Rui Machado

Rui Machado
Rui Machado at Wimbledon in 2015
Nation:	Portugal
Birthday:	April 10, 1984
Size:	178 cm
Weight:	70 kg
1st professional season:	2002
Resignation:	2016
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	André Lopes
Prize money:	$ 901,437
singles
Career record:	29:52
Highest ranking:	59 (October 3, 2011)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	4:18
Highest ranking:	185 (January 17, 2011)
Grand Slam record
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Rui Machado (born April 10, 1984 in Faro ) is a former Portuguese tennis player .

life and career

Career and first years as a professional

Rui Machado started playing tennis at the age of six after his parents brought him a tennis racket from a vacation in the United States. In 1998 he was runner-up in the Portuguese Junior Championship, which he won three years later. After graduating from high school, he could have studied economics at the university, but decided to pursue a career as a professional tennis player. In the first few years he only played in satellite and future tournaments. After he made his debut for the Portuguese Davis Cup team against South Africa in July 2003 , Machado was able to reach a future final for the first time in August 2003.

2005–2006: ATP debut and injury concerns

In 2005 he was able to qualify for Challenger tournaments for the first time , and reached the quarter-finals twice. In April 2005 he also received a wildcard for the ATP tournament from Estoril , but lost to Agustín Calleri on his ATP debut . This year he was able to win matches in the Davis Cup for the first time, and with Portugal he was promoted to Europe / Africa Group I. In November 2005 he was finally able to win his first Future title and ended the year at number 259 in the world rankings . In the spring of 2006, Rui Machado had to undergo surgery on his wrist and knee. As a result, he was unable to play tournaments for almost a year, and thus fell out of the ATP ranking.

2007–2008: Comeback and Grand Slam debut

In 2007, João Cunha e Silva , a former professional tennis player who won two ATP doubles titles in the 1990s, became Machado's new coach. And with him the comeback followed in the spring of 2008: Between February 2008 and May 2008 Machado won six future tournaments, and during this time improved from 726th to 332nd in the world rankings. He also won his first ATP match against Ivo Karlović , who gave up after Machado had won the first set, in Estoril in April 2008 , where he had received a wildcard just like three years ago . In the further course of the year he played more Challenger tournaments, reaching twice a semi-finals. After he was eliminated in the first qualifying round at Wimbledon , Rui Machado was able to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the US Open, among other things by defeating the 2004 Olympic winner Nicolás Massú . There he defeated Rik De Voest in three sets in the first round , and met Fernando Verdasco, who was 13th in the second round . The first four sets were extremely close, but in the decisive fifth set Machado lost his strength and he lost it with 0: 6. Nevertheless, he then entered the top 200 in the world rankings for the first time and was able to improve to 153rd place by the end of the year.

2009–2016: Challenger tournament victories and entry into the top 100

In February 2009, Rui Machado was able to qualify for the main draw in Costa do Sauípe , and defeated a top 100 player for the first time in the first round with Iván Navarro . In the second round he lost in a three-set match against Eduardo Schwank . Two weeks later Machado was able to win his first Challenger title in Meknes by defeating David Marrero . In April 2009 the second Challenger final victory followed against Daniel Muñoz de La Nava in Athens . After he was eliminated in Estoril in the first round against Óscar Hernández , Rui Machado was able to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament for the second time at the French Open . In the first round he won in five sets over Kristof Viegen , but then had no chance against the later semi-finalist Fernando González . In the Davis Cup match against Algeria in July 2009, Rui Machado scored a “triple bagel” against Valentin Rahmine : He won the match 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. Another highlight of this year was the US Open , where Machado lost to Dieter Kindlmann in the third qualifying round , but then moved up into the main field as a lucky loser . There he lost, however, in the first round against Daniel Köllerer .

