Marcelo Melo

Marcelo Pinheiro Davi de Melo (; 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.

Melo 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 42 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.

Melo 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.

Career

2007 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. They also participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

2009

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 the second half of 2012, Melo was a semifinalist in the Masters 1000 Cincinnati and reached the third round of the US Open playing with Dodig. In October, partnered with Cilic, Melo was a semifinalist in the Masters 1000 Shanghai. With this, Melo reached the best rank in his career for the second time, reaching the 18th position worldwide. Playing with Soares, Melo won his 10th ATP doubles title in the ATP 250 Stockholm, reaching the 17th position worldwide. In the Masters 1000 Paris, Melo reached the semifinals, partnered with Cilic. Melo and Kubot went on to win the tournament.

2016: Two Masters titles

After 22 weeks in ATP No. 1 doubles ranking, Melo was surpassed by Jamie Murray on April 4. Melo returned to ATP No. 1 doubles ranking on May 9 and he stayed until on June 6, 2016. Melo alongside Ivan Dodig won two Masters 1000 doubles tournaments (Toronto and Cincinnati).

In October, Melo partnered with Łukasz Kubot and defeated Oliver Marach and Fabrice Martin to win the Vienna Open doubles title.

2017: Wimbledon men's doubles champion

In March, Melo, with his doubles partner Łukasz Kubot, reached the doubles final at Indian Wells Masters. Eighth-seeded Melo and Kubot reached the BNP Paribas Open semi-finals after breezing past tricky wild card duo Nick Kyrgios and Nenad Zimonjić. The Brazilian-Polish pair then defeated fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares to reach the final against the sixth seeds, South Africa's Raven Klaasen and his American doubles partner, Rajeev Ram. At the 2017 Miami Open Melo and Kubot dropped only three sets en route to the final, defeating Marcus Daniell & Marcelo Demoliner, Jean-Julien Rojer & Horia Tecău, Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares in QF and Daniel Nestor & Brian Baker in SF to reach their second straight ATP Masters 1000 final. In the final the sixth-seeded Melo & Kubot defeated American duo Nick Monroe and Jack Sock in straight sets. They made it all the way together at an ATP event for the first time this season. It was their first ever Masters 1000 title won as a team as well.

At Wimbledon, coming from back-to-back grass-court titles at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Halle, no. 4 seeds Melo and Kubot faced four five-set matches to claim the men's doubles crown (Melo's second major title), defeating No. 16 seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavić in a final which took 4 hours 39 minutes and five sets to complete.

In the second half of 2017, he lost the No. 1 position to Kontinen/Peers, but Melo/Kubot kept chasing the top, being finalists at ATP 500 Washington and Masters 1000 Shanghai in addition to the semifinal at Masters 1000 Cincinnati. In November, in the last Masters 1000 of the year, Paris, Kontinen/Peers needed to defend the title but lost in the quarterfinals, while Melo/Kubot, who did not defend anything, won the title. With that, Melo retook the world's No. 1, and Kubot reached the position of No. 2 for the first time. They qualified for the semifinals with a 2–1 record in the round-robin stage. In the semifinal they were defeated by eventual champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, 6–3, 7–6.

2020: 35th ATP title In 2020, Melo continued his partnership in doubles with Łukasz Kubot. The pair won the 2020 Abierto Mexicano Telcel and the 2020 Erste Bank Open. They also reached the finals at 2020 Bett1Hulks Indoors, where they lost to the French pair, Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. They qualified for the 2020 ATP Finals. They did not make it out of the round-robin stage with a 1–2 record.

2021: New partnerships, reunion with Kubot In 2021 he played first with Horia Tecau. They reached Australian Open 3rd round. After, he began a partnership with Jean-Julien Rojer. They did not reach very good results until May, with Doha and Madrid's second rounds as the best results. In Doha, he returned to play a single match after eight years. He lost in the qualifying first round against Tim Pütz (6–3, 6–2). He also played with Mischa Zverev in Munich (first-round loss) and with Marin Cilic in Rome Masters (first-round loss).

In Roland Garros, Melo and Kubot decided to return to play together.

2022: 70th final, tenth ATP 500 title At the 2022 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, he won his 10th ATP 500 title and 36th overall partnering Mackenzie McDonald after defeating third seeds Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernández. It was also his 70th ATP final overall.

2023: 600th career win and 1000 matches played

In 2023, Melo was runner-up at the ATP 500 in Rio and was three-time champion of the ATP 500 in Halle.

He reached 600 career wins at the 2023 French Open partnering John Peers past William Blumberg/Miomir Kecmanovic.

Also partnering with Peers at the 2023 Atlanta Open, he played his 1000th tour-level match with a victory over Luis David Martinez and Reese Stalder owning a 608–392 record. He became the only active player to reach the milestone and the 14th on record, joining an elite group led by Daniel Nestor (1,550), Mike Bryan (1,523) and Bob Bryan (1,468). At the tournament the pair Melo/Peers went on to reach the semifinals where they lost to Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell.

2024: First Masters final in five years At the 2024 Monte-Carlo Masters he reached the final with Alexander Zverev as an alternate pair. It was his first Masters final since 2019 and second in Monte-Carlo in 10 years (since 2014).

He was also champion of the ATP 250 Stuttgart and runner-up of the ATP 500 Washington, in both, together with Rafael Matos.

2025: 39th title and oldest champion in Rio Melo won his 39th title with Rafael Matos finally triumphing with the title at his home tournament, the 2025 Rio Open on his eleventh attempt, having been a finalist in two previous editions. At 41 years of age Melo was the oldest champion in event history. Melo with 39–38 win-loss record in tour-level doubles finals, moved into a tie with Mate Pavic for most titles among active players.

Personal life Melo's best friend on tour is Alexander Zverev. They first met at the 2015 Rotterdam Open.

Melo's older brother, Daniel, is himself a former tennis player who retired in 2006.

Performance timelines

Doubles Current through the 2026 Mexican Open.

Mixed doubles

Grand Slam tournaments finals

Doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 1 (runner-up) ResultYearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2009French Open Clay Vania King Liezel Huber Bob Bryan 7–5, 6–7(5–7), [7–10]

Other significant finals

Year-end championships (ATP Finals)

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

ATP 1000 tournaments

Doubles: 16 (9 titles, 7 runner-ups)

ATP Tour finals

Doubles: 80 (42 titles, 38 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam (2–2)ATP Finals (0–2)ATP 1000 (9–7)ATP 500 (14–12)ATP 250 (17–15)Finals by surfaceHard (25–23)Clay (11–9)Grass (6–6)Finals by settingOutdoor (36–30)Indoor (6–8)