Simone Bolelli

Simone Bolelli

Country (sports)	Italy
Residence	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Born	(1985-10-08) 8 October 1985 Bologna, Italy
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	2003
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$4,305,267
Singles
Career record	114–150
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 36 (23 February 2009)
Current ranking	No. 113 (2 May 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (2008, 2009, 2015, 2016)
French Open	3R (2008, 2015)
Wimbledon	3R (2008, 2011, 2014)
US Open	2R (2007, 2014)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2008)
Doubles
Career record	112–102
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 8 (17 August 2015)
Current ranking	No. 22 (1 February 2016)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (2015)
French Open	SF (2015)
Wimbledon	2R (2014)
US Open	SF (2011)
Other doubles tournaments
Olympic Games	1R (2008)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	SF (2014)
Medal record Mediterranean Games 2005 Almería Singles
Last updated on: 1 February 2016.

Simone Bolelli (born 8 October 1985; Italian pronunciation: [siˈmoːne boˈlɛlli]) is an Italian professional tennis player. Bolelli is a Grand Slam champion since he won the 2015 Australian Open doubles event with Fabio Fognini, becoming the first all Italian men's pair to win a Grand Slam title in the Open Era.

Career

2003

In 2003, Bolelli reached his first ITF Futures tournament semifinal at Egypt F1, losing to 485th-ranked Jaroslav Pospíšil. He played entirely Futures events except for one Challenger tournament in Brindisi, losing to Galo Blanco in the second round. He finished the year ranked 623.

2004

2004 saw Simone reached his second Futures final, losing to Dominique Coene. He then made another final and won two Futures titles, making a 2 wins out of 3 finals record for Futures finals in the 2004 season. He won the Italy F15 and F8 titles, and lost in the final of a Challenger event in Braşov. In doubles, Bolelli won the doubles Futures title with Alberto Brizzi at Italy F15, and with Brizzi at Italy F8, winning both the singles and doubles events at F15 and F8. He finished ranked no. 269 for singles and no. 533 for doubles.

2005

Bolelli did not win a Futures tournament in 2005 for singles; however, he did reach the final of a Challenger in Trani. Simone's doubles success in 2005 was also limited: he did not reach any type of final.

2006

Simone Bolelli played in a few tournaments higher than a Challenger, receiving a wildcard into the Rome Masters. He lost in three sets to no. 39 Fernando Verdasco. He also won the Como Futures tournament and made the final of Recanati, before losing to Davide Sanguinetti. He won his first Challenger singles title over Ivo Minář, and then made the final of a Challenger in Bergamo where he lost to Alex Bogdanović. He also played Fernando González in Basel (entering the tournament as a Lucky Loser), taking the second set in a tiebreak and losing the surrounding sets in tiebreaks. Bolelli qualified and lost in the first round of Vienna to number 27 Dominik Hrbatý. He lost in Stuttgart to Jiří Novák, having played 4 ATP matches and winning a set in 2 of them. Partnered with Fabio Fognini, Bolelli lost in the finals of the Naples Challenger doubles tournament in March. Simone won the Rencanati doubles tournament with singles champion (who defeated Bolelli in the final), Davide Sanguinetti, and reached the quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters partnering Andreas Seppi, winning three-set matches over Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko and then Leoš Friedl and František Čermák. They eventually lost to Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjić. He finished the year ranked in the top 200, ranked world No. 127 for singles and world No. 171 for doubles.

2007

In qualifying for the 2007 Australian Open, Bolelli was seeded 15th, but lost in the second round.^[1] Bolelli lost to Fabrice Santoro in the Bergamo Challenger and boasted a career win over no. 22 Dmitry Tursunov at the Miami Masters, before losing to David Ferrer. He won one singles Davis cup match versus Israel, but then lost to Noam Okun. He lost in the Casablanca Challenger final to Marin Čilić and winning his own in Tunisia over Andrei Pavel in three sets. Simone beat former world no. 1 Marat Safin in Barcelona and competed in the Miami, Rome and Hamburg Masters. He made his Grand Slam debut at the 2007 French Open, beating former runner-up Martin Verkerk, and then losing to Guillermo Cañas. At Wimbledon, he beat Guillermo García-López, before losing to former world no. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. He lost in the first round of doubles competition on both occasions, both times partnering with Juan Martín del Potro.

2008

Bolelli was banned by The Italian Tennis Federation from national team events for skipping the Davis Cup tie with Latvia in Europe-Africa zone relegation playoff. The ban prevented Bolelli from playing in Davis Cup competition and the Olympics. It also prevented him from getting wild cards. Bolelli said that he had told Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti well in advance of the tie that he preferred to work on his fast-court game in Asia.

