Juan Ignacio Chela (born August 30, 1979, Buenos
Aires, Argentina) is a professional male tennis
player from Argentina. His strongest surface is slow
hardcourt, but like most Argentine players he is
comfortable on clay.
Chela was suspended by the ATP in 2001 for 3 months
and US$ 8,000 for the use of Methyltestosterone
during the Cincinnati Masters.
On August 9, 2004 he reached his career-high singles
ranking of World No. 15.
Chela was involved in a spitting controversy during
a third round loss to Lleyton Hewitt in the
Australian Open in 2005, when he attempted to spit
at Hewitt.
As part of the Argentine team for the Davis Cup, he
holds a record of 6 victories and 4 losses, the most
important of his victories on April 2006, giving
Argentina the third point to beat defending champion
Croatia in quarterfinals.
In May 2007, he appeared in the quarterfinals of his
6th different Masters event at Rome, also his
personal best showing at Rome, with wins over Marc
Gicquel, Igor Andreev, and world #3 Andy Roddick,
the latter one being Chela's best ever victory since
defeating #3 Yevgeny Kafelnikov in round 2 of
Mallorca in in May 2000.
His trainer and fitness coach (and also a close
friend) is Fernando Aguirre.
