Mate Pavić


Mate Pavić is a Croatian professional tennis player specialising in doubles. He became a Grand Slam champion after winning the 2018 Australian Open men's doubles title. Pavić also reached the 2017 Wimbledon Championships men's doubles finals, and the 2018 French Open men's doubles finals, all partnering Oliver Marach. He also won mixed doubles titles at the 2016 US Open in partnership with Laura Siegemund and at the 2018 Australian Open with Gabriela Dabrowski.. Together with Dabrowski, Pavić also made it to the 2018 French Open and 2019 French Open mixed doubles finals.
In May 2018 Pavić rose to world No. 1, making him the 52nd player ever to do so in the history of the ATP Doubles rankings. He was the youngest doubles No. 1 since Todd Woodbridge in 1996, and the first tennis player from Croatia to ever hold this ranking.

Early and personal life

Pavić was born in Split, Croatia to Jakov, a tennis coach, and Snježana, a kindergarten teacher. He has two sisters, Nadja and Matea. He started playing tennis at the age of 5, after watching his father coach his sister Nadja. His nickname is Fifty.

Tennis career

Juniors

As a junior Pavić posted a singles win/loss record of 95–51 and reached a combined ranking of No. 5 in January 2011. In singles, in 2010 he reached the French Open QF and in 2011 again the QF, this time at the Wimbledon Championship. His biggest success as a junior came at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships – Boys' Doubles where he won the title partnering George Morgan.

Early career

After winning the Boy's Doubles title at Wimbledon Championship, Pavić received a wild card to the 2012 Zagreb Indoors doubles tournament. Partnering Ivan Dodig, he reached his first ATP doubles finals at the age of 18 years and 7 months. In singles, his first ATP-level tour match came at the 2011 ATP Croatia Open in Umag, where he lost to Filippo Volandri in the first round. His first victory at the ATP-tour level came at 2012 Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in s-Hertogenbosch where he upset world No. 40 Robin Haase in the first round. The same year he defeated world No 37. Juan Carlos Ferrero. The following year he reached his career high ranking in singles at world No. 295.
Pavić wanted to pursue his tennis career in both singles and doubles, but when doubles qualifying events were introduced in 2016, this new rule enabled him to get into bigger ATP doubles tournaments and decided to focus more on doubles. He is quoted saying he regrets not being able to see where his singles career would have taken him.

First ATP doubles title

Pavić won his first ATP doubles title at ATP Nice Open in May of 2015, partnering Michael Venus. From May 2015 to October 2016 Pavić and Venus made it to 11 ATP doubles finals, winning five of them. However, they never made it past 3rd round at a Grand Slam tournament and decide to split at the end of 2016. The same year Mate went on to win the mixed doubles title with Laura Siegemund. Not being able to secure a permanent partner after the 2017 Miami Open, Pavić temporarily teamed with Austria's doubles veteran Oliver Marach during the European clay court season. Their clay swing was not successful and they decided to split after 2017 Wimbledon Championship. However, Pavić and Marach then made it to three consecutive grass court finals, including the 2017 Wimbledon Championship where they lost 11-13 in the fifth set to No. 1 ranked doubles team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo.

First Grand Slam doubles title and No. 1 ranking

After reaching the finals at Wimbledon, at the 2017 US Open Pavić and Marach lost in the 3rd round. In October Pavić and Marach won their first tournament as a team at the Stockholm Open. In November they qualified for the 2017 ATP Finals as first alternates and played one match, beating the Bryan brothers in Round robin.
Pavić and Marach had a great start to 2018. They went on to win 17 matches in a row, capturing titles at the Qatar Open, Auckland Open and then winning their first Grand Slam title at the 2018 Australian Open. In Melbourne Mate also won his second mixed doubles Grand Slam title, this time with Gabriela Dabrowski. Pavić and Marach's winning streak came to an end at the Rotterdam Open in February, where they lost in the finals. In April, Pavić and Marach reached their first ATP 1000 Masters Series finals in Monte Carlo.
On the 21st of May 2018, Pavić became the No. 1 ranked player in the world in doubles, and spend 8 weeks at the top. He was the youngest No. 1 doubles player in the world since Todd Woodbridge in 1996. Pavić and Marach also made it to the 2018 French Open finals, where they lost to Mahut and Herbert. After the French Open, Pavić and Marach went 10-8, losing in both 2018 Wimbledon Championship and 2018 US Open first rounds.

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runners-up)

Mixed doubles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runners-up)

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Runner-up2018Monte-Carlo MastersClay Oliver Marach Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
6–7, 3–6
Winner2019Shanghai MastersHard Bruno Soares Łukasz Kubot
Marcelo Melo
6–4, 6–2

