Gianluigi Quinzi

 ( 1996 Births ) 

He started to be known early in Junior ITF tournaments: aged fourteen – in 2010 – he won the Honduras Junior Bowl, on clay court, by defeating in the final Walner Espinoza, becoming the youngest Italian player to win an ITF Junior tournament. With the excellent results obtained in 2010, Quinzi was nominated Player of the Year, in the category Under-14, by the European Tennis Association; before him, years before, previous nominees for this award have included Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Marin Čilić, Gaël Monfils, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Anna Kournikova.

Quinzi obtained his best result in Italy: in Milan he won the Trofeo Bonfiglio in 2012, beating Temür Ismailov in three sets. At the 2012 French Open Junior he was seeded No. 2. He was eliminated in the third round by British tennis player Kyle Edmund. At the 2012 Wimbledon Junior the young Italian, No. 3 seed, arrived in the semifinals where he lost to Luke Saville, who was No. 1 in the Junior ITF rankings and the returning champion from 2011. In September, he reached the 2012 US Open Junior quarterfinals, losing in three sets to the Japanese player Yoshihito Nishioka.

In September 2012, Quinzi entered in the history of Italian tennis: he won the 2012 Junior Davis Cup with Filippo Baldi: the first time in sport history that Italy won the Junior Davis Cup (in 2011 Italy finished runner-up with Quinzi also playing).

On 1 January 2013, Quinzi reached his best ranking of No. 1 in the world in the ITF Junior rankings: he is the first Italian player ever to obtain this result. At 2013 Australian Open Quinzi, seeded No. 2, reached the quarterfinals without losing a set, but there he was defeated by Thanasi Kokkinakis in three sets. In March, Quinzi reached the final of the 43rd Banana Bowl tournament; he lost in three sets to the French player Jean Sebastien Tatlot. The following week he won the 30th Copa Gerdau beating Stefan Kozlov in the final.

At the second Junior Grand Slam of the season, the 2013 French Open, Quinzi, despite some physical problems, arrived into the quarterfinals, where he lost to No. 2 Nikola Milojević. However, one month later, Quinzi, seeded sixth, soon reached the semifinals at 2013 Wimbledon, beating 10th seed Tatlot in the third round, and the same Nikola Milojević who beat him on the French clay, prevailing in the quarterfinals (6–4, 6–3). With an outstanding performance Quinzi beat Kyle Edmund in straight sets to reach his first Junior Grand Slam final. In the final, he defeated the Korean, Chung Hyeon. He won the title without dropping a set in the entire tournament. Quinzi was the second Italian in sport history to win here; Diego Nargiso was the first to win the title in 1987.

At 2013 US Open Quinzi reached the quarterfinals but lost to Thanasi Kokkinakis in three sets.

On November 23, 2012, he reached is first ITF final in the tournament of Curico, Chile ($10,000, on clay court), defeating Juan Carlos Sáez (world rank No. 464) in the semifinal, but he lost to Guillermo Rivera Aránguiz in straight sets. Quinzi, at the end of 2012, was world rank No. 561.

In April Quinzi officially entered in the Top 500, becoming the youngest player of the ATP rankings among the first 500. He then received a wild card to enter the main draw of the 2013 Rai Open, the first clay court Challenger tournament of the season played in Italy, but he lost in the first round to former Top 100 player Frederico Gil in three sets. The following week he took part to his second ITF tournament of the season, in Sharm El Sheik; he reached his third career ITF final without losing a set. He lost to Mohamed Safwat in three sets. Two weeks later, again in Egypt, Quinzi reached the semifinals of the F6 Futures tournament on clay court, but he lost to Kevin Krawietz.

At the end of may Quinzi played his fourth ITF tournament of the season, in Casablanca ($10.000, clay). After beating the n.1 seed Sergio Gutiérrez Ferrol (former Top 200 on the ATP rankings) in the quarterfinals, and after receiving a walkover in the semifinals, Quinzi reached his fourth career final in an ITF tournament (the third in 2013, in only four tournaments played). Here he won his first career title beating in three sets Lamine Ouahab (former world n.114) and entered, for the first time, the Top 400 of the ATP World rankings.

In July, Quinzi received a wildcard to join the main draw of the 2013 Guzzini Challenger: here he reached his first win in a Challenger tournament, beating fellow Italian Stefano Travaglia in three sets, but lost in the second round to Flavio Cipolla former n.70 in the world. In August Quinzi took part to two other Challenger tournaments in Italy but lost in the first round to Italian Top 100 players Filippo Volandri and Paolo Lorenzi. In September Quinzi continued playing in ATP Challenger Tour, taking part to some tournaments in South America: at 2013 Quito Challenger Quinzi lost in the second round to eventual semifinalist Giovanni Lapentti; in Porto Alegre, one week later, he entered the main draw as a qualifier and stunned Gastão Elias (world rank No. 129) in the first round, beating him with a 6–3 6–4. Quinzi then reached for the first time the quarterfinals round on an ATP Challenger Tour tournament, defeating Leonardo Kirche 6–2 6–2, but lost in three sets to Pedro Sousa.

In November, in Colombia, Quinzi beat again Gastão Elias with a stunning 6–2 6–0 to reach the second round of the 2013 Challenger Ciudad de Guayaquil where he overtook Bolivian player Hugo Dellien in straight sets. In the quarterfinals he defeated Michael Linzer to reach for the first time the semifinals in a Challenger tournament; he failed to reach the final losing in three sets to former world rank No. 51 Leonardo Mayer. He finished the season losing to Pavel Krainik in the semifinals of a Future tournament in Mérida, Mexico. At the end of 2013, Quinzi was world rank No. 328.

In the following months Quinzi took part to other tournaments around the world, without obtaining any significant result: he lost in the first round of the 2014 All Japan Indoor Tennis Championships; then he was defeated by Argentine player Facundo Argüello in the second round of the 2014 Challenger ATP Cachantún Cup and in the first round of the 2014 Rome Open by Taro Daniel.

In May, after the divorce from his coach Eduardo Medica, Quinzi obtained his best results in 2014, capturing three $10,000 ITF tournaments in three weeks – and winning 15 matches in a row: in Galați, Romania, he beat Romanian Vasile Antonescu, in Safi, Morocco, he beat Hugo Dellien 6–2, 6–2 (capturing the title without losing a set) and then in Casablanca he defeated Gianni Mina in straight sets. With these results he got closer to the ATP's Top 300 rankings.

Later in the year, in August, a wrist injury stopped Quinzi's climb of the ATP rankings. After some disappointing results, in November Quinzi reached the quarterfinals of the 2014 Uruguay Open losing in straight sets to Pedro Cachin; he finished the season in Argentina, where he took part at two ITF events in Mendoza (losing to eventual champion Grzegorz Panfil in the semifinals, and falling in the first round the following week). At the end of 2014 (also because of the injury in the second part of the season) Quinzi was world rank No. 424.

In April he reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 Tennis Napoli Cup as a wildcard beating the No. 3 seed and world No. 104 Blaž Rola 6–3, 6–1 and fellow Italian Flavio Cipolla (former Top 100 player) in straight sets in the first two rounds; he lost to Marco Cecchinato at the third set tiebreak.