Malek Jaziri

Malek Jaziri (; born January 20, 1984) is a Tunisian former professional tennis player. Jaziri reached his highest singles ranking on the ATP Tour of World 42 in January 2019. He primarily played on the Futures and Challenger Tour.

Jaziri has been a member of the Tunisia Davis Cup team since 2000, posting an 33–15 record in singles and a 10–14 record in doubles in 41 ties.

He reached the final of the 2018 Istanbul Open, the semifinals in Moscow in 2012, Winston-Salem in 2015, Dubai in 2018 and the quarterfinals in Dubai in 2014.

Career 2010 He appeared in the qualifying draw at the 2010 Australian Open, losing in the first round to Michał Przysiężny of Poland. 2011: Grand Slam debut Jaziri qualified for the 2011 US Open, defeating Brian Dabul, Michael Ryderstedt, and Guillaume Rufin in the qualifying draw. This was the first time Jaziri played in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. In the first round, Jaziri defeated world No. 159, Thiemo de Bakker, in four sets. Jaziri lost to world No. 8, Mardy Fish, in the second round.

2012: Top 100 debut In 2012, he kicked off his year at the ATP 250 event in Doha as a wildcard and pushed world No. 6, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to three sets in the first round. He fell in the first round of qualifying at the 2012 Australian Open to Tim Smyczek. He then reached three Challenger finals in Quimper, Kyoto, and Pingguo to break into the top 100 for the first time.

In his clay-court season, he made the semifinals in the Barletta Challenger and played his first Roland Garros main draw, winning his first-round match over German Philipp Petzschner before losing a tight second-round match to Spaniard Marcel Granollers, missing two match points.

On grass, he reached the second round in his 2012 Wimbledon Championships debut (lost to Kohlschreiber) and also the second round at the London Olympics (lost to John Isner).

He lost in the 2012 US Open first round, but later had his best result on the ATP World Tour when he reached the semifinals of the 2012 Kremlin Cup in Moscow, where he lost to eventual champion Andreas Seppi, to become the first Tunisian male to reach the semifinals of an ATP event.

2013: Loss of form, out of top 200 In 2013, Jaziri started off the year in Dubai as a wildcard, where he faced 17-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer and lost in three tight sets.

2015-2017: Two Australian Open third rounds, top 50 Jaziri started off 2015 by making his first appearance at the Australian Open main draw, and beating Mikhail Kukushkin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, making him the first Arab male tennis player to make it to the third round of a Grand Slam in over a decade. Jaziri then lost in the third round to Australian teen Nick Kyrgios.

He reached the top 50 on 3 October 2016. He also reached the third round again at the 2017 Australian Open.

2018-2019: First ATP final, Career high ranking in top 45 In 2018, he played against Gilles Müller at the Australian Open.

At the Dubai Tennis Championships, Jaziri as a wildcard, stunned top seed and then world No. 4, Grigor Dimitrov, to register his first win against a top-10 player. He reached the semifinals defeating Robin Haase and wildcard Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Jaziri made his first ATP final at the 2018 Istanbul Open, where he played Japanese-American Taro Daniel, who had also reached his maiden final and won the title.

2020-2023: Eight wildcards in Doha and Dubai, Retirement Before the COVID season, he received a wildcard for the 2020 Qatar ExxonMobil Open and for the 2020 Dubai Tennis Championships.

At the 2021 Qatar Open, Jaziri recorded as a wildcard, his 100th win on the ATP Tour against Norbert Gombos. He received a wildcard for the next 2022 edition in Qatar (his eight overall at this tournament) as well as for Dubai in 2021, 2022, and in 2023 (his eight overall at this tournament) where he officially retired. In May, he entered the main draw of his home Challenger tournament, the 2023 Tunis Open as a wildcard and played his last match against compatriot Aziz Dougaz.

Coaching Until 2025, Jaziri was coaching Vasek Pospisil and was the captain of Tunisia’s Davis Cup team.

ITIA 9-month tour ban In November 2025, it was announced that Jaziri was given a nine-month ban by the International Tennis Integrity Association (ITIA) that started on 28 October 2025 and would finish on 27 July 2026 after accepting sanctions for violating the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program wildcard rules. He admitted to one instance between 2022-23 of paying and offering to pay for wildcards for himself and/or a doubles partner.

Controversies 2013 Jaziri was embroiled in a controversial political incident, in which he withdrew from a tournament rather than play an Israeli player. In the October 2013 Tashkent Challenger, tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he was slated to play Israeli Amir Weintraub in the quarterfinals. But the Tunisian tennis federation ordered Jaziri by email to withdraw from the match, and he did so. ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said: "There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society. The ITF Board decided to send a strong message to the Tunisian Tennis Federation that this kind of action will not be tolerated by any of our members." He withdrew from both the singles and doubles events at the Open Sud de France, citing an elbow injury, after winning his first set in his singles match against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) LegendGrand Slam tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–1)Finals by surfaceHard (0–0)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–0)

Future and Challenger finals

Singles: 35 (17–18) Legend (singles)ATP Challenger Tour (8–6)ITF Futures Tour (9–12)Titles by surfaceHard (13–9)Clay (3–8)Grass (1–0)Carpet (0–1)

Doubles 21 (14–7) Legend (doubles)ATP Challenger Tour (5–4)ITF Futures Tour (9–3)Titles by surfaceHard (7–4)Clay (7–2)Grass (0–1)Carpet (0–0)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Record against top-10 players

Jaziri's record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with active players in boldface.

Wins over top 10 players He has a 3–13 (.188) record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10. Season 2003–2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2021 2022 2023 Total Wins 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3