Florin Mergea (; born 26 January 1985) is a Romanian former
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player and a doubles specialist. He has reached the final of the
ATP World Tour Finals in
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
and won an ATP Masters title at the
Mutua Madrid Open earlier that year. He achieved a career-high
ATP ranking of World No. 7 in doubles (July 2015) and World No. 243 in singles (May 2005).
Coaching
His current doubles partner is fellow Romanian Adrian Barbu. Florin Mergea is presently coached by Alex Pop-Moldovan and managed by the McCartney Group, Vienna.
Tennis career
Juniors
As a junior Mergea compiled a singles win–loss record of 87–33, reaching as high as No. 2 in the world in July 2003 (and No. 1 in doubles). Along the way, he beat future top ten singles players like
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...
,
Tomas Berdych,
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in November 2016. Mon ...
and
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...
.
As well as winning the Boys' Singles at
Wimbledon
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in 2003 and being runner-up in the Boys' Singles tournament at the
2003 Australian Open, he won the Boys' Doubles in 2002 alongside compatriot
Horia Tecău
Horia Tecău (; born January 19, 1985) is a Romanians, Romanian former professional tennis player who specialised in doubles.
He is a three-time Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Wimbledon Championships – Men's doub ...
.
Seniors
The transition to the seniors tour proved difficult for Mergea. After turning pro in 2003, he struggled to make a breakthrough. Injuries hampered his career and in spite of reaching no. 103 in the doubles rankings, his lack of singles success and limited support drained his motivation. In 2010, Mergea decided to retire from tennis, a decision he turned around months later, with the help of his wife, Daiana. With renewed focus on the doubles game, his rankings rose steadily, playing alongside the likes of
Andrei Daescu and
Philipp Marx. After reaching thirteen challenger finals within little over a year, Mergea won his first ATP title in October 2013, when he teamed up with
Lukas Rosol for the
Erste Bank Open, Vienna.
Tour success continued in 2014, as he won the
Royal Guard Open in Vina del Mar, with veteran
Oliver Marach
Oliver Marach (born 16 July 1980) is a former Austrian professional tennis player who primarily specialised in doubles.
He achieved his highest singles ranking of world No. 82 in August 2005, but achieved most of his success in doubles where he ...
, and his first ATP 500 title at the
International German Open in Hamburg, with
Marin Draganja
Marin Draganja (; born 13 May 1991) is a Croatian former professional tennis player who competed mainly on the ATP World Tour in doubles.
Draganja reached his highest ATP doubles ranking of world No. 20 on 6 April 2015 and highest ATP singles ...
. Furthermore, siding with the Croatian, Mergea reached the
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
semifinal.
After starting 2015 with
Dominic Inglot and reaching two finals, his injury plagued British partner needed time to recover. This gave way to the formation of his partnership with
Rohan Bopanna
Rohan Machanda Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player who specializes in doubles.
He attained the List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 ranking after winning his first Grand Slam (tenni ...
, whom he had played with successfully at the
Shanghai Masters the previous season. Together, they found consistency in their results, while winning the
Madrid Masters and the
Mercedes Cup in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
. In November, the team were the last to qualify for the
ATP World Tour Finals. There, in spite of their seeding, they reached the final against the year-end No. 1 team of Mergea's Davis Cup and former juniors' partner, Romanian
Horia Tecău
Horia Tecău (; born January 19, 1985) is a Romanians, Romanian former professional tennis player who specialised in doubles.
He is a three-time Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Wimbledon Championships – Men's doub ...
, who played alongside
Jean Julien Rojer.
He won the
2016 BRD Năstase Țiriac Trophy and the silver medal at the
2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, alongside compatriot Horia Tecău.
In 2017 he won the title in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
partnering with
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ( Punjabi, ; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the ...
.
Significant finals
Year-end championships
Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Masters 1000 finals
Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Olympic medal matches
Doubles: 1 (1 silver medal)
ATP career finals
Doubles: 15 (7 titles, 8 runners-up)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles 13 (7 titles, 6 runners-up)
Doubles 77 (45 titles, 32 runners-up)
Doubles performance timeline
''Current through the
2021 Antalya Open.''
References
External links
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*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mergea, Florin
1985 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Craiova
Romanian male tennis players
Wimbledon junior champions
Olympic tennis players for Romania
Olympic medalists in tennis
Olympic silver medalists for Romania
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles
21st-century Romanian sportsmen