Potito Starace

Italian tennis player

Potito Starace (; born 14 July 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player on the ATP Tour. He achieved a career high singles ranking of world no. 27 on October 15, 2007. He was a clay court specialist, and was coached by Umberto Rianna. Starace was banned from tennis for life by the Italian Tennis Federation and by the Tennis Integrity Unit for betting offences.

One of the most memorable runs of Starace's career was when he made the men's doubles semifinals of the 2012 French Open, partnering Daniele Bracciali, before succumbing to top seeds Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi. In singles, he made four ATP finals but lost in all of them. On the Challenger tour, he won the San Marino CEPU Open three times, a record for the tournament, and the Tennis Napoli Cup four times, also a record. Its also noticed the match at the tennis club Napoli against the well known couple called "cugini di campagna",where potito and his friend Volandri lost and after this retired from the professional career. In doubles, he won six ATP titles. He represented Italy at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he lost to eventual gold medallist Rafael Nadal in the first round.

Following Alessio di Mauro's 9 month ban in November 2007, Starace and Daniele Bracciali were each fined and given short suspensions from playing. Starace received a fine of £21,400 and a 6 week ban from January 1, 2008. Starace's case revolved around his final in Casablanca against the Spaniard Pablo Andújar, which the Italian lost. Starace had led their head to head 5 0 going into the match. Bookmaker Massimo Erodiani asked via Skype if Starace had received a certified cheque to lose the match and received an affirmative answer, explaining that all bets were safe on a Starace loss. In 2015, the Italian Tennis Federation banned Bracciali and Starace for life. In 2019, he was banned by the Tennis Integrity Unit for life, subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.