Félix Mantilla Botella
Félix Mantilla Botella ( born September 23, 1974 in Barcelona ) is a former Spanish tennis player.
Mantilla in 1993, professional players won during his career ten singles tournaments, including the Rome Masters 2003. In June 1998, he was one week in the top 10
Career
After he took part in 1994 in some Challenger tournaments and be in Prague ATP Tour debut, he was in 1995 in Buenos Aires for the first time in an ATP final. He defeated Carlos Moyá in two sets, but the year was the first time end up with a place among the top 100 in the world rankings.
In 1996, he was after the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, quit his first tournament victory in Porto and four other finals already at number 18 in the world rankings.
The big breakthrough came Mantilla 1997. He won five tournaments on clay for himself and was the player with the most tournament victories on clay in 1997. Moreover, he won the World Team Cup all his four games and could attain with Spain the overall victory and reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open one of his greatest successes on hard court. He finished the season ranked 16th on the world rankings.
In 1998 he achieved at the French Open after a quarterfinal victory against Thomas Muster the first entry into a Grand Slam semi-final in which he, however, failed to Carlos Moyá. He won the tournament in Bournemouth and stood with two hard court tournaments in the final. This year he finished ranked 20 in the world rankings.
In 1999, he won the tournament in Barcelona his first major tournament, and also managed at the Masters tournaments in Monte Carlo and Rome to the semifinals.
In 2000, he could not connect to his success in previous years and had to quit in July because of a back injury the season already. He was thus in the world rankings way back and finished the year ranked 99th
In 2001, he made it after two tournament victories on the Challenger Tour in Estoril finals and was the end of September to celebrate his first ATP tournament victory since 17 months in Palermo. He fought his way back into the top 50
2002 proceeded with the exception of the hard-court finals in Indianapolis is not particularly good and he finished the year ranked 55th
The following year he celebrated the biggest success of his career with victory in the Italian Open. After this tournament victory in his career he could not reach a final. However, he finished the year ranked 22
After disappointing results in the years 2004 and 2005 Mantilla played due to back problems after the 2005 U.S. Open being no more tournaments.
For a Challenger tournament in Monza he returned in April 2007, again on the international tennis stage back and three weeks later his first match it was a wild card for the tournament in Barcelona allows on the ATP tournament since one and a half years. However, he failed already in the second round - as so often to Carlos Moyá. After a few Challenger and two ATP tournaments he finally retired in late 2007.