Nikola Mektić (born 24 December 1988) is a Croatian professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a two-time

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

champion, having won the

2021 Wimbledon Championships The 2021 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title to cl ...

in men's doubles partnering compatriot

Mate Pavić Mate Pavić (; born 4 July 1993) is a Croatian professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion, having won three titles in men's doubles: the 2018 Australian Open with Oliver Marach, th ...

, and the 2020 Australian Open with

Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2, achieved on 28 February 2022, and on 22 October 2018, she became world No. 1 in doubles. Krejčíková ...

in mixed doubles. Mektić also finished runner-up at the 2020 US Open with

Wesley Koolhof Wesley Koolhof (; born 17 April 1989) is a Dutch professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He achieved his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 in doubles on 7 November 2022. He has won 14 doubles titles on the ATP Tour, mos ...

in men's doubles, and the 2018 US Open with

Alicja Rosolska Alicja Rosolska (; born 1 December 1985) is a professional tennis player from Poland. On 9 June 2003, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 636. On 10 June 2019, she peaked at No. 23 in the doubles rankings. Rosolska has won nine ...

in mixed doubles. He became world No. 1 in men's doubles in October 2021, the second Croatian to reach this ranking. Mektić has won 16 doubles titles on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

, including six at

Masters 1000 The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

level with four different partners. He also won the 2020 ATP Finals with Koolhof. In singles, he reached his highest ranking of world No. 213 in May 2013. Mektić was part of the Croatian team which won the

2018 Davis Cup The 2018 Davis Cup was the 107th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by BNP Paribas. In 2018, new rules were introduced for the Group I and II zonal events, with ties now being played as ...

, and won men's doubles gold at the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

alongside Pavić.

Early and personal life

Mektić was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1988 to Mirko (father) and Višnja (mother). He began playing tennis at age 6 after his brother Luka took up the sport.

Career

After spending a better part of a decade on the ATP challenger tour and achieving a career high ranking of No. 213 in singles (on May 6, 2013), in 2016 Mektić decided to focus on doubles. The same year he reached his first ATP men's doubles final as a wildcard at the 2016 Croatia Open Umag with his compatriot Antonio Šančić. Since then, he has won sixteen ATP men's doubles titles, including one doubles Grand Slam title, six Masters 1000 titles, one mixed doubles Grand Slam and the 2020 ATP Finals.

2018-2019: First Grand Slam final, three Masters titles

In 2018 Mektic and Alexander Peya qualified for the 2018 ATP Finals in London. The same year Mektić reached his first Grand Slam finals (in mixed doubles) at the 2018 US Open, partnering Alicja Rosolska, and won the Davis Cup playing for

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. He also won three Masters 1000 with three different partners in Madrid (2018), Indian Wells (2019) and Monte Carlo (2019).

2020: ATP Finals doubles title, Australian Open mixed title, top 10 doubles ranking

2020 was the most successful year for Mektić in his career thus far. He won the 2020 ATP Finals in doubles partnering

and the 2020 Australian Open mixed doubles event partnering

. He also reached the doubles final at the 2020 US Open partnering again with Wesley Koolhof. As a result he finished the year at No. 8 in the top 10 rankings in doubles and No. 3 in the doubles race with his partner Wesley Koolhof.

2021: New partnership, eight ATP titles including a historic Wimbledon title, First Croatian Olympic tennis champion, World No. 1

Starting 2021, Mektić partnered successfully with his compatriot

. They won four ATP titles including the doubles title at the 2021 Miami Open in the beginning of April and reached the

2021 Australian Open The 2021 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, on 8–21 February 2021. It was the 109th edition of the Australian Open, the 53rd in the Open Era, and the first Major tournament of the year. It w ...

doubles semifinals and 2021 Dubai Tennis Championships final in the first three months of the year. Following these results, Mektić returned to his No. 4 high-career ranking on April 5. On April 18, Mektić clinched his fifth ATP Masters 1000 in a row and second Masters title of the year at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters where the pair defeated, for the second time in the final of a Masters in 2021, the British pair of

Neal Skupski Neal Skupski (born 1 December 1989) is a British professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He achieved his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 1 on 14 November 2022. He is a two-time Grand Slam champion in mixed doubles, havi ...

