2011 BNP Paribas Open – ATP Seeds Part XVIII: Albert Montanes
World Number 26 Albert Montanes
At World Number 26, Albert Montanes is the sixth-highest ranked Spanish player on the Association of Tennis Professionals. He is 30 years old, and has been playing tennis on a professional level since 1999. This year, he will have
completed twelve years on the ATP Tour circuit. The right-handed player has built a reputation for himself as an exceptionally tough player, and his mental resilience has been applauded by many critics. He is also one of the only players to be able to win
an ATP title after saving multiple match points during the course of the tournament. He has won five ATP career titles so far.
Albert Montanes reached his career high ranking of World Number 22 last year in 2010. The Spanish pro has stayed in the Top 100 players of the world almost constantly since 2001, barring 20 weeks in which his ranking slipped. He
is currently coached by Narcis Pelach. Montanes is seeded 23rd at this year’s BNP Paribas Open in California.
The Spanish pro has put in appearances at the BNP Paribas Open consistently for the last three years, making his debut at the event in 2008. He was ranked World Number 56 at the time, and drew Romanian tennis player Victor Hanescu
as his first opponent. Although Hanescu was ranked lower than him at World Number 71, he managed to upset Montanes in three sets to end his first showing at the Indian Wells event.
His next appearance at the tournament was in 2009, when he was ranked World Number 35. The right-handed pro missed out on being seeded at the tournament by a small margin, and drew then-World Number 50 Florent Serra of France in
the first round. Montanes managed to defeat Serra with a bagel in his opening match, and moved on to the second round of the tournament against Britain’s Number 1 player Andy Murray. The Scottish pro defeated him in straight sets.
Albert Montanes took part in the 2010 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells as a seeded player, as he was ranked World Number 30 at the time. He received a bye into the second round, where he defeated Brazilian pro Ricardo Mello.
Montanes was ousted by French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round.
This year, Montanes extended his best showing at the tournament to the fourth round. He defeated Finnish pro Jarkko Nieminen in the second round after receiving a bye in the first, and went on to upset eleventh seed Nicolas Almagro.
He will be competing against unseeded Croatian player Ivo Karlovic in the next round of the 2011 BNP Paribas Open.
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