Rui Machado

Rui Machado (born April 10, 1984) is a Portuguese retired professional tennis player. In October 2011, he achieved a career-high singles world ranking at 59, at the time the highest ranking a Portuguese player had ever held (since surpassed by João Sousa, Gastão Elias and Nuno Borges).

Early life At the age of six, Machado was first introduced to tennis when he attended lessons at a local club. He began participating in regional competitions, and five years later he was ranked no. 1 in the initiated players national ranking. In 1998, he was singles runner-up and team champion at the national juvenile championship, this time competing for the Faro Tennis Centre. One year later, Machado decided to attend a summer training camp of the Catalan Tennis Federation, in Barcelona. There he took the decision of pursuing a professional tennis career and with his family's help, he kept on training and finished his secondary education in Spain. A nearly two-year competitive stoppage made him drop to an all-time low no. 1512, in July 2007, despite winning two more Futures doubles titles. Attempting to return to his previous level, Machado achieved modest results that helped him, nonetheless, to climb back to no. 733, at the end of 2007.

2008 Machado made his definitive comeback to high-level competition in early 2008 with an impressive winning streak of 26 consecutive matches in the Futures circuit. data-sort-value="Ferrer, D"|

Lost (1–6, 4–6, 2–6) at the 2012 Australian Open

data-sort-value="Nishikori, K"|

Lost (1–6, 4–6) at the 2011 Barcelona Open

data-sort-value="Potro, JM"|

Lost (1–6, 0–6) at the 2012 Estoril Open

data-sort-value="Gonzalez, F"|

Lost (3–6, 2–6, 3–6) at the 2009 French Open

data-sort-value="Monfils, G"|

Lost (5–7, 3–6) at the 2012 Qatar Open

data-sort-value="Simon, G"|

Lost (3–6, 5–7) at the 2012 ATP Buenos Aires

data-sort-value="Verdasco, F"|

Lost (1–6, 2–6, 4–6) at the 2012 US Open

data-sort-value="Baghdatis, M"|

Lost (3–6, 5–7, 4–6) at the 2009 Davis Cup

data-sort-value="Almagro, N"|

Lost (2–6, 4–6) at the 2011 Brasil Open

data-sort-value="Massu, N"|

Won (6–2, 6–4) at the 2010 Estoril Open

data-sort-value="Anderson, K"|

Lost (6–7(2–7), 7–6(8–6), 6–4, 1–6, 9–11) at the 2012 French Open

data-sort-value="Fognini, F"|

Lost (4–6, 3–6) at the 2011 Croatia Open

data-sort-value="Nieminen, J"|

Lost (1–6, 6–3, 4–6, 3–6) at the 2015 Davis Cup

data-sort-value="Karlovic, I"|

Won (6–4, 1–0 ret.) at the 2008 Estoril Open

data-sort-value="Chela, JI"|

Lost (6–4, 2–6, 2–6) at the 2011 ATP Buenos Aires

data-sort-value="Calleri, A"|

Lost (6–4, 3–6, 1–6) at the 2005 Estoril Open

data-sort-value="Andreev, I"|

Lost (3–6, 7–5, 4–6) at the 2010 Brasil Open

data-sort-value="Tursunov, D"|

Won (6–0, 6–0) at the 2014 Portugal Open

Career earnings

National participation

Davis Cup (17 wins, 17 losses) Machado debuted for the Portugal Davis Cup team in 2003 and played 34 matches in 27 ties. His singles record was 16–16 and his doubles record was 1–1 (17–17 overall). His final participation was in the 2015 edition.

Group membershipWorld Group (0–0)WG Play-off (0–0)Group I (4–5)Group II (13–12)Group III (0–0)Group IV (0–0)Matches by surfaceHard (4–9)Clay (13–6)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–2)Matches by TypeSingles (16–16)Doubles (1–1)Matches by SettingIndoors (6–6)Outdoors (11–11)Matches by VenuePortugal (13–6)Away (4–11) indicates the result of the Davis Cup match followed by the score, date, place of event, the zonal classification and its phase, and the court surface.

Awards 2013 – ITF Commitment Award