Marcelo Melo

Marcelo Pinheiro Davi de Melo (Portuguese pronunciation: [maʁˈsɛlu ˈmɛlu]; born September 23, 1983) is a Brazilian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He is a former world No. 1, which he achieved on 2 November 2015. Melo is the only Brazilian player who has reached number one in the ATP doubles rankings.

He is a two-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2015 French Open alongside Ivan Dodig and the 2017 Wimbledon Championships with Łukasz Kubot. Melo was also the first Brazilian man ever to win a Grand Slam doubles title. He has won 39 doubles titles on the ATP Tour, including nine at Masters 1000 level. He reached the final at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships and 2018 US Open in men's doubles, as well as at the 2009 French Open in mixed doubles. Melo also finished runner-up in doubles at the ATP Finals in 2014 and 2017.

He has represented Brazil in the Davis Cup since 2008, often playing doubles alongside André Sá or Bruno Soares, and has also competed at three editions of the Summer Olympic Games.

After playing with different Brazilian partners in doubles, including André Sá, Melo went through a relatively successful period of his career, reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon doubles, with some matches lasting four hours. Melo and Sá reached the quarterfinals of the US Open. Also in 2007 they won the tournament title of ATP 250 Estoril. Melo won the Buenos Aires Challenger without André Sá, who also was not in Adelaide triumph, the first week of 2008 when Melo played with the Argentine Martín García.

In 2008, Melo partnered with André Sá and had a good campaign, winning three ATPs together—Costa do Sauípe, Poertschach and New Haven. They came to play in the Masters Cup, in which the top eight doubles in the world compete, but they ended the year ranked No. 9 in the Champions Race; this was because Melo was injured in Wimbledon and took time to recover, and Melo and Sá had not made any major campaign in the Masters Series and Grand Slams. Melo and Sá later went on to play as reserves in the Masters Cup. They also participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In 2009, Melo and Sá won one ATP and reached the final of two other competitions. At Roland Garros, Melo reached the final of the Mixed Doubles with American player Vania King, losing the final by two sets to one. This was the first time since 2001 that a Brazilian reached the final of a Grand Slam. In ATP 500 Hamburg, a tournament that had once been a Masters Series, Melo and his partner, the Slovak Filip Polášek, finished as the runners-up. At the end of the year, Melo announced the end of his partnership with André Sá and his new partnership with Bruno Soares.

In 2010, Melo and Soares reached the final of the ATP 250 Auckland at the beginning of the year. After that, they did not play well until May, when Melo won the title of the ATP 250 Nice. At Roland Garros, they defeated the brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan—, the world's top doubles players—, and reached the quarterfinal. They subsequently reached the semifinals of the ATP 500 Hamburg, the final of the ATP 250 Gstaad, the third round of the US Open, the final of the ATP 250 Metz, and the semifinals of the ATP 500 Tokyo and ATP 250 Stockholm.

In 2011, Melo and Soares won two consecutive titles in the ATP 250 Chile and Brazil and were runners-up in the ATP 500 Acapulco. They reached the semifinals of the ATP 250 Nice and Eastbourne, and Melo reached the Newport semifinal with André Sá. In August, Melo and Soares competed in the semifinals of the ATP 500 Washington. In September, playing with Lukáš Dlouhý, Melo reached the final of the ATP 250 Metz. In October, with Soares, he reached the semifinals of the ATP 500 Valencia and the Japan Open Tennis Championships, and later the final of the ATP 250 Stockholm. In November, Melo and Soares reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 Paris. At the end of the year, Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares ended their partnership.