and Dan Evans. Seeded No. 2 the pair also reached the final at the 2021 Mutua Madrid Open Masters where they lost to the No. 3 seeded pair

Horacio Zeballos Horacio Zeballos Jr. (; born 27 April 1985) is an Argentine professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 39 achieved in March 2013 and his career-high doubles ranking is world No. 3 achieved in September 2019. In dou ...

and Marcel Granollers and the final of the Italian Open where they won the title defeating No. 5 seeded pair Rajeev Ram and

Joe Salisbury Joe Salisbury ( ; born 20 April 1992) is a British professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2020 Australian Open, the 2021 US Open and the 2022 US Open in men's ...

. After the win, Mektić moved to his career-high ranking of World No. 2 on 17 May 2021. In their first Grand Slam doubles final, top seeds Mektić and Pavić had the biggest victory of their 2021 season as a team defeating Granollers and Zeballos to triumph in doubles at the

. They became the first Croatian players to win the Wimbledon men's doubles title. They are also the first players from their country to win at the All England Club since Goran Ivanisevic's 2001 victory in singles and Ivan Dodig's 2019 mixed doubles win with Latisha Chan. At the Olympics he won the gold medal with Pavić in an all-Croatian final defeating

Ivan Dodig Ivan Dodig (; born 2 January 1985) is a Croatian professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He is a six-time Grand Slam champion, having won men's doubles titles at the 2015 French Open with Marcelo Melo, and the 2021 Au ...

and Marin Cilic. It was the country's first gold medal in the sport and the third time in the Olympics men's doubles' history that the same country won both gold and silver, and the first one since

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

. On 18 October 2021, following a quarterfinal showing with Pavic at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open, Mektić became World No. 1 in doubles. He is only the second Croatian tennis player in history to be ranked No.1 in the world in doubles.

2022: Second Italian Masters, 20th title

The Croatian pair won their second Italian Open Masters crown and defended their 2021 title. At the 2022 Geneva Open the pair won their second title for the season. At the ATP 500

2022 Queen's Club Championships The 2022 Queen's Club Championships (also known as the cinch Championships for sponsorship reasons) was a men's professional tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Queen's Club in London, United Kingdom from 13 to 19 June 2022. I ...

Mektic won his third title for the season with Pavic and twentieth overall in his career. The pair also successfully defended their title at the

2022 Eastbourne International The 2022 Eastbourne International (also known as the Rothesay International Eastbourne for sponsorship reasons) was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 47th edition of the event for the women ...

. At the

2022 Wimbledon Championships The 2022 Wimbledon Championships was a Grand Slam tier tennis tournament that took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. Novak Djokovic successfully defended his gentlemen's singles title ...

the Croatian pair reached the semifinals in straight sets with a win over 11th seeds

Kevin Krawietz Kevin Krawietz (born 24 January 1992) is a German professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is a two-time Grand Slam champion, having won the French Open doubles title in both 2019 and 2020 alongside compatriot Andreas Mies. The ...

and Andreas Mies and the final defeating six seeded Columbian pair of

Robert Farah (tennis) Robert Charbel Farah Maksoud (; born 20 January 1987) is a Colombian professional tennis player, who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 163 in June 2011, but has achieved most of his success in ...

and Juan-Sebastian Cabal in a five sets with a fifth set super tiebreak over 4 hours match. The pair won another ATP 500 title at the

2022 Astana Open The 2022 Astana Open was a professional men's tennis tournament to be held on indoor hard courts. It was the third edition of the Astana Open and part of the ATP Tour 500, ATP Tour 500 Series of the 2022 ATP Tour. The event was held on a third c ...

making it fifth for the season.

Doubles performance timeline

''Current through the

.''

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Olympic finals

Doubles: 1 (1 Gold medal)

Year-end championships

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

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 9 (7 titles, 2 runner-ups)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 37 (22 titles, 15 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Future titles

Singles (15)

Doubles (15)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mektic, Nikola 1988 births Living people Croatian male tennis players Tennis players from Zagreb Australian Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions Tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic tennis players of Croatia Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Croatia Olympic medalists in tennis ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions 21st-century Croatian people