Gilles Muller

Gilles Muller
Müller 2016 at Wimbledon
Nickname:	Mulles
Nation:	Luxembourg
Birthday:	May 9, 1983
Size:	193 cm
Weight:	89 kg
1st professional season:	2001
Resignation:	2018
Playing hand:	Left, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	Benjamin Balleret Alexandre Lisiecki
Prize money:	$ 5,991,874
singles
Career record:	233: 213
Career title:	2
Highest ranking:	21 (July 31, 2017)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	61:88
Highest ranking:	74 (May 1, 2017)
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Gilles Müller (born May 9, 1983 in Schifflingen ) is a former Luxembourgish tennis player . In addition to 14 Challenger tournaments, he also won two ATP World Tour tournaments and reached six other finals. He is the most successful tennis player in his country.

Life

Gilles Müller married Alessia Fauzzi on July 10, 2010, with whom he has two sons (* 2011 and * 2012). Between 2014 and 2017 he was voted Luxembourg Sportsman of the Year four times in a row .

Career

Junior tennis

In 2001 Gilles Müller reached the final of Wimbledon as a junior player , where he lost in three sets against the Swiss Roman Valent . A little later he surpassed this success at the US Open , where he secured his first Grand Slam title in the final against Wang Yeu-tzuoo . He finished the year at number 1 in the junior world rankings and began his professional career.

2002 to 2007: First respectable successes

In the first few years, Müller completed numerous future tournaments, four of which he finished as the winner. In 2004 he won the semi-finals of the ATP Washington tournament against the then world number six Andre Agassi in two sets, but lost to Lleyton Hewitt in the final . With further good results he played himself in the top 100 of the world rankings.

This upward trend continued in 2005 when the Luxembourger reached the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his professional career - at the French Open , however, he did not get past the first round. Things went better at Wimbledon , where he defeated the then 19-year-old Rafael Nadal , who had won the French Open for the first time shortly before, in four sets in the second round . In the first round of the US Open , he beat Andy Roddick, another top 10 player, in three tight sets. At the tournament in Los Angeles , Müller reached the final, but lost it in two sets against Andre Agassi . In August of the same year he finished 59th in the world rankings, which was his best ranking to date.

2008: crisis and new successes

The next few years were much worse: There were no significant successes and finally Müller had to compete in Challenger tournaments again . According to his own statement, he lost a lot of self-confidence at this time and even toyed with the idea of ​​ending his career, as the prize money he won no longer even covered the expenses.

It was not until the US Open 2008 that Gilles Müller caused a sensation again when he played his way through to the quarter-finals and thus achieved the best Grand Slam result in the history of tennis in Luxembourg. He defeated Laurent Recouderc , Tommy Haas , Nicolás Almagro and Nikolai Dawydenko one after the other , before he had to admit defeat to the eventual tournament winner Roger Federer in three short sets. A surprising success, especially since Müller wasn't even sure before the tournament whether he would survive the qualification and had therefore not booked a hotel room for the duration of his stay.

2009 to 2010: roller coaster ride

In the meantime he was again among the top 100 in the world rankings, but was passed through in 2009 because of mostly poor results and an injury break. Only at the Australian Open was he briefly in focus when he fought a true marathon match in the first round with the Spaniard Feliciano López : The encounter lasted 4:22 hours, in which the Luxembourgish finally 16:14 in the fifth set retained the upper hand. He also won the following game against Bernard Tomic , but then lost in four sets to Juan Martín del Potro .

The year 2010 went better again for Müller: Although he could not celebrate a tournament victory despite several finals, he achieved significantly better results than the year before. As a result, he also fought his way back up in the world rankings and ended the year in 134th place, after having slipped to 459th place in the meantime.

2011: Another tournament victory and promotion to the top 50

At the Challenger tournament in Nouméa in January 2011, Müller only lost in the final against the French Vincent Millot . He then qualified for the Australian Open and defeated German Simon Stadler 6: 3, 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 4 in the first round . In the second round he met Robin Söderling , but was inferior to the fourth in the world rankings with 3: 6, 6: 7 and 1: 6. Shortly afterwards he took part in the ATP Challenger in Courmayeur and reached the final, which he lost to Nicolas Mahut 6: 7, 4: 6. At the tournament in Bergamo , Müller moved into the final like last year, but lost it again.

