Luis Horna Viscari (born September 14, 1980 in Lima)
is a tennis player from Peru, who turned
professional in 1998. Horna plays right-handed, he
has a strong serve for a relatively short player and
the forehand is his best stroke. He uses a
single-handed backhand and his favourite surface is
clay.
Horna is known by his nickname "Lucho", which comes
from his first name. Horna was an outstanding junior
player in both singles and doubles. He made the
final of the boys singles at the French Open in 1997
losing to Daniel Elsner. Horna won the French Open
and Wimbledon doubles with Jose de Armas and Nicolas
Massu respectively.
Horna turned professional in 1998 and he moved up
over 1000 places in the rankings with victories in
the Ecuadorian and three Futures events in Peru and
in 1999 made his first ATP Challenger final in
Aschaffenburg. In 2000 he was finalist in Salinas
and again in Aschaffenburg and it was not until 2001
that Horna was able to get his first win on the ATP
tour in Umag defeating Martin Damm and made another
Challenger final in Curitiba losing to Flavio
Saretta.
2002 was a successful year for Horna when he became
the first Peruvian since Jaime Yzaga to finish in
the top 100 in the end of season rankings, who
finished 34th in 1994. This was achieved through
winning three Challenger titles in Zagreb, Furth,
and Weiden defeating Dominik Hrbaty, Jürgen Melzer
and Zeljko Krajan respectively and finalist in the
São Paulo Challenger losing to Franco Squillari.
Horna made his debut in the four Grand Slam events
in 2003. At the French Open Horna defeated Roger
Federer who was one of the pre tournament favourites
and was the last time that Federer has lost in the
first round of a Grand Slam event. Horna said after
the victory that it was "the best feeling I have had
in my whole life". Horna lost his second round match
after having a match point against eventual finalist
Martin Verkerk. He won another Challenger title in
Seville and was a three time semi finalist in
Amersfoort, Sopot and Palermo.
In 2004 Horna reached his career-high world ranking
is no. 33, which was achieved on August 30. Horna
won the Bermuda Challenger over Martin Vassallo
Arguello and made his first ATP final in Long Island
losing to Lleyton Hewitt. Horna also made three semi
finals at the Brasil Open, Houston and Munich. Horna
finished inside the top 50 at the end of the year
equalling the same feat by Jaime Yzaga.
2005 was not as successful for Horna and his singles
ranking slipped to outside the top 50. He won his
first doubles title with Argentine Martin Garcia in
Amersfoort and achieved his best ever performance at
the French Open making the third round and defeating
the seeded Tim Henman in the second round before
losing to Victor Hanescu.
Despite Horna winning his first ever ATP singles
title defeating Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina
7–6(5), 6–4 in Acapulco. After winning the title he
said "Acapulco will stay in my heart. I've had an
unbelieveable experience here,". "It's like being at
home". As well as reaching the third round of the
Australian Open for the first time defeating Gael
Monfils before losing to Paul-Henri Mathieu and
winning his second doubles title with Martin Garcia
in Palermo. Horna finished 2006 ranked outside the
top 50 and had various injury problems relating to
his arm and shoulder which impacted on his final end
of year ranking.
Horna had an unfortunate start to 2007 by losing his
first round match at the Australian Open to doubles'
specialist Max Mirnyi, after being frustrated by the
umpire's refusal to eject an abusive heckler in the
fifth set. His concentration was disturbed by the
calls of "Well done, Beast" (Max Mirnyi's nickname)
and "C'mon, roadkill". In February of that year he
won his second ATP singles title, defeating Nicolás
Massú for the first and only time in 7 matches 7–5,
6–3 in Viña del Mar, Chile, without losing a set in
the tournament. In September, Horna and Iván Miranda
took the Peruvian team of Davis Cup to the World
Group for the first time by beating Belarus in Lima
4–1.
While Horna has only made one semi final in 2008 in
Acapulco, he has won 2 doubles titles in Auckland
with Juan Monaco and in Buenos Aires with Agustin
Calleri. The 2008 Australian Open started an unusual
sequence for Horna, in which he played against his
sometime doubles partner and friend Agustin Calleri
in his first four tournaments of the year in
addition to the Australian Open, the others were
Viña del Mar, Buenos Aires and Acapulco. This
sequence was broken by Horna's elbow injury that
caused him to withdraw from Costa do Sauipe.