2009

Bolelli represented Italy along with Flavia Pennetta in the Hopman Cup. He won two out of three matches, the loss being to former world no. 1, Marat Safin. He defeated Gilles Simon in straight sets, his first win over a top-10 player. In the Medibank International, he defeated compatriot Potito Starace in the first round, before falling to third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets.

At the Australian Open, Bolelli beat Kristof Vliegen in three tight sets in the first round. In the second round, Bolelli lost to the 23rd seed Mardy Fish. In the ABN AMRO tournament in Rotterdam Bolelli face world no. 1 Rafael Nadal in the first round. Bolelli won the first set 6–4, but this was not enough, and Nadal won in a tight three-set match.^[2]

2012

In July, Bolelli lost to David Ferrer in the third round of the Swedish Open.^[3]

2014

After missing the Australian Open, Bolelli qualified for the French Open and made it to the second round before losing to fifth seed David Ferrer in straight sets. He gained entry to Wimbledon as a lucky loser and beat 22nd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round, before losing to 10th seed Kei Nishikori in the third round in a five-set match.

At the US Open, Bolelli beat Vasek Pospisil in the first round in five sets, but then lost to 16th seed Tommy Robredo in another five-set match.

2015

At the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open, Bolelli defeated 15th seed Kevin Anderson and qualifier Luca Vanni to reach the third round, where he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Significant finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	2015	Australian Open	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut	6–4, 6–4

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 3 (3 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	2015	Indian Wells	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Jack Sock Vasek Pospisil	6–4, 6–7(3–7), [10–7]
Runner-up	2015	Monte Carlo	Clay	Fabio Fognini	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(3–7), 1–6
Runner-up	2015	Shanghai	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Raven Klaasen Marcelo Melo	3–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	4 May 2008	BMW Open, Munich, Germany	Clay	Fernando González	6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–4), 3–6

Doubles: 10 (5 titles, 5 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	1 May 2011	BMW Open, Munich, Germany	Clay	Horacio Zeballos	Andreas Beck Christopher Kas	7–6(7–3), 6–4
Winner	2.	30 July 2011	ATP Studena Croatia Open, Umag, Croatia	Clay	Fabio Fognini	Marin Čilić Lovro Zovko	6–3, 5–7, [10–7]
Runner-up	1.	20 October 2012	Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia	Hard (i)	Daniele Bracciali	František Čermák Michal Mertiňák	5–7, 3–6
Winner	3.	24 February 2013	Copa Claro, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	Fabio Fognini	Nicholas Monroe Simon Stadler	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	2.	2 March 2013	Abierto Mexicano Telcel, Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Fabio Fognini	Łukasz Kubot David Marrero	5–7, 2–6
Winner	4.	31 January 2015	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Pierre-Hugues Herbert Nicolas Mahut	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	3.	22 March 2015	BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Jack Sock Vasek Pospisil	6–4, 6–7(3–7), [10–7]
Runner-up	4.	19 April 2015	Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Fabio Fognini	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(3–7), 1–6
Runner-up	5.	18 October 2015	Shanghai Rolex Masters, Shanghai, China	Hard	Fabio Fognini	Raven Klaasen Marcelo Melo	3–6, 3–6
Winner	5.	27 February 2016	Dubai Tennis Championships, Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Andreas Seppi	Feliciano López Marc López	6–2, 3–6, [14–12]

Futures and Challengers singles titles

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	17 May 2004	Verona	Clay	Alex Vittur	6–1, 7–6
2.	5 July 2004	Bologna	Clay	Mattia Livraghi	6–2, 6–3
3.	3 July 2006	Biella	Clay	Ivo Minář	7–5, 3–6, 7–6
4.	28 August 2006	Como	Clay	Federico Luzzi	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
5.	30 April 2007	Tunis	Clay	Andrei Pavel	4–6, 7–6, 6–2
6.	5 November 2007	Bratislava	Hard (i)	Alejandro Falla	4–6, 7–6, 6–1
7.	28 June 2010	Turin	Clay	Potito Starace	7–6, 6–2
8.	2 May 2011	Rome	Clay	Eduardo Schwank	2–6, 6–1, 6–3
9.	3 March 2012	Florianópolis	Clay	Blaž Kavčič	6–4, 6–3
10.	22 July 2012	Recanati	Hard	Fabrice Martin	6–3, 6–2
11.	16 February 2014	Bergamo	Hard (i)	Jan-Lennard Struff	7–6(8–6), 6–4
12.	27 April 2014	Vercelli	Clay	Mate Delic	6–2, 6–2
13.	4 May 2014	Tunis	Clay	Julian Reister	6–4, 6–2
14.	27 July 2014	Oberstaufen	Clay	Michael Berrer	7–5, 1–6, 6–3

Singles performance timeline

Current till 2016 French Open.

^a 2009 Wimbledon Championships counts as 1 win, 0 losses. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga received a walkover in the second round, after Bolelli withdrew.