In qualifying for the French Open 2011 , Müller suffered a setback and was defeated in the second round by Romanian Victor Crivoi 7: 6 (7: 1), 6: 7 (5: 7), 5: 7. In June 2011, however, he managed another success at a Challenger tournament in Nottingham , when he defeated the top 100 player Ryan Sweeting and made it to the final. He won this against the German Matthias Bachinger 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 2 and celebrated his first tournament victory since 2008, which pushed him to 93rd place in the world rankings. For the Wimbledon Championships , Müller received a wildcard, which meant that he did not have to play through the qualification, but instead came straight into the main field. In the first round he won 7: 6 (7: 5)>, 7: 6 (7: 3), 3: 6, 6: 3 against Tommy Haas and then profited from the injury-related abandonment of the Canadian Milos Raonic , which gave him secured entry into the third round. There he met world number one Rafael Nadal and forced him into the tie-break twice, among other things through a high service rate, but could not use his chances and in the end lost to the Spaniard 6: 7 (6: 8), 6: 7 (5: 7), 0: 6. With the end in the third round, Müller surpassed his best result to date at Wimbledon in 2005 and improved by 11 places to 81st place in the world rankings.

Because of these successes, he canceled his participation in the Challenger tournament in Pozoblanco and took part in the Atlanta Tennis Championships in July , where he reached the second round as a qualifier in 2010. He came immediately into the main field and defeated the American Alex Bogomolov junior , who was placed 7th, 6: 3, 7: 6 (8: 6). Subsequently, Müller beat Robby Ginepri in three sets and surpassed his previous year's result with the quarter-finals. There he played against number 32 in the world rankings, Kevin Anderson , who surprisingly lost 6: 7 (3: 7), 6: 7 (3: 7). He reached a World Tour semi-finals for the first time since 2005, where he met John Isner , against whom he lost in three sets.

Then Müller also took part in the ATP tournaments in Los Angeles , Washington and Winston-Salem , but left there early. At the US Open he managed a three-set win against the Frenchman Édouard Roger-Vasselin and in the second round he defeated Ernests Gulbis 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 4, 7: 6 (7: 6) 5) through. Müller also ended the duel against Igor Kunitsyn victorious 6: 1, 6: 4, 6: 4. In the last sixteen he met Rafael Nadal , who defeated him again in three sets. In Metz he won, among other things, in the quarter-finals against the world number 15. Richard Gasquet and retired in his second ATP semifinals of the year against Ivan Ljubičić . Thanks to these results, Müller made it into the top 50 for the first time in his career.

However, the end of the year was less positive for the Luxembourger: An early Challenger exit in Rennes was followed by other bad results, including a defeat at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Basel against Andreas Seppi .

2012 to 2014

Müller started his tennis year 2012 in Brisbane , where he won a narrow first round win against Ricardo Mello . Then there was a clash with world number four Andy Murray , against whom Müller almost achieved a sensation: He won the first set and already had match points in the second, but in the end he gave the game 6: 4, 6: 7 (4: 7), 0: 6 from. At the Australian Open he had to pack his bags in the first round and couldn't get past the opening game in the following tournaments. As a result, he fell out of the top 50 and finished 63rd at the beginning of February.

It was not until the Indian Wells Masters that Müller achieved a relevant victory again when he defeated the emerging and number 36 seeded Australian Bernard Tomic 4: 6, 7: 6, 6: 0. In the second round he was clearly defeated by Janko Tipsarević . His slight upward trend continued in Miami with a three-set win over Alex Bogomolov Jr.; his second round game against Andy Roddick ended again with a clear defeat. However, the two successes were enough to bring him back to 60th place in the meantime. He then played the Challenger tournaments in Dallas and Naples , where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals and the second round. In Dallas, he failed against Tommy Haas, who was equipped with a wildcard, 4-6 and 3-6.

