Say the name Nicolas Moreno de Alboran in some quarters of tennis and it might not ring a bell. But if you mention a tennis player who was once banned for taking a shower during a match, the memories will come flooding back.
Moreno de Alboran has trodden the same path as many new American players in recent years, attending university at UC Santa Barbara, where he was highly successful and ranked among the top 10 college players in the country during his senior year.
He only turned professional in 2019, so his path into mainstream tennis has been slower than that of some of his fellow pros. His entrance into the sport has been a learning curve, to say the least, after making a critical blunder at the Sevilla Challenger event in 2022.
After seeing off Spaniards Imanol Lopez Morillo and Benjamin Winter Lopez in the qualifying rounds, the American faced Federico Delbonis next in the first round of the ATP event.
The Argentinian won the first set 7-5, but Moreno de Alboran fought back to win the second in an 8-6 tie-break, leaving the match evenly poised.
The second set lasted 81 minutes in the scorching Andalusian sun and Moreno de Alboran decided to make use of the toilet break ahead of the decider. During the brief pause, Alboran left the clay court and headed to the bathroom where he used a shower.
But he was seemingly unaware that Delbonis had followed him to the locker room. Upon their return to the court, Delbonis informed officials that his opponent had taken an unauthorised shower break.
After some deliberation amongst the officials, it was decided that Moreno de Alboran would be defaulted.
Reacting to the controversy, the American later released a statement on Instagram explaining his side of the story. “During the second set, I fell over 3/4 times. On one of them sand got inside my underwear,” he wrote.
“I had to play like that for 30 minutes and it was giving me a rash that started bleeding after a while. When I won the second set, I went to the toilet to change (you get five minutes).
Two years on, the 27-year-old is currently 156th in the world, according to the latest ATP Rankings updated on September 9, 2024. In his professional career to date, he has only reached the first round of a Grand Slam on two occasions – at the US Open in 2023 and French Open this year.
Reaching the first round proper at Flushing Meadows, after winning all three qualifying rounds, was undoubtedly the highlight of his short career to date. Alas, his run was cut short by Lorenzo Sonego, who prevailed 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 with a comfortable victory.
He also took Brandon Nakashima to four sets in the French Open first round, highlighting his progress in the game. On each occasion, he would be leaving with a sizeable addition to his bank account, earning £65,000 from the US Open and a further £61,600 in Paris this year – a huge uplift on the winnings he is used to getting from ATP Challenger and ITF World Tour events.
The New York-born player skipped this year’s tournament in Seville, seemingly with bad memories of his previous time at the event. But after another gradual improvement on the Tour, Moreno de Albaron will be hoping to rise to prominence for the right reasons in the future.
