Simone Bolelli

Simone Bolelli (; born 8 October 1985) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP ranking in doubles of World No. 6 achieved on 13 January 2025 and in singles of No. 36 achieved on 23 February 2009. Bolelli is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Australian Open doubles event with Fabio Fognini, together becoming the first male all-Italian pair to win a Major title in the Open Era. He also reached three other major finals with Andrea Vavassori at the 2024 and the 2025 Australian Open, and at the 2024 French Open. He is also a champion as part of the team winning the 2023 and the 2024 Davis Cups. He won the bronze medal in the 2005 Mediterranean Games.

Career

2003–2005: Pro beginnings, first ITF singles titles

In 2003, Bolelli reached his first ITF Futures tournament semifinal at Egypt F1, losing to 485th-ranked Jaroslav Pospíšil. He played entirely Futures events except for one Challenger tournament in Brindisi.

In 2004, Bolelli reached his second Futures final, losing to Dominique Coene. He made another final and won two Futures titles, making two wins out of three finals for Futures finals in the 2004 season. He won the Italy F15 and F8 titles, and lost in the final of a Challenger event in Brașov.

In 2005, Bolelli reached the final of a Challenger in Trani.

2006: ATP debut, First Challenger singles title

Simone Bolelli played in a few tournaments higher than a Challenger, reaching the quarterfinals in doubles on his Masters 1000 debut partnering with Andreas Seppi as alternates pair at the 2006 Monte Carlo Masters and also receiving a wildcard into the singles and doubles (w/ Seppi) main draws at the 2006 Rome Masters.

He also won the Como Futures tournament and made the final of Recanati, before losing to Davide Sanguinetti. He won his first Challenger singles title over Ivo Minář, and then made the final of a Challenger in Bergamo where he lost to Alex Bogdanović.

2007: Grand Slam debut in singles

Bolelli beat former world no. 1 Marat Safin in Barcelona and competed in the Miami, Rome and Hamburg Masters.

He made his Grand Slam debut at the 2007 French Open.

2008: First singles final

In May, Bolleli reached his maiden final at the clay-court 2008 BMW Open tournament in Munich, where he was defeated by Fernando González.

In September, Simone Bolelli was banned by The Italian Tennis Federation from national team events for skipping the Davis Cup tie with Latvia in Europe-Africa zone relegation playoff. The ban prevented Bolelli from playing in Davis Cup competition and the Olympics. It also prevented him from getting wildcards. Bolelli said that he had told Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti well in advance of the tie that he preferred to work on his fast-court game in Asia.

2009: Top 40 career high singles ranking

2011–13: Three ATP doubles titles

2015: Grand Slam title, three Masters finals with Fognini, World No. 8

At the 2015 Australian Open, Bolelli and Fabio Fognini captured their first Grand Slam championship doubles title. The Italian duo, playing their ninth major together, defeated French pair Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in straight sets 6–4, 6–4 in the final.

They also reached the semifinals of the 2015 French Open and three Masters finals at the 2015 Indian Wells Masters, 2015 Monte-Carlo Masters and 2015 Shanghai Rolex Masters.

2016: First ATP 500 title with Seppi

In February 2016, Bolleli won his second biggest title in doubles at the ATP 500 2016 Dubai Tennis Championships with Andreas Seppi.

2021: Wimbledon semifinal and three titles with Gonzalez

In 2021 Bolleli won two clay titles with new partner Máximo González at the 2021 Chile Open and 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma and one grass title at the first edition of the 2021 Mallorca Championships after the walkover from the wildcard pair Novak Djokovic/ Carlos Gómez-Herrera and reached two other finals. He returned to the top 50 in doubles at World No. 46 on 28 June 2021.

Having never passed the second round and not played for five years at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, Bolleli most successful run with his partner was to the semifinals of the Major where the unseeded pair was defeated by fourth seeded pair and eventual runners-up Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. As a result, he raised back up to No. 32 in the doubles rankings on 12 July 2021. He returned to the top 30 in the doubles rankings on 26 July 2021.

2022–23: Reunion with Fognini, Major quarterfinal, Second ATP 500 title

At the 2022 Australian Open he reached the quarterfinals with Fabio Fognini where they lost to second seeded pair Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
He won his second ATP 500 doubles title with Fognini at the 2022 Rio Open.

They won the 2023 Argentina Open in Buenos Aires for a second time at this tournament, the two titles won 10 years apart.

2024: Second Davis Cup win, Australian, French Open finals

Partnering with new partner, compatriot Andrea Vavassori he reached the 2024 Australian Open final for a second time in his career. They overcame unseeded pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Dominik Koepfer in three sets. They lost to second seeded pair Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in straight sets.

At the 2024 French Open, he reached his second Major final in doubles with Vavassori and third overall, defeating third seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, and then second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden.

Bolelli and Vavassori won the China Open in October, defeating third seeds Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten in the final. The duo Bolelli and Vavassori won the 2024 ATP Fans’ Favourite doubles team award.

2025: Third Australian Open doubles final

Vavassori and Bolelli won the Adelaide International, defeating Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz in the final. It was Bolelli’s 15th ATP Tour title. As a result he moved to a new career-high of World No. 6 on 13 January 2025. The pair reached the final at the Australian Open, losing to sixth seeds Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 3 (3 runners-up)

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 34 (17 titles, 17 runner-ups)

Challenger and Futures finals

Singles: 24 (14–10)

Doubles: 13 (7–6)

Performance timelines

Singles

Notes
2009 Wimbledon Championships counts as 1 win, 0 losses. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga received a walkover in the second round, after Bolelli withdrew.

Doubles

''Current through the 2025 Australian Open.''

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolelli, Simone
1985 births
Living people
Hopman Cup competitors
Italian male tennis players
Olympic tennis players for Italy
Tennis players from Bologna
Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles
Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco
Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Italy
Competitors at the 2005 Mediterranean Games
Mediterranean Games medalists in tennis
Australian Open (tennis) champions
Tennis players at the 2024 Summer Olympics
21st-century Italian sportsmen