In Belgrade , Müller, who was number 8, defeated the Slovak Lukáš Lacko 6: 0, 4: 6, 6: 3 in the first round and then the Argentine Eduardo Schwank 6: 3 and 7: 6 and thus reached his first quarter-finals of the year 2012. In preparation for the Rome Masters , he took part in the local Challenger and reached the final as the top seeded player, which he lost against Jerzy Janowicz from Poland . On the same day he won his first qualifying game for the Masters tournament against Vasek Pospisil , but injured his thigh and had to cancel his participation. At the French Open , Müller prevailed in the first round with 2: 6, 7: 5, 3: 6, 6: 4, 8: 6 against the qualifier Igor Sijsling and reached the second round of the tournament for the first time in his career. Against Fernando Verdasco he then won the first set in the tie-break, but lost the game in four sets.

After a fatigue fracture in his elbow at the end of 2012, Müller missed most of the 2013 season and accordingly fell far behind in the world rankings. In 2014, he therefore played in numerous challenger tournaments in which he won five titles between March and June. This resulted in a nomination for Comeback Player of the Year at the ATP World Tour Awards . He was also voted Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year 2014.

2015 until today

The 2015 season began Müller with the semi-finals in Sydney successfully. He then reached the round of 16 of the Australian Open , which he lost to Novak Đoković in three sets. On February 16, 2015, he finished 34th, his best world ranking. Also in the 2016 season he reached the semi-finals in Sydney and at the end of a consistently good season, with two final defeats at the ATP 250 tournaments in 's-Hertogenbosch and Newport, he was back in 34th place in the world rankings at the turn of the year. For the third time in a row, he was also voted Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year.

In the 2017 season he finally achieved his first title success at the beginning of the year in Sydney : After beating the defending champion of the last two years Viktor Troicki in the semi-final , he won his first ATP title against Daniel Evans 13 years after his first ATP final and in the sixth attempt Title. The 33-year-old and until then the only top 50 player without a tournament win advanced to world number 28. In Estoril he also reached the final, which he lost in straight sets against Pablo Carreño Busta . At the French Open he was eliminated in the first round, at the subsequent tournament in 's-Hertogenbosch , however, as in the previous year, he reached the final. In the semifinals he defeated Alexander Zverev , in the final he defeated Ivo Karlović , with which Müller celebrated the second ATP title of his career. At the following tournament at the Queen's Club he reached the semi-finals, at Wimbledon he made it to the round of 16 for the first time in his career and - after a five-set win against Rafael Nadal - even to the quarter-finals, which he lost in five sets to the later finalist Marin Čilić . In the world rankings, he was led to 22nd place, his first best placement, which he improved to 21st place shortly afterwards. As previously announced, he ended his career with his departure from the US Open 2018 .

Davis Cup

From 2000 onwards, Müller played annually (except in 2009, 2016 and 2017) for the Luxembourg Davis Cup team . He helped Luxembourg a. a. In 2002 for promotion to continental group I, the highest group that Luxembourg was able to move up to. With a record of 56:17, he is the team's record winner.

successes

Legend (number of victories) Grand Slam ATP World Tour Finals ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ATP World Tour 500 ATP World Tour 250 (2) ATP Challenger Tour (14)

ATP title by topping Hard Court (1) Sand (0) Grass (1)

singles

Tournament victories

ATP World Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	January 14, 2017	Sydney	Hard court	Daniel Evans	7: 6 6 , 6: 2
2.	18th June 2017	's-Hertogenbosch	race	Ivo Karlović	7: 6 5 , 7: 6 4

ATP Challenger Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 27, 2003	Valladolid	Hard court	Iván Navarro	6: 4, 6: 3
2.	April 25, 2004	Naples	sand	Arnaud Di Pasquale	7: 6 7 , 6: 7 1 , 6: 1
3.	4th July 2004	Cordoba	Hard court	Nicolás Almagro	6: 1, 6: 2
4th	April 13, 2008	Humacao	Hard court	Iván Miranda	7: 5, 7: 6 2
5.	June 1, 2008	Izmir	Hard court	Kristian Pless	7: 5, 6: 3
6th	June 5, 2011	Nottingham	race	Matthias Bachinger	7: 6 4 , 6: 2
7th	March 30, 2014	Guadalajara	Hard court	Denis Kudla	6: 2, 6: 2
8th.	April 27, 2014	Shenzhen	Hard court	Lukáš Lacko	7: 6 4 , 6: 3
9.	May 4, 2014	Taipei	Carpet (i)	John-Patrick Smith	6: 3, 6: 3
10.	May 11, 2014	Gimcheon	Hard court	Tatsuma Ito	7: 6 5 , 5: 7, 6: 4
11.	20th July 2014	Recanati	Hard court	Ilija Bozoljac	6: 1, 6: 2

