Ernesto Escobedo

Ernesto "Neto" Escobedo III (/ˈnɛtoʊ ˌɛskəˈbeɪdoʊ/ NET-oh ES-kə-BAYD-oh; Spanish: [eɾˈnesto ˈneto eskoˈβeðo], born July 4, 1996) is a Mexican-American professional tennis player who has won four ATP Challenger titles. He is currently the No. 2 Mexican player.

Ernesto Escobedo

Escobedo at the 2022 French Open
Country (sports)	United States (2014–2022) Mexico (2023–present)
Residence	West Covina, California, USA
Born	(1996-07-04) July 4, 1996 Los Angeles, California, USA
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	2014
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$1,246,749
Singles
Career record	20–41
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 67 (17 July 2017)
Current ranking	No. 446 (29 July 2024)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2017)
French Open	1R (2017)
Wimbledon	1R (2017)
US Open	2R (2016, 2020, 2021)
Doubles
Career record	1–5
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 340 (28 February 2022)
Current ranking	No. 340 (28 February 2022)
Grand Slam doubles results
French Open	2R (2017)
US Open	1R (2020)
Last updated on: 29 July 2024.

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 professional tennis player.

Career

2016: Major debut & first win at the US Open, multiple Challenger titles, Top 200

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 2016 US Open Wild Card Challenge to earn a wildcard into the main draw of the final Grand Slam of the year. Escobedo put this wildcard to good use by defeating Lukáš 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: Australian Open second round, Masters 1000 debut, Top 100

Escobedo at the 2017 French Open

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 wildcard 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 then career-high ranking of No. 73 with this success. His tournament was highlighted by a quarterfinal win over No. 2 seed and fellow American John Isner.

Escobedo was part of the NextGen players that included many fellow Americans such as Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz who were considered the best young prospects to become the next generation of tennis stars.

2018: First top 10 and Masters wins

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. In March, Escobedo was given a wildcard for the first time to the main draw of the 2018 Indian Wells Masters where he defeated compatriot Frances Tiafoe, before falling to the 28th seed Feliciano López.

2020–2021: Return to U.S. Open second round in 4 years and to Masters in 3 years

After the suspension of the 2020 season due to COVID, Escobedo returned to the 2020 US Open as an alternate, replacing Benoit Paire, who tested COVID positive, where he defeated Kamil Majchrzak in the first round.

In March 2021, Escobedo qualified for the 2021 Miami Open and defeated Paolo Lorenzi in the first round before losing to 16th seed Dušan Lajović.

2022: Fourth Challenger title

Escobedo won the title at the 2022 Bendigo International Challenger in Australia, his first in three years. He entered the 2022 Australian Open as a lucky loser.

2023-2024: Representing Mexico as No. 1 player

In January 2023, Escobedo stopped representing the United States in favor of representing Mexico in tournaments and became the Mexican No. 1 player. He qualified for the 2023 Australian Open.

He received a wildcard for the qualifying draw of the 2023 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco but lost to Brandon Holt.

He received wildcards for the main draw of the 2024 Los Cabos Open and for the 2024 Abierto Mexicano Telcel.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 12 (5–7)

Legend (singles) ATP Challenger Tour (4–2) ITF Futures/World Tennis Tour (1–5)

Titles by surface Hard (5–6) Clay (0–1) Grass (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2013	USA F24, Costa Mesa	Futures	Hard	Haythem Abid	1–6, 6–4, 5–7
Loss	0–2	Nov 2013	Mexico F19, Mérida	Futures	Hard	Nicolas Meister	7–6(7–4), 1–6, 6–7(7–9)
Loss	0–3	May 2015	Mexico F4, Córdoba	Futures	Hard	Darian King	5–7, 7–5, 4–6
Loss	0–4	Jun 2015	USA F16B, Charlottesville	Futures	Hard	Tennys Sandgren	4–6, 4–6
Loss	0–5	Sep 2015	USA F27, Costa Mesa	Futures	Hard	Ryan Shane	4–6, 3–6
Loss	0–6	Apr 2016	São Paulo, Brazil	Challenger	Clay	Gonzalo Lama	2–6, 2–6
Win	1–6	Jul 2016	Lexington, USA	Challenger	Hard	Frances Tiafoe	6–2, 6–7(6–8), 7–6(7–3)
Loss	1–7	Sep 2016	Cary, USA	Challenger	Hard	James McGee	6–1, 1–6, 4–6
Win	2–7	Oct 2016	Monterrey, Mexico	Challenger	Hard	Denis Kudla	6–4, 6–4
Win	3–7	Jul 2019	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Yasutaka Uchiyama	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Win	4–7	Jan 2022	Bendigo, Australia	Challenger	Hard	Enzo Couacaud	5–7, 6–3, 7–5
Win	5–7	May 2023	M25 Xalapa, Mexico	World Tennis Tour	Hard	Aidan Mayo	6–3, 6–4

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Legend ATP Challenger (1–0) ITF Futures (0–0)

Finals by surface Hard (1–0) Clay (0–0) Grass (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Jun 2021	Little Rock, USA	Challenger	Hard	Nicolás Barrientos	Christopher Eubanks Roberto Quiroz	4–6, 6–3, [10–5]

Singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

#R

RR

Q#

DNQ

A

NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Current through the 2023 Los Cabos Open.

	United States
Tournament	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	SR	W–L	Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	2R	Q3	Q1	Q2	Q1	1R	1R	0 / 3	1–3	25%
French Open	A	A	A	1R	Q1	A	A	Q2	Q2	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Wimbledon	A	A	A	1R	A	A	NH	Q1	Q1	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
US Open	Q3	A	2R	1R	Q2	1R	2R	2R	Q1	A	0 / 5	3–5	38%
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–4	0–0	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	0 / 10	4–10	29%
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	Q1	Q1	2R	A	NH	2R	A	A	0 / 2	2–2	50%
Miami Open	A	A	A	2R	Q2	A	NH	2R	A	A	0 / 2	2–2	50%
Madrid Open	A	A	A	1R	A	A	NH	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Italian Open	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 1	0–1	0%
Canadian Open	A	A	A	2R	A	A	NH	A	A	A	0 / 1	1–1	50%
Cincinnati Masters	A	A	A	Q1	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 0	0–0	–
Win–loss	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–4	1–1	0–0	0–0	2–2	0–0	0–0	0 / 7	5–7	42%
Career statistics
Tournaments	0	0	4	15	8	1	1	4	2	2	Career total: 37
Overall win–loss	0–0	0–0	2–4	9–15	3–8	0–1	1–1	5–4	0–2	0–2	0 / 37	20–37	35%
Year-end ranking	538	393	141	120	187	224	198	165	226	405

Wins over top 10 players

• He has a 1–0 record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Season	2018	Total
Wins	1	1

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	EER
2018
1.	Jack Sock	10	Mexican Open, Mexico	Hard	1R	7–5, 7–6(7–3)	123

External links

• Ernesto Escobedo at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Ernesto Escobedo at the International Tennis Federation