ATP career finals

Doubles: 35 (16 titles, 19 runners-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–12012 PBZ Zagreb Indoors – Doubles|Zagreb Indoors, Croatia250 SeriesHard Ivan Dodig Marcos Baghdatis
Mikhail Youzhny
2–6, 2–6
Loss0–22013 PBZ Zagreb Indoors – Doubles|Zagreb Indoors, Croatia250 SeriesHard Ivan Dodig Julian Knowle
Filip Polášek
3–6, 3–6
Loss0–32014 Aircel Chennai Open – Doubles|Chennai Open, India250 SeriesHard Marin Draganja Johan Brunström
Frederik Nielsen
2–6, 6–4,
Win1–32015 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur – Doubles|Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France250 SeriesClay Michael Venus Jean-Julien Rojer
Horia Tecău
7–6, 2–6,
Loss1–42015 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships – Doubles|Hall of Fame Championships, United States250 SeriesGrass Nicholas Monroe Jonathan Marray
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
6–4, 3–6,
Loss1–52015 Claro Open Colombia – Doubles|Colombia Open, Colombia250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Édouard Roger-Vasselin
Radek Štěpánek
5–7, 3–6
Loss1–62015 Stockholm Open – Doubles|Stockholm Open, Sweden250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Nicholas Monroe
Jack Sock
5–7, 2–6
Win2–62016 ASB Classic – Men's Doubles|Auckland Open, New Zealand250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Eric Butorac
Scott Lipsky
7–5, 6–4
Win3–62016 Open Sud de France – Doubles|Open Sud de France, France250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Alexander Zverev
Mischa Zverev
7–5, 7–6
Win4–62016 Open 13 – Doubles|Open 13, France250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Jonathan Erlich
Colin Fleming
6–2, 6–3
Loss4–72016 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur – Doubles|Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France250 SeriesClay Michael Venus Juan Sebastián Cabal
Robert Farah
6–4, 4–6,
Win5–72016 Ricoh Open – Men's Doubles|Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands250 SeriesGrass Michael Venus Dominic Inglot
Raven Klaasen
3–6, 6–3,
Loss5–82016 Swiss Open Gstaad – Doubles|Swiss Open, Switzerland250 SeriesClay Michael Venus Julio Peralta
Horacio Zeballos
6–7, 2–6
Loss5–92016 Moselle Open – Doubles|Moselle Open, France250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Julio Peralta
Horacio Zeballos
3–6, 6–7
Loss5–102016 Stockholm Open – Doubles|Stockholm Open, Sweden250 SeriesHard Michael Venus Elias Ymer
Mikael Ymer
1–6, 1–6
Win6–102017 Grand Prix Hassan II – Doubles|Grand Prix Hassan II, Morocco250 SeriesClay Dominic Inglot Marcel Granollers
Marc López
6–4, 2–6,
Loss6–112017 MercedesCup – Doubles|Stuttgart Open, Germany250 SeriesGrass Oliver Marach Jamie Murray
Bruno Soares
7–6, 5–7,
Loss6–122017 Antalya Open – Doubles|Antalya Open, Turkey250 SeriesGrass Oliver Marach Robert Lindstedt
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
5–7, 1–4 ret.
Loss6–132017 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles|Wimbledon Championships, United KingdomGrand SlamGrass Oliver Marach Łukasz Kubot
Marcelo Melo
7–5, 5–7, 6–7, 6–3, 11–13
Win7–132017 German Open – Doubles|German Open, Germany500 SeriesClay Ivan Dodig Pablo Cuevas
Marc López
6–3, 6–4
Win8–132017 Stockholm Open – Doubles|Stockholm Open, Sweden250 SeriesHard Oliver Marach Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
Jean-Julien Rojer
3–6, 7–6,
Win9–132018 Qatar ExxonMobil Open – Doubles|Qatar Open, Qatar250 SeriesHard Oliver Marach Jamie Murray
Bruno Soares
6–2, 7–6
Win10–132018 ASB Classic – Men's Doubles|Auckland Open, New Zealand 250 SeriesHard Oliver Marach Max Mirnyi
Philipp Oswald
6–4, 5–7,
Win11–132018 Australian Open – Men's Doubles|Australian Open, AustraliaGrand SlamHard Oliver Marach Juan Sebastián Cabal
Robert Farah
6–4, 6–4
Loss11–142018 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Doubles|Rotterdam Open, Netherlands500 SeriesHard Oliver Marach Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Nicolas Mahut
6–2, 2–6,
Loss11–152018 Monte-Carlo Masters – Doubles|Monte-Carlo Masters, MonacoMasters 1000Clay Oliver Marach Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
6–7, 3–6
Win12–152018 Geneva Open – Doubles|Geneva Open, Switzerland250 SeriesClay Oliver Marach Ivan Dodig
Rajeev Ram
3–6, 7–6,
Loss12–162018 French Open – Men's Doubles|French Open, FranceGrand SlamClay Oliver Marach Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Nicolas Mahut
2–6, 6–7
Loss12–172018 German Open – Doubles|German Open, Germany500 SeriesClay Oliver Marach Julio Peralta
Horacio Zeballos
1–6, 6–4,
Win13–172018 Chengdu Open – Doubles|Chengdu Open, China250 SeriesHard Ivan Dodig Austin Krajicek
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
6–2, 6–4
Loss13–182018 China Open – Men's Doubles|China Open, China500 SeriesHard Oliver Marach Łukasz Kubot
Marcelo Melo
1–6, 4–6
Win14–182019 Geneva Open – Doubles|Geneva Open, Switzerland 250 SeriesClay Oliver Marach Matthew Ebden
Robert Lindstedt
6–4, 6–4
Win15–182019 Rolex Shanghai Masters – Doubles|Shanghai Masters, ChinaMasters 1000Hard Bruno Soares Łukasz Kubot
Marcelo Melo
6–4, 6–2
Loss15–192019 Stockholm Open – Doubles|Stockholm Open, Sweden250 SeriesHard Bruno Soares Henri Kontinen
Édouard Roger-Vasselin
4–6, 2–6
Win16–192020 Open Sud de France – Doubles|Open Sud de France, France 250 SeriesHard Nikola Ćaćić Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
Dominic Inglot
6–4, 6–7,

Doubles performance timeline

Current through the 2020 Auckland Open.