After he failed in the second qualifying round at the Australian Open 2010 , Rui Machado was able to qualify for the main draw at the ATP tournament in Costa do Sauípe, as in the previous year. And again he reached the second round by beating Marcos Daniel , where he lost to Igor Andrejew . In February 2010 he reached the final in Meknes for the second time, but could not defend his title against Oleksandr Dolhopolov . In April 2010 Machado won his third Challenger title against Federico Delbonis in Naples , and then achieved his best position in the world rankings with 102nd place. However, he fell back the following week, as he could not defend the points of the Athens title from the previous year. In Estoril Machado reached an ATP quarter-finals for the first time after victories over Nicolás Massú and Michał Przysiężny , but he lost in three sets against his compatriot Frederico Gil . Machado missed qualification at the French Open this year, just like at Wimbledon and the US Open . For this he was able to win his fourth Challenger title in October 2010 in Asunción against local hero Ramón Delgado . After reaching the semi-finals at the Challenger tournament in Santiago de Chile a week later , Rui Machado was included in the top 100 of the world rankings for the first time.

The year 2011 started for Rui Machado with a first round defeat at the Chennai ATP tournament . Also in his Australian Open debut, he was eliminated in the first round in four sets against Santiago Giraldo . In February 2011 he won the first round of the ATP tournament in Santiago de Chile clearly over Felipe Ríos , but then lost in three sets against defending champion Thomaz Bellucci, who was third . A week later he reached an ATP quarter-finals for the second time in Costa do Sauípe , where he was eliminated from the later tournament winner Nicolás Almagro, who was in position 1 . In March 2011 Rui Machado was able to win his fifth Challenger title in Marrakech with a three-set win over Maxime Teixeira . In the following weeks there were first round defeats at the ATP tournaments in Casablanca , Barcelona , Estoril and at the French Open . Only at the beginning of June 2011 did Rui Machado get back on the road to success when he won his second title of the season at the Challenger tournament in Rijeka by defeating Grega Žemlja . In July 2011 Machado was able to win the first set in the Davis Cup game against Switzerland against world number three Roger Federer , but ultimately lost the match in four sets and thus could not prevent Portugal's 5-0 defeat. Two weeks later, Machado won his third Challenger title of the year in Poznan when he prevailed against local hero Jerzy Janowicz in the final . At the US Open , Rui Machado was eliminated from Robin Haase in three sets in the first round . In doubles he reached the second round together with Franco Ferreiro . In September 2011 Machado won the Challenger tournament in Szczecin, first in the semifinals against the top seeded Albert Montañés and then prevailed in the final against Éric Prodon , which he secured his fourth title of the season and the last of his career.

For the Portuguese Davis Cup team, he played a total of 27 games from 2003 to 2015. He won half of his 32 games in singles as well as one of his two doubles games in doubles. He ended his career on June 9, 2016.

particularities

After Nuno Marques and Frederico Gil , Rui Machado was only the third Portuguese to make it into the top 100 in the world rankings .

successes

Legend (number of victories) Grand Slam ATP World Tour Finals ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ATP World Tour 500 ATP World Tour 250 ATP Challenger Tour (9)

ATP title by topping Hard Court (0) Sand (0) Lawn (0)

singles

Victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	March 1, 2009	Meknes	sand	David Marrero	6: 2, 6: 7 6 , 6: 3
2.	April 12, 2009	Athens	sand	Daniel Muñoz de La Nava	6: 3, 7: 6 4
3.	April 4, 2010	Naples	sand	Federico Delbonis	6: 4, 6: 4
4th	17th October 2010	Asunción	sand	Ramon Delgado	6: 2, 3: 6, 7: 5
5.	March 26, 2011	Marrakech	sand	Maxime Teixeira	6: 3, 6: 7 7 , 6: 4
6th	June 5, 2011	Rijeka	sand	Grega Žemlja	6: 3, 6: 0
7th	July 24, 2011	Poses	sand	Jerzy Janowicz	6: 3, 6: 3
8th.	September 19, 2011	Szczecin	sand	Eric Prodon	2: 6, 7: 5, 6: 2

Double

Victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 25, 2010	Poses	sand	Daniel Muñoz de La Nava	James Cerretani Adil Shamasdin	6: 2, 6: 3

Web links

Commons : Rui Machado  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile Rui Machado (English)
• ITF profile Rui Machado (English)
• Davis Cup statistics Rui Machado (English)
• Official Homepage (Portuguese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rui Machado - Biography. In: ruimachado.pt. Archived from the original on April 18, 2009 ; Retrieved May 10, 2019 (Portuguese). 
2. ↑ Rui Machado anuncia fim da carreira aos 32 anos. In: bolamarela.pt. June 9, 2016, Retrieved May 11, 2019 (Portuguese).