicki Bruno Soares	6–4, 4–6, 6–7^(3–7)
Win	3–4	May 2003	Mexico F4, Aguascalientes	Futures	Hard	Bruno Soares	Ronaldo Carvalho Gabriel Pitta	4–6, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	3–5	May 2003	Colombia F1A, Cali	Futures	Clay	Carlos Salamanca	Mirko Pehar Michael Quintero	3–6, 4–6
Win	4–5	Oct 2003	Colombia F2, Bogotá	Futures	Clay	Carlos Salamanca	Ronaldo Carvalho Carlos Berlocq	6–5, 5–7, 6–4
Loss	4–6	Jun 2004	Surbiton, Great Britain	Challenger	Grass	Glenn Weiner	Nathan Healey Jim Thomas	3–6, 6–7^(9–11)
Win	5–6	Sep 2008	Cali, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Juan Sebastián Cabal	Brian Dabul Horacio Zeballos	7–6^(8–6), 6–3
Win	6–6	Sep 2008	Bogotá 3, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Juan Sebastián Cabal	Alejandro Fabbri Horacio Zeballos	3–6, 7–6^(9–7), [10–8]
Win	7–6	Nov 2008	Medellín, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Juan Sebastián Cabal	Juan-Pablo Amado Víctor Estrella Burgos	3–4 ret.
Loss	7–7	May 2009	Pereira, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Juan Sebastián Cabal	João Souza Víctor Estrella Burgos	4–6, 4–6
Win	8–7	Nov 2009	Bogotá, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Alejandro González	Diego Álvarez Sebastián Decoud	5–7, 6–4, [10–8]
Loss	8–8	Oct 2009	Mons, Belgium	Challenger	Hard	Teymuraz Gabashvili	Denis Istomin Evgeny Korolev	7–6^(7–4), 6–7^(4–7), [9–11]
Loss	8–9	Apr 2011	Barranquilla, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Struvay	Flavio Cipolla Paolo Lorenzi	3–6, 4–6
Loss	8–10	Apr 2011	Pereira, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Struvay	Marcel Felder Carlos Salamanca	6–7^(5–7), 4–6
Win	9–10	Sep 2016	Barranquilla, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Struvay	Gonzalo Escobar Roberto Quiroz	6–4, 7–5
Win	10–10	Oct 2016	Medellín, Colombia	Challenger	Clay	Eduardo Struvay	André Ghem Juan Lizariturry	6–3, 6–2

Performance timelines

Key
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	P#	DNQ	A	Z#	PO	G	S	B	NMS	NTI	P	NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.