Introduction
Ernesto "Neto" Escobedo III (/ˈnɛtoʊ ˌɛskəˈbeɪdoʊ/ NET-oh ES-kə-BAYD-oh; [eɾˈnesto ˈneto eskoˈβeðo], born July 4, 1996) is an American tennis player who has won two ATP Challenger titles. He is part of the current class of NextGen players that includes many fellow Americans such as Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz who are considered the best young prospects to become the next generation of tennis stars.
Personal life
Escobedo began playing tennis at the age of 4. His father Ernesto Jr. briefly played professional tennis, and his aunt Xóchitl Escobedo was a Top 300 player who competed in the 1988 Olympics. He is of Mexican descent. Escobedo's cousin Emilio Nava is also a tennis player.
Career
2016: Multiple Challenger titles
Escobedo reached his first ATP Challenger final at São Paulo in April 2016 to advance him to a career-high ranking inside the top 300. With that success, he became the seventh American teenager to reach a Challenger final in the previous seven months.
He won his first career ATP match at the Aegon Open in Nottingham against Top 100 player Diego Schwartzman shortly before turning 20 years old. The next month, he won his first Challenger title at Lexington over fellow up-and-coming American Frances Tiafoe. With this victory, he also won the US Open Wild Card Challenge to earn a wild card into the main draw of the final grand slam of the year. Escobedo put this wild card to good use by defeating Lukas Lacko in the first round to crack the Top 200 for the first time and record his first career grand slam match win.
Towards the end of the season, Escobedo returned to Monterrey where he had made the semifinals the previous year, and defended his points by winning the title over Denis Kudla.
2017: Top 100
To start the year, Escobedo continued to improve upon his success from 2016. He qualified for the Australian Open and then won his first round match against fellow NextGen player Daniil Medvedev. The following month, he was awarded a wild card into the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, an ATP 500 event in Acapulco. At this tournament, he again won first round match over fellow American Stefan Kozlov.
In March, Escobedo was able to qualify for his first Masters event at the 2017 Miami Open, where he upset No. 43 Dan Evans to break through into the Top 100 of the ATP rankings. To start the clay court season, Escobedo played at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston and reached his first career ATP quarterfinal and semifinal, climbing to a career-high ranking of 73 with this success. His tournament was highlighted by a quarterfinal win over No. 2 seed and fellow American John Isner.
2018
In February, Escobedo was able to qualify for the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco. He defeated top-ranked American Jack Sock in the first round for his first Top 10 win, continuing his success at tournaments in Mexico.
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 10 (3–7)
| Titles by Surface |
|---|
| Legend (Singles) |
| ATP Challenger Tour (3–2) |
| ITF Futures Tour (0–5) |
| Titles by Surface |
| Hard (3–6) |
| Clay (0–1) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| ATP Challenger Tour (3–2) |
| ITF Futures Tour (0–5) |
| Hard (3–6) |
| Clay (0–1) |
| Grass (0–0) |
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss | Sep 2013 | USA F24, Costa Mesa | Futures | Hard | Haythem Abid | 1–6, 6–4, 5–7 | |
| Loss | Nov 2013 | Mexico F19, Mérida | Futures | Hard | Nicolas Meister | 7–6, 1–6, 6–7 | |
| Loss | May 2015 | Mexico F4, Córdoba | Futures | Hard | Darian King | 5–7, 7–5, 4–6 | |
| Loss | Jun 2015 | USA F16B, Charlottesville | Futures | Hard | Tennys Sandgren | 4–6, 4–6 | |
| Loss | Sep 2015 | USA F27, Costa Mesa | Futures | Hard | Ryan Shane | 4–6, 3–6 | |
| Loss | Apr 2016 | São Paulo, Brazil | Challenger | Clay | Gonzalo Lama | 2–6, 2–6 | |
| Win | Jul 2016 | Lexington, US | Challenger | Hard | Frances Tiafoe | 6–2, 6–7, 7–6 | |
| Loss | Sep 2016 | Cary, US | Challenger | Hard | James McGee | 6–1, 1–6, 4–6 | |
| Win | Oct 2016 | Monterrey, Mexico | Challenger | Hard | Denis Kudla | 6–4, 6–4 | |
| Win | Jul 2019 | Granby, Canada | Challenger | Hard | Yasutaka Uchiyama | 7–6, 6–4 |
Singles performance timeline
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | A | NH |
Current till 2018 Delray Beach Open.
| Tournament | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | SR | W–L | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Slam Tournaments | |||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | A | 2R | Q3 | Q1 | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| French Open | A | A | A | 1R | Q1 | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| US Open | Q3 | A | 2R | 1R | Q2 | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% | |
| Win–Loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–4 | 0–0 | 0 / 5 | 2–5 | 29% | |
| ATP World Tour Masters 1000 | |||||||||
| Indian Wells Masters | A | A | Q1 | Q1 | 2R | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | – |
| Miami Open | A | A | A | 2R | Q2 | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Madrid Open | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Italian Open | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Canadian Open | A | A | 2R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% | |
| Cincinnati Open | A | A | A | Q1 | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – | |
| Win–Loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–4 | 0–0 | 0 / 4 | 2–4 | 33% | |
| Career Statistics | |||||||||
| Titles / Finals | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | |||
| Overall Win–Loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–4 | 9–15 | 1–3 | 12–22 | |||
| Year-end Ranking | 538 | 393 | 141 | 120 | 35% | ||||
Wins over top 10 players
| Season | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | Total |
| Wins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| # | Player | Rank | Event | Surface | Rd | Score | EE Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | |||||||
| 1. | Jack Sock | 10 | Acapulco, Mexico | Hard | 1R | 7–5, 7–6 | 123 |