Fernando Meligeni

Fernando Meligeni
Full name	Fernando Ariel Meligeni
Country (sports)	Brazil
Residence	São Paulo, Brazil
Born	12 April 1971 (age 53); Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	1990
Retired	2003
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,555,367
Singles
Career record	202–217 (48.2%)
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 25 (11 October 1999)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (1997)
French Open	SF (1999)
Wimbledon	2R (2001)
US Open	3R (1997)
Other tournaments
Grand Slam Cup	1R (1999)
Olympic Games	SF – 4th (1996)
Doubles
Career record	63–64 (49.6%)
Career titles	7
Highest ranking	No. 34 (3 November 1997)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2003)
French Open	QF (1998)
US Open	1R (1997, 1998)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	SF (2000)
Medal record
Pan American Games

Fernando Ariel Meligeni (born 12 April 1971), nicknamed Fininho (diminutive form in Portuguese for thin), is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. He won three singles (and 7 doubles) titles and reached the semifinals of both the 1999 French Open and the 1996 Summer Olympics. He was known for taking matches to the limit (tiebreaks and five sets). His favorite surface was clay.^[1]

Personal life

Meligeni was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina but moved with his family to São Paulo, Brazil, when he was four years old. He is of Italian descent. He has a younger sister, Paula, the mother of two tennis players, Felipe and Carolina Meligeni Alves.^[2] He applied to get Brazilian citizenship as a teenager, and took him five years to complete the process.^[3] He is married to actress Carol Hubner, with whom he has two children.^[4]

Tennis career

Juniors

As a junior, he won the traditional Orange Bowl in 1989, finishing No. 3 in the world junior rankings in the same year.

Pro tour

Meligeni turned professional in 1990, opting for Brazilian nationality, although his parents and sister disagreed with this.^[5]

He won his first ATP Tour singles title in 1995, at the Swedish Open in Båstad, Sweden. In 1996, Meligeni won his second ATP Tour singles title in Pinehurst, North Carolina, defeating veteran Mats Wilander in the final.

In 1996, ranked 93rd of the ATP rankings, Meligeni was one of the 64 competitors that would directly enter the upcoming tennis tournament of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Withdrawals due to injuries and personal decisions gave him an alternate spot. With four wins over higher ranked players, Meligeni reached the semifinals, where he was defeated by Spain's Sergi Bruguera. In the bronze medal game, he lost to Leander Paes of India.^[6]^[7]^[8]

In 1998, Meligeni won his third and last ATP Tour singles title in Prague, Czech Republic, beating then world No. 6, Yevgeny Kafelnikov from Russia, on the way. This year Meligeni had an excellent performance at the 1998 French Open losing at 4th round but playing an incredible match of five tough sets against clay-court specialist Thomas Muster.

Meligeni reached his peak in the following year, with a strong performance at the 1999 French Open in Paris, France. He defeated Justin Gimelstob, Younes El Aynaoui as well as seeds No. 3, Patrick Rafter from Australia, No. 14, Félix Mantilla from Spain, and No. 6, Àlex Corretja also from Spain, only to fall in the semifinals to Ukrainian Andrei Medvedev. This was his best major singles result and led him to a career-high ranking of world No. 25. This year also had Meligeni's personal favorite match of his career, where he defeated Pete Sampras (ATP nº2 at the time) at the Rome Masters (6–3, 6–1). At the press conference after this match, Sampras declared "he had attended a masterclass on how to play on clay".^[9] He was also a member of the Brazilian Davis Cup team, with an overall record of 13–16, and reaching the semifinals in 2000.

In addition to his three singles titles, Meligeni also won seven doubles titles on the ATP Tour, most of them partnering countryman Gustavo Kuerten. Meligeni retired from professional tennis in 2003, playing his last match against Marcelo Ríos from Chile in the final of the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic which he won in three sets.

Two years later, he was nominated captain of the Brazilian Davis Cup team, but resigned in January 2007 due to political differences with the Brazilian Tennis Confederation. During his period as a captain, he collected a 5–1 win/loss record in ties.

Off the court, Meligeni has been a host for MTV Brasil, TV Cultura, and ESPN Brazil, in the last one and SporTV also serving as a tennis commentator.

Career statistics

Singles performance timeline

**Key**
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	DNQ	A	NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record; .

Tournament	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	SR	W–L	Win (%)
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	A	1R	A	1R	2R	1R	1R	1R	A	1R	1R	0 / 8	1–8	11%
French Open	A	A	4R	1R	3R	1R	2R	4R	SF	2R	3R	2R	Q1	0 / 10	18–10	64%
Wimbledon	A	A	A	1R	A	A	A	A	A	1R	2R	1R	A	0 / 4	1–4	20%
US Open	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	3R	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	A	0 / 11	5–11	31%
Win–loss	0–0	0–1	3–2	0–4	2–2	0–3	4–3	3–3	6–3	1–4	4–3	2–4	0–1	0 / 33	25–33	43%