Florin Mergea (; born 26 January 1985) is a Romanian

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player and a doubles specialist. He has reached the final of the

ATP World Tour Finals The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results t ...

in 2015 and won an ATP Masters title at the

Mutua Madrid Open The Madrid Open ( es, Masters de Madrid, link=no), currently sponsored by Mutua Madrileña and known as the Mutua Madrid Open, is a joint men's and women's professional tennis tournament, held in Madrid, during early May. The clay-court event is ...

earlier that year. He achieved a career-high ATP ranking of World No. 7 in doubles (July 2015) and World No. 243 in singles (May 2005).

Coaching

His current doubles partner is fellow Romanian Adrian Barbu. Florin Mergea is presently coached by Alex Pop-Moldovan and managed by the McCartney Group, Vienna.

Tennis career

Juniors

As a junior Mergea compiled a singles win–loss record of 87–33, reaching as high as No. 2 in the world in July 2003 (and No. 1 in doubles). Along the way, he beat future top ten singles players like Andy Murray, Tomas Berdych,

Gaël Monfils Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. His career hig ...

and

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

. As well as winning the Boys' Singles at Wimbledon in 2003 and being runner-up in the Boys' Singles tournament at the

2003 Australian Open The 2003 Australian Open was a tennis tournament held in 2003. It was the first Grand Slam event of the 2003 ATP Tour and the 2003 WTA Tour. It was the 91st edition of the event and attracted 512,225 spectators. Thomas Johansson could not defend ...

, he won the Boys' Doubles in 2002 alongside compatriot

Horia Tecău Horia Tecău (; born January 19, 1985) is a Romanian former professional tennis player who specialised in doubles. He is a three-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Wimbledon Championships and 2017 US Open alongside Jean-Julien Roje ...

Seniors

The transition to the seniors tour proved difficult for Mergea. After turning pro in 2003, he struggled to make a breakthrough. Injuries hampered his career and in spite of reaching no. 103 in the doubles rankings, his lack of singles success and limited support drained his motivation. In 2010, Mergea decided to retire from tennis, a decision he turned around months later, with the help of his wife, Daiana. With renewed focus on the doubles game, his rankings rose steadily, playing alongside the likes of Andrei Daescu and Philipp Marx. After reaching thirteen challenger finals within little over a year, Mergea won his first ATP title in October 2013, when he teamed up with

Lukas Rosol Lukas is a form of the Latin name Lucas (given name), Lucas. Popularity In 2013 it was the ninth List of most popular given names#Male names 5, most popular name for boys in Australia. Meaning and different spellings * Amharic - Luqas (ሉቃስ) ...

for the

Erste Bank Open The Vienna Open (currently sponsored by Erste Bank and called the Erste Bank Open) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. Originally an event of the Grand Prix tennis circuit (1974–1989), it is currently part of the A ...

, Vienna. Tour success continued in 2014, as he won the Royal Guard Open in Vina del Mar, with veteran

Oliver Marach Oliver Marach (born 16 July 1980) is an Austrian professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He achieved his highest singles ranking of world No. 82 in August 2005, but achieved most of his success in doubles where he reache ...

, and his first ATP 500 title at the

International German Open The Hamburg European Open (formerly ''German Open Tennis Championships'') is an annual tennis tournament for professional players held in Hamburg, Germany and part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. Before 2021, it was a mal ...

in Hamburg, with

Marin Draganja Marin Draganja (; born 13 May 1991) is a Croatian professional tennis player and competes mainly on the ATP World Tour in doubles. Draganja reached his highest ATP singles ranking, No. 550 on 29 April 2013, and his highest ATP doubles ranking, ...

. Furthermore, siding with the Croatian, Mergea reached the French Open semifinal. After starting 2015 with

Dominic Inglot Dominic Inglot ( ; born 6 March 1986) is a British former professional tennis player and a Davis Cup champion. A doubles specialist; he made the final of twenty seven ATP World Tour events, winning fourteen, including the Citi Open and Swiss In ...

and reaching two finals, his injury plagued British partner needed time to recover. This gave way to the formation of his partnership with

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. He has been a member of the Indian ...

, whom he had played with successfully at the Shanghai Masters the previous season. Together, they found consistency in their results, while winning the Madrid Masters and the

Mercedes Cup The Stuttgart Open (sponsored since 2022 by Hugo Boss and called BOSS Open) is an ATP Tour 250 series professional tennis tournament on the ATP Tour. Between 1970 and 1989, the Stuttgart Open was a Grand Prix tennis circuit event. From 1990 to 19 ...

in Stuttgart. In November, the team were the last to qualify for the

. There, in spite of their seeding, they reached the final against the year-end No. 1 team of Mergea's Davis Cup and former juniors' partner, Romanian

, who played alongside Jean Julien Rojer. He won the 2016 BRD Năstase Țiriac Trophy and the silver medal at the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

in Rio de Janeiro, alongside compatriot Horia Tecău. In 2017 he won the title in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

partnering with

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Punjabi, ; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the ...

Significant finals

Year-end championships

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Masters 1000 finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Olympic medal matches

Doubles: 1 (1 silver medal)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 15 (7 titles, 8 runners-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles 13 (7 titles, 6 runners-up)

Doubles 77 (45 titles, 32 runners-up)

Doubles performance timeline

''Current through the

2021 Antalya Open The 2021 Antalya Open is a men's tennis tournament played on hard courts. It is the 4th edition of the event, and part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the 2021 ATP Tour. It takes place in Antalya, Turkey, from January 7 to 13. Points and prize mon ...

.''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mergea, Florin 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Craiova Romanian male tennis players Wimbledon junior champions Olympic tennis players of Romania Olympic medalists in tennis Olympic silver medalists for Romania Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles