Mariano Puerta

Mariano Puerta

Mariano Puerta took the first set off a 19-year-old Rafael Nadal in the 2005 Roland Garros final, a tiebreak the Argentine left-hander won 8-6 before Nadal, in his first Paris final, took the next three 6-3, 6-1, 7-5. Puerta was 26, a clay grinder from Cordoba who had already served a nine-month ban in 2003 for testing positive for clenbuterol. He reached No. 9 that August, the career high that followed the best two weeks of his life.

Four months after the final he tested positive again, for the stimulant etilefrine. An anti-doping tribunal handed him an eight-year ban; the Court of Arbitration for Sport cut it to two after his lawyers argued he had unknowingly drunk from his wife's medicated glass of water. In 2020 Puerta admitted that account was invented, that the substance had come from supplements given to him by an acquaintance of his fitness coach. He retired in 2009 with 3 career titles, never reaching another major final.