Guillermo Pérez Roldán

Pérez Roldán had an excellent junior career, winning the French Open Boys' Singles championship on his favored red clay in both 1986 and 1987 – since the open era, he is the only individual to have captured the Boys' Singles championship at the French Open more than once.

Junior Grand Slam results:

Australian Open: -
French Open: W (1986, 1987)
Wimbledon: 2R (1985)
US Open: 3R (1985)

He burst onto the scene as a teenager in 1988 by reaching the final of the Italian Open, where he battled Ivan Lendl in five grueling sets. Later that year, at the US Open, John McEnroe famously expressed outrage at being seeded significantly lower than Pérez Roldán, who had not yet won a match on hard courts. However, Pérez Roldán silenced critics by progressing further in the tournament than McEnroe, beating Alberto Mancini, Tore Meinecke, Patrik Kühnen and Stefan Edberg before losing to Andre Agassi. He was named Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1988, influenced no doubt by his run to the finals of the Italian Open and the quarter-finals of the French Open that year.

Pérez Roldán is currently tied for tenth on the list of most titles won by a teenager in the Open Era (five).[1]

His career-high singles ranking was World No. 13 (in 1988), and his career prize-money earnings totalled $1,686,341. In the early 1990s, his career was hamstrung by injuries, and he finally retired from the professional tour in 1996.