About Enrico Piperno
Enrico Piperno (popularly known as Rico)
As a Player: 1977-1990
- Began his tennis career by winning the Under 14 Singles title at the Saturday Club Floodlit Tournament in 1977
- Gold medallist at the Asian Junior Championships, Bangkok in 1978
- Over 100 National Mens’ Titles from 1979-1990
- Silver Medallist at the Asian Games, New Delhi in 1982
- Captain of the Indian Mens’ Tennis Team at the Asian Games, Seoul in 1986
- Finalist of 7 National Grass Court Championships
- Winner of 6 National Hard Court Championships
- Winner of 10 Doubles Titles at National Grass Court Championships and the Asian Tennis Championship Doubles alongside his long time partner Nandan Bal
- Rare distinction of being numero uno in the Indian Rankings on 5 different occasions in the 1980’s
- Member of the Indian Davis Cup Squad vs Czech Republic at Kolkata in 1985
As a Coach:
- Began his career in 1990 as Leander Paes’s first coach post the latter leaving Britannia Tennis Academy, Chennai
- Guided Leander to win 2 Singles titles during the 2 year stint - World Junior Championships, Melbourne and Junior US Open
- Rico and Leander played each other in the Finals of the National Grass Court Championships, Digboi in 1990. Rico lost the Singles but won the Doubles partnering Leander
- 1991-2001- Coach of the Indian Davis Cup Team for 27 consecutive ties
- The entire decade is known as the Golden Years of Indian Davis Cup as majority of the ties were in the 16 Nation World Group
- In 1993 the Indian Davis Cup Team booked a Semi Finals berth after historic wins over Great Britain, Switzerland and France. The most thrilling win was against the French team at Frejus in July 1993
- Appointed as Mahesh Bhupathi’s travelling coach in 1997. They were together for 7 years
- Mahesh & Rico’s partnership struck gold immediately. In 1997 Mahesh and his partner Rika Hiraki won the Mixed Doubles Title at the French Open. Mahesh was the first Indian player to have ever won a Grand SlamTitle
- In 1999 Mahesh and Leander achieved the remarkable feat of reaching all 4 Grand Slam Finals
- Mahesh won 7 Grand Slam Doubles Titles and became World No.1 in Mens’ Doubles during his 7 years collaboration with Rico
- Was appointed as Indian Fed Cup Captain in 2001and retained the position for 13 long years
- Coach of the Indian Womens’ Tennis team at three Asian Games -Busan -2002, Doha -2006 & Guanzhao – 2010
- Coach of the Indian Womens’ Tennis team at the Commonwealth Games held at New Delhi in 2010
- At the Doha Asian Games in 2006 the Indian Womens’ Tennis team performed outstandingly to win 3 Medals- 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze
Awards:
- 2009 : Dilip Bose Lifetime Achievement Award by All India Tennis Association
- 2015 : Mother Teresa Award for Excellency in Sports & Culture by the Mother Teresa Award Committee
- 2015 : Guru Kriya Samman Award by the Govt. Of West Bengal
Nominations for Awards:
- Twice for the Dronacharya Award
- Coach of an Indian Womens’ team at the Commonwealth Games, New Delhi in 2010
