Marcelo Arévalo González (; born October 17, 1990)
is a Salvadoran professional
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 c ...
player. He has been
ranked as high as world No. 5 in doubles by the
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and ...
(ATP), which he first achieved on 14 November 2022. Together with his career-high singles ranking of world No. 139, attained in April 2018, Arévalo is the highest-ranked player, male or female, across both disciplines in Salvadoran tennis history.
He has won six career
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organisa ...
doubles titles, including a
Grand Slam title at the
2022 French Open
The 2022 French Open was a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 22 May to 5 June 2022, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles play. Ju ...
with partner
Jean-Julien Rojer. With the win, he became the first player from
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
to claim a men's doubles major title. He had previously reached one other Grand Slam final, having lost at the
2021 US Open in the mixed doubles tournament with partner
Giuliana Olmos
Giuliana Marion Olmos Dick (born 4 March 1993) is a Mexican professional tennis player.
Olmos, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2016, has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 343 by the Women's Tennis Associati ...
.
As a junior, Arévalo was ranked as high as No. 8 in the world and won seven singles and doubles titles on the
ITF Junior Circuit
The ITF Junior Circuit is the premier level for worldwide competition among under-18 junior tennis players. Founded in 1977 with only nine tournaments, the 2011 ITF Junior Circuit offered over 350 tournaments in 118 countries. Mirroring the ATP an ...
. As a professional, he emerged into the top 100 of the doubles rankings in February 2018. He won his first ATP title six months later at the
Los Cabos Open, a victory that propelled him into the top 50. After several years with intermittent partners, Arévalo formed a new partnership with Rojer in 2022 that took them to four additional tour finals, three of which they won, and helped him debut in the top 10.
He is the younger brother of former tennis player
Rafael Arévalo
Rafael Arévalo González (; born July 4, 1986) is a retired professional tennis player from El Salvador. The majority of Arévalo's professional career has been restricted to playing on the Futures (ITF) circuit, with a further 22 appearances ...
, who he often partnered with to represent El Salvador together in the
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the orga ...
.
Professional career
2021: Second career title, first Grand Slam mixed doubles final
2021 was the most successful year on the ATP tour in Arevalo’s professional doubles career. He reached in the end of March the quarterfinals in the
2021 Miami Open with
Horia Tecau defeating the top seeded pair of Farah/Cabal.
With his Dutch partner
Matwé Middelkoop, the pair reached the quarterfinals of the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. ...
(his second in a row) and the semifinals of the
Italian Open Italian Open may refer to:
*Italian Open (tennis), a Masters 1000 level tennis tournament played in Rome each year.
*Italian Open (golf)
The DS Automobiles Italian Open ( it, Open d'Italia) is the men's national open golf championship of Italy. It ...
as alternates, defeating home favorites Fognini/Musetti in the round of 16 and 7th seeded Dutch pair Koolhof/Rojer in the quarterfinals. As a result he returned to the top 50 in the doubles rankings at a career-high ranking of World No. 42 on 17 May 2021.
Again as an alternate pair with
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (AT ...
, Arevalo reached the semifinals of the
Cincinnati Open where they were defeated by No. 2 seeded pair Zeballos/Granollers. As a result he reached a new career-high ranking of world No. 39 on 23 August 2021.
At the
Winston-Salem Open
The Winston-Salem Open is a men's professional tennis tournament played on the ATP Tour at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the United States. It made its debut at Winston-Salem in 2011 and is part of the 250 tier o ...
, Arévalo won the title partnering
Matwé Middelkoop when they defeated
Ivan Dodig and
Austin Krajicek in the final. This was his first title in over three years and second of his career. As a result he reached a new career-high ranking of World No. 36 on 30 August 2021.
At the
US Open, following a first round loss in the
men's doubles
Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including;
* Beach volleyball
* Doubles badminton
* Doubles curling
* Footvolley
* Doubles pickleball
* Doubles squash
* Doubles table tennis
* Doubles ...
draw, Arévalo partnered
Giuliana Olmos
Giuliana Marion Olmos Dick (born 4 March 1993) is a Mexican professional tennis player.
Olmos, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2016, has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 343 by the Women's Tennis Associati ...
in the
mixed doubles draw and reached the final by defeating top seeds
Nicole Melichar-Martinez
Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; cz, Nicole Melicharová, ) is an American tennis player who specializes in doubles.
She has won twelve doubles titles on the WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles title as well as two singles and seven doub ...
and
Ivan Dodig en route. They lost to second seeded pair
Desirae Krawczyk
Desirae Marie Krawczyk (; born January 11, 1994) is an American professional tennis player who specialises in doubles.
Krawczyk has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 10, achieved in July 2022, and has won seven titles on the WTA Tour, ...
and
Joe Salisbury
Joe Salisbury ( ; born 20 April 1992) is a British professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.
He is a five-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2020 Australian Open, the 2021 US Open and the 2022 US Open in men's ...
in straight sets. Arevalo became the first player from El Salvador to ever reach a
Grand Slam final.
2022: New partnership with Rojer, Historic Major doubles title, World No. 5
After wrapping up 2021 with Middelkoop, Arévalo joined with
Jean-Julien Rojer for a new doubles partnership for the 2022 season. Arevalo reached the top 30 on 17 January 2022. With no title wins during the Australian swing, they moved onto the inaugural
Dallas Open in February as the top seeds, where they clinched their first title together as a team without dropping a set after defeating
Lloyd Glasspool and
Harri Heliövaara.
The pair carried their momentum into the following week as the top seeds at the
Delray Beach Open and they sealed their second consecutive title together, having dropped just one set in the championship match to
Aleksandr Nedovyesov and
Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. Arevalo reached the top 25 on 21 February 2022. Their winning streak extended yet another week as they reached their third consecutive final and their biggest one as a team thus far, the
ATP 500
The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, '' ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tou ...
in
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has ...
, but they were halted in straight sets by
Feliciano López and
Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Although the team started off their European clay swing strongly by reaching the semifinals in
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino i ...
and
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 ...
, they did not make a final.
At the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and v ...
, the twelfth seeds reached their maiden Grand Slam championship match together to vie for their first Major title as a team, defeating 16th seeds
Rohan Bopanna and
Matwe Middelkoop also first time semifinalists. In the final, they faced
Ivan Dodig and
Austin Krajicek, who, after winning the first set in a tiebreak, had three championship points on Rojer's serve in the second set. But after Arévalo and Rojer saved those decisive points and closed the second set in another tiebreak, they went on to convert their first break point opportunity in the third set and continued to hold serve to seal off the match for their third victory of the season. Arévalo's maiden Grand Slam win made him the first player from
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
to become a men's doubles major champion. As a result he moved onto the top 10 in the rankings on 13 June 2022. The pair won their fourth title as a team at the
2022 Stockholm Open
The 2022 Stockholm Open was a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 53rd edition of the tournament, and part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the 2022 ATP Tour. It took place at the Kungliga tennishallen in St ...
. He reached a new career-high of World No. 5 on 14 November 2022.
World TeamTennis
Arévalo made his
World TeamTennis debut in 2020 by joining the
Washington Kastles when the WTT season began July 12 at
The Greenbrier
The Greenbrier is a luxury resort located in the Allegheny Mountains near White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, in the United States.
Since 1778, visitors have traveled to this part of the state to "take the waters" of ...
.
Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 1 (1 title)