Thursday, December 31, 2009

Hasta luego Lucho Horna




This is another tribute post to Luis Horna. Personally I thought this would be the best way to end the blogging year, it's not as if I churn out the articles regularly, but something is better than nothing.

After a difficult 2009 for Lucho Horna he decided to retire from the tour at his home event in Lima. Lucho had been training hard over the previous off season and his injury problems that plagued him throughout the season lead to this decision. He had a foot problem that put him out to the March, played a few events and then decided to play qualies at Roland Garros. He lost in the second round to Flavio Cipolla who loves the slices and chopping shots along with the worst serve on the tour, Horna was unable to get a break point against the worst serve on tour. If this is not a sign to retire then nothing is. He wasn't in form at all, but went back as he and Cuevas were defending doubles champions and they lost early in their defence of the crown.

Lucho was an excellent junior who was ranked 4th in his final year of juniors and it took him some time to get adjusted to the main tour. His idol was Thomas Muster and it was quite easy to see in his aggressive style of game trying to use his forehand to dominate the points and a backhand which was single handed and average, though when he was playing well even this side worked well.

He was a guy who had an excellent record against top 10 players in his career he defeated 9 of them, which is impressive for a man who had not made the top 30 in his career. His most famous win was the one over Roger Federer at Roland Garros in the first round where Federer was one of the favourites for the event. He played an intelligent game that day and let Federer make the errors, but was not passive when he had the chance to attack.


As has been the common case after a big upset, Horna couldn't follow it up in the next round but this case was a bit special. He was up a match point in the 2nd round against a certain Dutch guy called Martin Verkerk who steamrolled his way to the final before getting smashed by Ferrero. Lucho had another excellent win at RG against Henman, it was the classic match between the serve/volleyer and baseliner. Horna was running hard and ripping huge forehands at Henman's feet and he was volleying as well as he could against these hard shots and Lucho was cramping at the end, but got through at the end. He lost to Hanescu in the next round who then took out Nalbandian in the 4th round.

His full list of top 10 scalps were
1. Nalbandian - Buenos Aires 2007 (10)
2. Ljubicic - Portschach 2007 (7)
3..Robredo - Båstad 2007 (8)
4. Gaudio - Acapulco 2006 (8)
5. Henman - Roland Garros 2005 (8)
6. Coria - Toronto 2004 (3)
7. Federer - Roland Garros 2003 (5)
8. Ferrero - Sopot 2003 (2)
9. Gasquet - Rome (10)

Among the wins there were some hilariously bad losses the Cipolla one was up there. One of the funnier ones was when Gustavo Marccachio who is the English language reporter for Tenispro defeated Lucho in Viña del Mar and the Chilean press stated that Horna lost to a TV reporter. There were days where he couldn't return a phone call which was his really big weakness, if he was off his big returns then he didn't have the nous to change it up. His GS record was not great and he was capable of making a 4th round at least once. He killed Monfils and Phau at the AO, then he played Mathieu in the 3rd round and managed the special skill of leading 5-2 double break twice in the first 2 sets and managing to choke to Mathieu.

In addition there were some funny antics in his matches. The heckler incident at the AO with Mirnyi. Lucho failed to capitalise on his chances and in the 9th game of the 5th set, there was this pissed Yank who kept heckling Lucho. He finally got the shits after being put off as he was about to serve. It worked as he went over to the umpire and said. "Are you going to get this guy out of the court or not? If not there is going to be a mess." He played another point and lost it and the heckler was it again. "He is still here and you do nothing about it, and if you don't get him out, it will be a big mess, a big mess". Lucho loses focus and serve, then when the match is over, the heckler ran off. Another one in Sopot where he played Cañas, where he got a point penalty and was going crazy.

Lucho won 2 titles, the first one was the best one in Acapulco where he defeated Chela in the final, he played very well that event and it was a pleasure to see such joy in winning the crown against a good friend of his. The other one was the RR shit in Viña del Mar where he got over the evil Massu, who always defeated Horna except in the match that counted which was this one. Massu could never win the Viña del Mar title no matter how hard he tried and for once Lucho didn't make silly errors and took the title.

Most famous of all was the Roland Garros doubles title with Pablo Cuevas in 2008. This was such a surprise and so much better for it. Two singles guys enter the doubles for a bit of fun and some extra cash. They take out Llodra/Clement in the 1st round, Dlouhy/Paes in the 3rd round, best of all the Bryan Clowns in the quarter finals which had a refusal to shake hands with Cuevas at the end. It was funny coming from these guys, they had a big fight in the semis and then crushed Zimonjic/Nestor in the final. They were bemused when they won it, but Lucho off the forehand side was hitting heavy and Cuevas off the backhand it was great to see such joy and the first time in a long time a Peruvian and Uruguayan have won a major title.


The above and through Lucho's warrior efforts for Peru, he lead them through to the World Group in Davis Cup. After all that battling through the various phases, it was very disappointing that he couldn't take part in the singles against Spain, even though he was likely to lose his singles match. It just seems a bit bittersweet not being able to contribute at the end, when he was the driving force for getting them through.

He was the second best Peruvian player after Jaime Yzaga. A true DC warrior, entertaining in his own quirky way and a tough fighter. One of the best sequences was when he and Calleri played four times in 5 weeks. They played in Melbourne, Viña del Mar, Buenos Aires and Acapulco. They split the matches 2-2 and also won a doubles title together.

Gaston Gaudio had some very kind words about Horna.

How do you feel about Horna´s retirement?

- “As a tennis player I regret that Lucho is retiring because we´ve shared almost the whole of our careers, we´ve played against each other, we´ve had our battles, and it will be a great loss for the sport. But as a friend I´m pleased for him if he´s happy, and if he wants to be able to enjoy other things, being with his family, or being in Lima, it´s understandable”.

Do you recall any important duel with him?


- “We have more shared memories as friends than as tennis players. We haven´t played each other more than a couple of times. But we would dine out, for instance. He lived in Buenos Aires a long time because he trained there, and we have shared experiences as friends”.

On that note, Lucho will still play some DC ties for Peru, but he is gone from the tour. He proved entertainment, good to watch when playing well and respect for his dedication to the Peruvian DC team. Hope he is enjoying time with the family.

1 comment:

Martine said...

Great review!

I wish Lucho could read it himself. He'd like it for sure!

A goodbye to one of the players I like best and I'll miss him very much.

Not a farewell yet though as he promised to be there for the DC, so that's something to look forward to!

All the best to you Lucho and enjoy being with yr family now!