Miloslav Mečíř

Miloslav Mečíř
Mečíř 1987 as the winner of the Dutch Open
Nickname:	The cat
Nation:	Czechoslovakia
Birthday:	May 19, 1964
Size:	190 cm
1st professional season:	1982
Resignation:	1990
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money:	$ 2,632,538
singles
Career record:	262: 122
Career title:	11
Highest ranking:	4 (February 22, 1988)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	100: 53
Career title:	9
Highest ranking:	4 (March 7, 1988)
Grand Slam record
Olympic games
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Miloslav Mečíř (born May 19, 1964 in Bojnice ) is a former Czechoslovak tennis player . His greatest achievement was winning the Olympic gold medal.

Life

Mečíř, who was also called "The Cat" because of his soulful style of play and extremely smooth movements, won his first title on the ATP World Tour in Rotterdam in 1985 , where he defeated Jakob Hlasek in the final. In his career he won a total of eleven singles and nine doubles. He achieved his best scores in the ATP world rankings in 1988 with position 4 in singles and doubles.

Twice in his career he made it into the final of a Grand Slam tournament . He lost to Ivan Lendl at the US Open in 1986 and at the Australian Open in 1989 . In the doubles competition he was in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open.

The highlight of his career was winning the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul by beating Tim Mayotte in the final . In addition, he won the bronze medal in doubles for Czechoslovakia on the side of Milan Šrejber .

Mečíř played 26 singles and six doubles games for the Czechoslovak Davis Cup team between 1983 and 1990 . The team reached the semi-finals twice during this period. In 1985 he lost his two individual games against Boris Becker and Michael Westphal in the 5-0 defeat against Germany ; in the 1: 4 defeat against Sweden he won the doubles alongside Tomáš Šmíd , but gave up his two singles against Kent Carlsson and Stefan Edberg . In 1987 he won the World Team Cup with the Czechoslovak team and in 1989 the Hopman Cup .

In 1990, at the age of 26, he retired from professional sports due to persistent back problems. Mečíř is married, his son Miloslav Mečíř junior also became a tennis professional.

Mečíř is the captain of the Slovak Davis Cup team .

Tournament victories

Legend

Olympic gold (1)

Grand Slam

singles

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 18, 1985	Rotterdam	Carpet (i)	Jakob Hlasek	6: 1, 6: 2
2.	April 29, 1985	Hamburg	sand	Henrik Sundström	6: 4, 6: 1, 6: 4
3.	April 4, 1986	Kitzbühel	sand	Andrés Gómez	6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 1, 2: 6, 6: 3
4th	4th August 1986	Auckland	Hard court	Michiel Schapers	6: 2, 6: 3, 6: 4
5.	January 26, 1987	Sydney	Hard court	Peter Doohan	6: 2, 6: 4
6th	February 23, 1987	Miami	Hard court	Ivan Lendl	7: 5, 6: 2, 7: 5
7th	April 7, 1987	Dallas	Carpet (i)	John McEnroe	6: 0, 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2
8th.	July 13, 1987	Stuttgart	sand	Jan Gunnarsson	6-0, 6-2
9.	July 27, 1987	Hilversum	sand	Guillermo Pérez Roldán	6: 4, 1: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2
10.	20th September 1988	1988 Olympic Games	Hard court	Tim Mayotte	3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 4, 6: 2
11.	March 13, 1989	Indian Wells	Hard court	Yannick Noah	3: 6, 2: 6, 6: 1, 6: 2, 6: 3

Web links

Commons : Miloslav Mečíř  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile Miloslav Mečíř (English)
• ITF profile of Miloslav Mečíř (English)
• Davis Cup stats by Miloslav Mečíř (English)