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	August 22, 2004	Washington	Hard court	Lleyton Hewitt	3: 6, 4: 6
2.	July 31, 2005	los Angeles	Hard court	Andre Agassi	4: 6, 5: 7
3.	July 22, 2012	Atlanta	Hard court	Andy Roddick	6: 1, 6: 7 2 , 2: 6
4th	June 12, 2016	's-Hertogenbosch	race	Nicolas Mahut	4: 6, 4: 6
5.	17th July 2016	Newport	race	Ivo Karlović	7: 6 2 , 6: 7 5 , 6: 7 12
6th	May 7, 2017	Estoril	sand	Pablo Carreño Busta	2: 6, 6: 7 5

Double

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	June 26, 2004	Andorra	Hard court	Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	Santiago González Alejandro Hernández	6: 3, 7: 5
2.	September 12, 2010	Saint-Rémy	Hard court	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	Andis Juška Deniss Pavlovs	6: 0, 2: 6, [13:11]
3.	September 30, 2012	Orleans	Hard court (i)	Lukáš Dlouhý	Xavier Malisse Ken Skupski	6: 2, 6: 7 5 , [10: 7]

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	2nd August 2015	Atlanta	Hard court	Colin Fleming	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6: 4, 6: 7 2 , [4:10]
2.	January 8, 2017	Brisbane	Hard court	Sam Querrey	Thanasi Kokkinakis Jordan Thompson	6: 7 7 , 4: 6

Performing in Grand Slam tournaments

singles

Tournament 1	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	total
Australian Open	3R	2R	2R	AF	-	1R	1R	2R	-	3R	-	2R	2R	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	AF
French Open	1R	1R	1R	2R	-	1R	2R	-	-	1R	-	-	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	2R
Wimbledon	2R	VF	2R	1R	2R	-	1R	3R	-	1R	-	2R	1R	3R	-	-	-	-	-	VF
US Open	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	-	2R	AF	-	-	VF	-	1R	2R	-	-	-	-	-	VF
Individual titles won	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Overall wins / defeats 2	10:19	32:18	19:13	33:24	6: 6	4: 8	22:21	17:12	2: 2	5: 9	7: 6	3: 6	13:20	21:23	13: 9	2: 2	3: 1	2: 3	3-0	233: 213
Year-end position	138	25th	34	38	47	366	68	54	134	248	99	115	106	80	68	189	276	536	845	N / A

Double

Tournament 1	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000	total
Australian Open	-	2R	2R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1R	-	-	-	-	-	-	2R
French Open	-	-	1R	-	-	1R	-	-	-	-	-	-	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	1R
Wimbledon	-	1R	1R	2R	2R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	2R
US Open	-	-	2R	2R	1R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1R	-	-	-	-	-	2R
Double titles won	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Overall wins / defeats 2	5: 3	9:12	7:13	10:12	2: 5	2: 3	5: 5	2: 2	0-0	0: 1	1: 3	1: 1	5:12	4:11	1: 3	2-0	2: 1	2: 1	1-0	61:88
Year-end position	235	104	153	139	214	647	244	764	373	750	340	217	245	153	324	429	501	806	989	N / A

Explanation of symbols: S = tournament victory; F, HF, VF, AF = entry into the final / semi-finals / quarter-finals / round of 16; 1R, 2R, 3R = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd main round or Q1, Q2, Q3 = elimination in the 1st / 2nd / 3rd qualifying round

¹ tournament result in brackets means that the player has not yet finished the tournament; it shows its current tournament status. After the player finishes the tournament, the bracket is removed.
² Status: end of career

Web links

Commons : Gilles Müller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Gilles Müller (English)
• ITF profile of Gilles Müller (English)
• Davis Cup stats by Gilles Muller (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Christian Albrecht Barschel: Mail from New York: Gilles Muller - The gentle giant says goodbye. In: tennismagazin.de. August 28, 2018. Retrieved November 20, 2018 .