Cunha e Silva started playing tennis at the age of eight. He was a multiple national junior champion and appeared for the first time in 1984 in the Portuguese Davis Cup team. In 1987 he became a professional tennis player, but initially had no significant successes. In 1989 he reached the final of the ATP tournament in Nancy alongside Eduardo Masso . He subsequently played on the ATP Challenger Tour , where he was more successful and won the double title in Nairobi in 1990 . In the same year he achieved two individual titles on the Challenger Tour in Turin and São Paulo . In 1992 he won his first double title on the ATP Tour alongside Mike Bauer , making him the first Portuguese tennis player to have succeeded. His second and last double title followed in 1997 in Casablanca . In addition, he was two more times in an ATP double-finals, but they were lost. He reached his highest ranking in the tennis world rankings in 1991 with position 108 in singles and in 1989 with position 72 in doubles.
His best individual results in Grand Slam tournaments were reaching the second round of Wimbledon and the US Open . In the doubles competition, he was able to qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments, but never got past the first round. His only mixed appearance took place at the Australian Open in 1989, where he was eliminated in the first round.
Cunha e Silva played 53 singles and 24 doubles games for the Portuguese Davis Cup team between 1984 and 2000 . His individual balance was 25:28, the double balance balanced at 12:12. During this time he played only once in the world group, in the first round defeat in 1994 against Croatia . Here he appeared on the side of Nuno Marques in doubles, the game went smoothly in three sets to Saša Hiršzon and Goran Ivanišević .
Portugal
Tel Aviv
Mike Bauer
Mark Koevermans Tobias Svantesson
Casablanca