Cornejo, Patricio

Patricio Cornejo was born in 1944 in Llolheo - a district of the city of San Antonio (Chile) in the family of a supervisor of a local tennis club. When the boy was 12 years old, his father was offered a similar place in the capital's club, and the family moved to Santiago . There Patricio got up at five in the morning to water the lawns of the club, getting the right to play on its courts for this ^[2] .

At the age of 18, Cornejo became the champion of Chile among young men and was first invited to the Chile national team for the Davis Cup match against the Australian team ^[2] . The debut was unsuccessful: Patricio lost with an almost dry score to Fred Stoll , and the Chilean team lost with a total score of 5: 0. At the age of 21, Cornejo became the champion of Chile among adults ^[3] , and at the same time, his collaboration began in pairs with another talented junior - Jaime Filole . Together, they formed the backbone of the most successful national team in the Davis Cup for many years.

After the beginning of the Open Era, Cornejo and Filol joined the World Championship Tennis (WCT) professional tour and were included in the “blue group”, whose participants played in the same tournaments ^[4] . Later, Cornejo began to speak in tournaments of the second professional tour - the Grand Prix . At the peak of popularity, Patricio married the daughter of a major official of the State Railway Company Guadalupe Munoz, whom he courted for five years ^[5] .

In the early 1970s, Cornejo and Filol were among the strongest couples in the world, although they rarely won titles. At the French Open in 1972, they were sown sixth, but, having beaten the third seeded pair Alexander Metreveli - Sergey Likhachev in the quarterfinals, they reached the final, where in four sets they lost to the first pair of the world, the experienced Fry Macmillan and Bob Hewitt ^[6] . Two years later, the Chilean couple reached the finals again at the Grand Slam tournament - this time at the US Open . Cornejo and Fillol, seeded by the eighths, defeated the first couple of the tournament John Newcomb - Tony Roch in the semifinals in a bitter struggle, but in the final they could not resist the hosts of the court - seeded second to Bob Lutz and Stan Smith ^[7] . Cornejo and Fillol also participated in the semifinal matches of the US Open in 1970 and the Wimbledon Tournament in 1972 and reached the quarter finals five times in Grand Slam tournaments ^[8] . In 1976, Filol and Cornejo led the Chilean team from the American zone to the interzonal playoffs, where the fate of trips to the final match for the Davis Cup was decided. After the Soviet team refused the match in Santiago for political reasons, the Chileans became finalists, but in the final they lost to the Italian team on their court.

The cooperation of Kornejo and Filola continued with a short interruption until the end of 1977 , and during this time they won six open tournaments together (in two more Korneho won with other partners). They played their last joint game in the Davis Cup in March of the following year, and finished playing for the Cornejo national team a year later. In total, he spent 74 games for the Chilean team in 32 games in 16 years (a record number of seasons and matches in the history of the Chilean team ^[9] ), winning 34 victories in them (23 in singles and 11 in doubles). The last game in the Davis Cup was for Cornejo the last game in his professional career, although later on he and Filol performed a lot in veteran competitions.

In 1994, Pato Cornejo Swimming and Tennis Club opened in the suburbs of Santiago Lo Barnechea ^[10] . Since then, Patricio Cornejo has remained its permanent president.

Lost (2)

Defeat (1)

• Mario Cavalla. Historia del tenis en Chile, 1882-2006. - Ocho Libres Editores, 2006. - ISBN 956-8018-27-1 .

• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on ITF website
• Profile on the Davis Cup website