The Biofile: Horacio Zeballos

Horacio Zeballos has been enjoying a rich run of form on the ATP World Tour. The 32-year-old Argentine reached the semi-finals last week at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and is now in the quarter-finals of the BMW Open by FWU. In doubles, he and Julio Peralta prevailed last month in Houston (d. Brown/Tiafoe) and finished runner-up in February in Quito (l. Cerretani/Oswald).

Zeballos has even been making a splash on social media, posing for selfies Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic after losing to them in competitive matches in Barcelona and Doha, respectively.

He shares some of his tennis memories in this Biofile with Scoop Malinowski.

First Tennis Memory: I remember my father’s club. He has a tennis club. I started to play there and my friends are from there.

Tennis Inspirations: My father was one of them. There’s also a lot of good Argentine players like David Nalbandian, Guillermo Coria and Gaston Gaudio. I remember watching all their matches.

Last Book Read: Game of Thrones.

First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered: Guillermo Vilas in Mar de Plata. I was eight years old. He did a clinic with the kids.

Greatest Moment Of Career: When I beat Nadal in the Vina del Mar final (2013).

Most Painful Moment: Sometime when I have to go and leave my family at home. I have to travel like for one or two months. It’s very tough.

Favorite Tournaments: Houston is one of them. I also like to play in Buenos Aires because I’m playing at home.

Why You Love Playing Tennis?: It’s a really nice sport. I’m not sitting in an office. I have the chance to be traveling around the world. See new places, see new countries. It’s beautiful.

Funniest Players Encountered: One of the funniest players is Gael Monfils.

Strangest Match: I remember one match I was leading 3-2 in the first set. We just started. My opponent said something bad to the umpire and he got disqualified, so I won [smiles]. It was at a Challenger.

Funny Tennis Memory: We have a lot of jokes whenever we are playing Davis Cup. For example, I put sticky stuff on [former] captain  [Martin Jaite]’s grip and then he couldn’t get his hand off the racquet [smiles].

Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: Chess.

Courtesy of Scoop Malinowski, tennis-prose.com. Scoop is the author of “Facing McEnroe”, “Facing Nadal, “Facing Hewitt”, “Facing Federer” and “Marcelo Rios: The Man We Barely Knew,” all available on Amazon.