Christian Garin is a Chilean professional tennis player who was born on May 30, 1996, in Santiago, Chile. After starting the sport very early on, he enjoyed relative success on the junior circuit. Most notably, he won the French Open Boys’ title in 2013, beating a certain Alexander Zverev in the final.
Turning pro in 2011, the Chilean spent his first couple of years gaining confidence on the ITF and Challenger Tours, before gradually progressing to the main circuit. His debut appearance at the ATP level came in his home country at the Vina del Mar Open in February of 2013.
He won his first-round match against Dusan Lajovic, becoming the youngest-ever Chilean to win an ATP match. Despite breaking through to make his debut early on, regular appearances at ATP main-tour level were few and far between. He spent the following four seasons going deep in several ITF and Challenger tournaments, with the odd ATP and Grand Slam appearance here and there before finally becoming a staple member of the ATP Tour in 2019.
Having only competed at a handful of events, the South American made the most of the clay swing in his home continent to really break through. He reached his first ATP final in Sao Paulo in 2019 before winning his first tournament at ATP level just a couple of months later at the Houston Open, beating Casper Ruud in three sets.
Despite still being fairly new to the scene in 2019, he managed to win another title just a couple of months after his first, claiming the crown at the Munich Open after beating players of the caliber of Diego Schwartzman, Alexander Zverev, and Matteo Berrettini.
Despite a COVID-19-hit 2020, the Chilean made the most of the tournaments he could play, winning another two – the Cordoba Open and Rio Open in February. Back after the pandemic, he got his next trophy in his home tournament at the Chile Open in Santiago in 2021.
Several deep runs at big tournaments, as well as a career-best run at a Grand Slam, reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon, meant he broke into the Top 20 come the tail end of the 2021 season.
Despite not being able to add to his collection of ATP trophies in the most recent seasons, he is still a force to be reckoned with, especially on his favored surface clay. All five titles have come on that surface, and it’s certainly a surface he’ll be looking to make the most of in future tournaments to get some more good results.
