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)
Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
Runner-up | 2018 | Monte-Carlo Masters | Clay | Oliver Marach | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 6–7, 3–6 |
Winner | 2019 | Shanghai Masters | Hard | Bruno Soares | Łukasz Kubot Marcelo Melo | 6–4, 6–2 |
ATP career finals
Doubles: 35 (16 titles, 19 runners-up)
Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
Loss | 0–1 | 2012 PBZ Zagreb Indoors – Doubles| | Zagreb Indoors, Croatia | 250 Series | Hard | Ivan Dodig | Marcos Baghdatis Mikhail Youzhny | 2–6, 2–6 |
Loss | 0–2 | 2013 PBZ Zagreb Indoors – Doubles| | Zagreb Indoors, Croatia | 250 Series | Hard | Ivan Dodig | Julian Knowle Filip Polášek | 3–6, 3–6 |
Loss | 0–3 | 2014 Aircel Chennai Open – Doubles| | Chennai Open, India | 250 Series | Hard | Marin Draganja | Johan Brunström Frederik Nielsen | 2–6, 6–4, |
Win | 1–3 | 2015 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur – Doubles| | Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France | 250 Series | Clay | Michael Venus | Jean-Julien Rojer Horia Tecău | 7–6, 2–6, |
Loss | 1–4 | 2015 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships – Doubles| | Hall of Fame Championships, United States | 250 Series | Grass | Nicholas Monroe | Jonathan Marray Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi | 6–4, 3–6, |
Loss | 1–5 | 2015 Claro Open Colombia – Doubles| | Colombia Open, Colombia | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Édouard Roger-Vasselin Radek Štěpánek | 5–7, 3–6 |
Loss | 1–6 | 2015 Stockholm Open – Doubles| | Stockholm Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Nicholas Monroe Jack Sock | 5–7, 2–6 |
Win | 2–6 | 2016 ASB Classic – Men's Doubles| | Auckland Open, New Zealand | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Eric Butorac Scott Lipsky | 7–5, 6–4 |
Win | 3–6 | 2016 Open Sud de France – Doubles| | Open Sud de France, France | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Alexander Zverev Mischa Zverev | 7–5, 7–6 |
Win | 4–6 | 2016 Open 13 – Doubles| | Open 13, France | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Jonathan Erlich Colin Fleming | 6–2, 6–3 |
Loss | 4–7 | 2016 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur – Doubles| | Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France | 250 Series | Clay | Michael Venus | Juan Sebastián Cabal Robert Farah | 6–4, 4–6, |
Win | 5–7 | 2016 Ricoh Open – Men's Doubles| | Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands | 250 Series | Grass | Michael Venus | Dominic Inglot Raven Klaasen | 3–6, 6–3, |
Loss | 5–8 | 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad – Doubles| | Swiss Open, Switzerland | 250 Series | Clay | Michael Venus | Julio Peralta Horacio Zeballos | 6–7, 2–6 |
Loss | 5–9 | 2016 Moselle Open – Doubles| | Moselle Open, France | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Julio Peralta Horacio Zeballos | 3–6, 6–7 |
Loss | 5–10 | 2016 Stockholm Open – Doubles| | Stockholm Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Hard | Michael Venus | Elias Ymer Mikael Ymer | 1–6, 1–6 |
Win | 6–10 | 2017 Grand Prix Hassan II – Doubles| | Grand Prix Hassan II, Morocco | 250 Series | Clay | Dominic Inglot | Marcel Granollers Marc López | 6–4, 2–6, |
Loss | 6–11 | 2017 MercedesCup – Doubles| | Stuttgart Open, Germany | 250 Series | Grass | Oliver Marach | Jamie Murray Bruno Soares | 7–6, 5–7, |
Loss | 6–12 | 2017 Antalya Open – Doubles| | Antalya Open, Turkey | 250 Series | Grass | Oliver Marach | Robert Lindstedt Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi | 5–7, 1–4 ret. |
Loss | 6–13 | 2017 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Doubles| | Wimbledon Championships, United Kingdom | Grand Slam | Grass | Oliver Marach | Łukasz Kubot Marcelo Melo | 7–5, 5–7, 6–7, 6–3, 11–13 |
Win | 7–13 | 2017 German Open – Doubles| | German Open, Germany | 500 Series | Clay | Ivan Dodig | Pablo Cuevas Marc López | 6–3, 6–4 |
Win | 8–13 | 2017 Stockholm Open – Doubles| | Stockholm Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Hard | Oliver Marach | Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Jean-Julien Rojer | 3–6, 7–6, |
Win | 9–13 | 2018 Qatar ExxonMobil Open – Doubles| | Qatar Open, Qatar | 250 Series | Hard | Oliver Marach | Jamie Murray Bruno Soares | 6–2, 7–6 |
Win | 10–13 | 2018 ASB Classic – Men's Doubles| | Auckland Open, New Zealand | 250 Series | Hard | Oliver Marach | Max Mirnyi Philipp Oswald | 6–4, 5–7, |
Win | 11–13 | 2018 Australian Open – Men's Doubles| | Australian Open, Australia | Grand Slam | Hard | Oliver Marach | Juan Sebastián Cabal Robert Farah | 6–4, 6–4 |
Loss | 11–14 | 2018 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Doubles| | Rotterdam Open, Netherlands | 500 Series | Hard | Oliver Marach | Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut | 6–2, 2–6, |
Loss | 11–15 | 2018 Monte-Carlo Masters – Doubles| | Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco | Masters 1000 | Clay | Oliver Marach | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 6–7, 3–6 |
Win | 12–15 | 2018 Geneva Open – Doubles| | Geneva Open, Switzerland | 250 Series | Clay | Oliver Marach | Ivan Dodig Rajeev Ram | 3–6, 7–6, |
Loss | 12–16 | 2018 French Open – Men's Doubles| | French Open, France | Grand Slam | Clay | Oliver Marach | Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut | 2–6, 6–7 |
Loss | 12–17 | 2018 German Open – Doubles| | German Open, Germany | 500 Series | Clay | Oliver Marach | Julio Peralta Horacio Zeballos | 1–6, 6–4, |
Win | 13–17 | 2018 Chengdu Open – Doubles| | Chengdu Open, China | 250 Series | Hard | Ivan Dodig | Austin Krajicek Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan | 6–2, 6–4 |
Loss | 13–18 | 2018 China Open – Men's Doubles| | China Open, China | 500 Series | Hard | Oliver Marach | Łukasz Kubot Marcelo Melo | 1–6, 4–6 |
Win | 14–18 | 2019 Geneva Open – Doubles| | Geneva Open, Switzerland | 250 Series | Clay | Oliver Marach | Matthew Ebden Robert Lindstedt | 6–4, 6–4 |
Win | 15–18 | 2019 Rolex Shanghai Masters – Doubles| | Shanghai Masters, China | Masters 1000 | Hard | Bruno Soares | Łukasz Kubot Marcelo Melo | 6–4, 6–2 |
Loss | 15–19 | 2019 Stockholm Open – Doubles| | Stockholm Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Hard | Bruno Soares | Henri Kontinen Édouard Roger-Vasselin | 4–6, 2–6 |
Win | 16–19 | 2020 Open Sud de France – Doubles| | Open Sud de France, France | 250 Series | Hard | Nikola Ćaćić | Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Dominic Inglot | 6–4, 6–7, |