Career

Bruguera was Spain's national junior champion in 1987. He turned professional in 1988. In his first full year on the tour, 1989, he won the Cairo Challenger title as a qualifier, defeating Jordi Arrese in the final, and reached the semi-finals in Rome. He finished 1989 ranked world No. 26, and was named the ATP's newcomer of the year.

Bruguera earned a reputation as a top clay court player in the early 1990s, winning titles in Estoril, Monte Carlo, and Athens in 1991, and in Madrid, Gstaad, and Palermo in 1992.

In 1993, following wins over Pete Sampras and Andrei Medvedev, Bruguera reached his first Grand Slam final at the French Open, where he faced two-time defending champion and then World No. 2 Jim Courier. Courier was overwhelmingly favoured to win his third title, but ultimately Bruguera won a gruelling five-set final. The victory was one of five titles Bruguera captured that year and was also the last time a man won a Grand Slam singles title with wins over both of the top two seeds until Stanislas Wawrinka won the Australian Open in 2014. The following year Bruguera defended his title at the French Open, defeating, once again, Courier and Medvedev and fellow Spaniard Alberto Berasategui in the final.

Bruguera won the men's singles silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was defeated in straight sets in the final by Andre Agassi.

Opening 1997 Bruguera was the first ever opponent of Lleyton Hewitt in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, at the Australian Open. Bruguera defeated him in straight sets.

This year Bruguera recovered his best version and reached the final at Milan open, Key Biscaine, French Open and Umag. Bruguera played and excellent tournament at Roland Garros reaching the final for the third time defeating in his route to the final a former champion (Michael Chang) or rising star this same year Patrick Rafter. But an almost unknown Brazilian player named Gustavo Kuerten, who defeated two former champions and notable players at clay in his way to the final, defeated easily Bruguera in straight sets.

After 1997, due to injuries, Bruguera was far from his best game. He lost concentration and started to increase his errors during his matches, losing one of his great virtues, his solid style. From 1998 until his retirement only is remarkable the final (1999) and the winning (2000) in the Challenger Open Castilla y León (considered best challenger tournament of the world by this date) and the final in San Marino in 2000.

Outside tennis, Bruguera is a long-time fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and would often attend their games while playing at tournaments in the United States. In Miami on 28 March 1997, during the same tournament where he defeated World No. 1 Sampras in the semifinals, Bruguera sank three shots (layup, free throw, top of key) during a time-out of a game between the Lakers and the Miami Heat to earn US$500. This money was given to ATP Charities in his name. Bruguera has also played semi-professional Football in his native Spain.

Bruguera earned the ATP's Comeback Player of Year award in 1997 after returning from an ankle injury the previous year and improving his ranking from World No. 81 to World No. 8.

Bruguera won a total of 14 top-level singles titles and 3 doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 3. He is currently the director of the Bruguera Tennis Academy Top Team.

In a 2006 interview featuring questions from fans by the BBC Sport website, a question was asked about the frequent comparisons between Roger Federer and Sampras. In his reply, Bruguera claimed that Federer is ten times better than Sampras.

Bruguera is one of the few players to have a winning record against Sampras, winning three of their five matches: 1-0 on hard court, 2-1 on clay, and 0-1 on carpet. He is also, along with Patrick Rafter, the only player to have always won against Roger Federer, having defeated the 17 times Grand Slam winner at the 2000 Barcelona Open.

He is currently the coach of French number one Richard Gasquet.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (2-1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1993	French Open	Clay	Jim Courier	6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Winner	1994	French Open	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1
Runner-up	1997	French Open	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	3-6, 4-6, 2-6

Masters Series finals

Singles: 5 (2-3)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1991	Monte Carlo	Clay	Boris Becker	5-7, 6-4, 7-6(6), 7-6(4)
Winner	1993	Monte Carlo	Clay	Cédric Pioline	7-6(2), 6-0
Runner-up	1994	Monte Carlo	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	5-7, 1-6, 3-6
Runner-up	1995	Rome	Clay	Thomas Muster	6-3, 6-7(5), 2-6, 3-6
Runner-up	1997	Miami	Hard	Thomas Muster	6-7(6), 3-6, 1-6

Titles (17)

Singles (14-21)

Legend Grand Slam (2-1) Olympic(0-1) Tennis Masters Cup (0-0) ATP Masters Series (2-3) ATP Championship Series (0-4) ATP Tour (10-12)

