Funny Vince


1) Career highlights
He enjoyed a great junior career, winning six national titles at age 14 in 1988, and was named to U.S. national team in 1989… He won the Orange Bowl in Junior in 1992 (first American to win it since Jim Courier in 1987), to finish the year n°4 in the world before turning pro in January 1993.
1993 : He made his Tour debut in Key Biscayne, defeating Andres Gomez before falling to Arnaud Boetsch in three sets. 1994 : He's the youngest American to finish the year in Top 100. 1995 : He finished as youngest American in Top 100 for second consecutive year… He advanced to fourth round at the U.S. Open with three consecutive straight-sets wins, including his first career Top 10 win over the n°7, Yevgeny Kafelnikov (in third round). In doubles, he won his first career ATP Tour title in Buenos Aires (with Christo Van Rensburg). 1996 : He served for match against Michael Chang in the fourth sets of his third round match at the U.S. Open, to lose finally 6-3 in the fifth. And he reached the quarterfinals in San Jose, Key Biscayne, Bermuda, Atlanta, Pinehurst, Coral Springs, Nottingham, and Stockholm ! 1997 : He reached the semifinals in Toulouse and Bogota and the quarterfinals in Washington and Tashkent. In doubles, he won titles in Orlando (with Mark Merklein), and Tashkent (with Vincenzo Santopadre). 1998 : He reached his first Tour final in St. Pölten (losing to Marcelo Rios), and the quarterfinals in Adelaide, Washington and Cincinnati. He reached the doubles final in Coral Springs (with Mark Merklein). 1999 : He finished in the Top 20 for the first time in his career and posted a personal-best eight victories over Top 10 opponents. He reached the final in Indianapolis (losing to Nicolas Lapentti), the semifinals in Lyon, the quartefinals in the Australian Open, Monte-Carlo, Gstaad and Stuttgart-outdoor. 2000 : We can say it was disastrous. Vince only won three matches in ATP tournaments. The first one in Wimbledon, in June, after 21 consecutive defeats (since Lyon, in October 1999), against Greg Rusedski, 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-7 9-7. The two others in Gstaad, against Sergi Bruguera, and in Tokyo against Andrew Ilie. But he also won matches in qualifications, and in Challenger tournaments. And it's important to say that in spite of all the defeats Vince suffered this year, John McEnroe chose him to play the Davis Cup against Spain, and thanks to the withdrawal of Agassi, he could play the Olympics. It was the first time he played these two great events.
2) What he likes in a few words
He likes to eat, especially chocolate, Italian food, pretzels and hamburgers (Wendy's...). He's a fan of the Miami Dolphins. He kills himself laughing when he sees Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. He has a crush on Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek). He wears Cool Water by Davidoff.