Titles by surface Hard (1-3) Grass (0-0) Clay (13-16) Carpet (0-2)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	15 July 1990	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Martín Jaite	3-6, 7-6(7-5), 2-6, 2-6
Runner-up	2.	16 September 1990	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Horst Skoff	6-7(8-10), 6-7(4-7)
Winner	1.	7 April 1991	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Karel Nováček	7-6(9-7), 6-1
Runner-up	3.	14 April 1991	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	4-6, 6-7(7-9), 2-6
Winner	2.	28 April 1991	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Boris Becker	5-7, 6-4, 7-6(8-6), 7-6(7-4)
Runner-up	4.	14 July 1991	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	1-6, 4-6, 4-6
Winner	3.	6 October 1991	Athens, Greece	Clay	Jordi Arrese	7-5, 6-3
Runner-up	5.	5 April 1992	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Carlos Costa	6-4, 2-6, 2-6
Winner	4.	3 May 1992	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Carlos Costa	7-6(8-6), 6-2, 6-2
Winner	5.	12 July 1992	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Francisco Clavet	6-1, 6-4
Runner-up	6.	20 September 1992	Bordeaux, France	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	3-6, 6-1, 2-6
Winner	6.	4 October 1992	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Emilio Sánchez	6-1, 6-3
Runner-up	7.	11 October 1992	Athens, Greece	Clay	Jordi Arrese	5-7, 0-3 retired
Runner-up	8.	14 February 1993	Milan, Italy	Carpet (I)	Boris Becker	3-6, 3-6
Runner-up	9.	11 April 1993	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	7-6(9-7), 3-6, 5-7, 4-6
Winner	7.	25 April 1993	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Cédric Pioline	7-6(7-2), 6-0
Runner-up	10.	2 May 1993	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Stefan Edberg	3-6, 3-6, 2-6
Winner	8.	6 June 1993	Roland Garros, Paris, France	Clay	Jim Courier	6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Winner	9.	11 July 1993	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Karel Nováček	6-3, 6-4
Winner	10.	8 August 1993	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Andrei Chesnokov	7-5, 6-4
Winner	11.	19 September 1993	Bordeaux, France	Hard	Diego Nargiso	7-5, 6-2
Runner-up	11.	3 October 1993	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Thomas Muster	6-7(2-7), 5-7
Runner-up	12.	6 February 1994	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Magnus Gustafsson	4-6, 2-6
Runner-up	13.	24 April 1994	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	5-7, 1-6, 3-6
Runner-up	14.	1 May 1994	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Thomas Muster	2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7
Winner	12.	5 June 1994	Roland Garros, Paris, France	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	6-3, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1
Winner	13.	10 July 1994	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Guy Forget	3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1
Winner	14.	7 August 1994	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Andrei Medvedev	6-3, 6-4
Runner-up	15.	21 May 1995	Rome, Italy	Clay	Thomas Muster	6-3, 6-7(5-7), 2-6, 3-6
Runner-up	16.	28 July 1996	Atlanta Olympics, U.S.	Hard	Andre Agassi	2-6, 3-6, 1-6
Runner-up	17.	2 March 1997	Milan, Italy	Carpet (I)	Goran Ivanišević	2-6, 2-6
Runner-up	18.	23 March 1997	Miami, U.S.	Hard	Thomas Muster	6-7(6-8), 3-6, 1-6
Runner-up	19.	8 June 1997	French Open, Paris	Clay	Gustavo Kuerten	3-6, 4-6, 2-6
Runner-up	20.	27 July 1997	Umag, Croatia	Clay	Félix Mantilla	6-3, 7-5
Runner-up	21.	30 July 2000	San Marino	Clay	Álex Calatrava	7-6(9-7), 1-6, 6-4

Doubles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	13 May 1990	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Jim Courier	Udo Riglewski Michael Stich	7-6, 6-2
2.	17 June 1990	Florence, Italy	Clay	Horacio de la Peña	Luiz Mattar Diego Pérez	3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3.	15 September 1991	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Marc Rosset	Per Henricsson Ola Jonsson	3-6, 6-3, 6-2

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Career SR	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slams
Australian Open	A	A	2R	1R	A	4R	A	A	A	3R	1R	A	A	1R	A	0 / 6	6-6
French Open	A	4R	2R	2R	1R	W	W	SF	2R	F	1R	A	1R	2R	A	2 / 12	32-10
Wimbledon	A	1R	2R	A	A	A	4R	A	A	A	A	A	A	1R	A	0 / 4	4-4
US Open	A	1R	2R	2R	2R	1R	4R	2R	3R	4R	2R	A	A	1R	A	0 / 11	13-11
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 2	1 / 3	1 / 3	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 0	0 / 1	0 / 4	0 / 0	2 / 33	N/A
Annual Win-Loss	0-0	3-3	4-4	2-3	1-2	10-3	13-3	6-2	3-2	11-3	1-3	0-0	0-1	1-4	0-0	N/A	55-31
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells	NME		3R	2R	QF	1R	2R	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	A	A	0 / 7	7-7
Miami	NME		2R	4R	3R	A	3R	A	3R	F	2R	A	A	1R	A	0 / 8	10-8
Monte Carlo	NME		2R	W	2R	W	F	QF	2R	3R	2R	A	A	1R	A	2 / 10	25-8
Rome	NME		2R	SF	3R	QF	A	F	1R	3R	1R	A	A	2R	A	0 / 9	18-9
Hamburg	NME		1R	3R	1R	A	A	SF	QF	QF	3R	A	A	1R	A	0 / 8	11-8
Canada	NME		A	A	A	A	QF	3R	A	A	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 2	4-2
Cincinnati	NME		A	A	A	A	3R	2R	1R	QF	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 4	4-4
Stuttgart (Stockholm)	NME		1R	2R	A	3R	QF	QF	1R	2R	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 7	5-6
Paris	NME		SF	3R	2R	2R	SF	3R	1R	3R	A	A	A	A	A	0 / 8	10-8
Masters Series SR	N/A		0 / 7	1 / 7	0 / 6	1 / 5	0 / 7	0 / 7	0 / 7	0 / 8	0 / 5	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 4	0 / 0	2 / 63	N/A
Annual Win-Loss	N/A		8-7	15-6	7-6	10-4	14-7	16-7	4-7	15-8	4-5	0-0	0-0	1-4	0-0	N/A	94-60
Year End Ranking	333	26	28	11	16	4	4	13	82	8	132	378	85	108	290	N/A

[ Source: Wikipedia ]