Austria’s Jurgen Melzer has won two Grand Slams in doubles (2010 Wimbledon, 2011 U.S. Open), also been a top ten player in both singles and doubles at the same time in early 2011.
But whenever, Novak Djokovic is two sets up and loses the third set, Melzer’s twitter mentions goes through the roof. The reason. He is the only player to have beaten the Serbian coming from a 0-2 deficit six years back in the quarterfinals of the French Open.
The Austrian calls it one of the highlights of his career saying, “I was maybe bit lucky but was fit enough to stay for fours with him. I am really proud of it considering it has been done only once.”
Melzer is one of the few players on the current tour that has managed to find reasonable success in both singles and doubles with over 300 ATP wins in both.
The Austrian says, “for me doubles was always important. I grew up playing soccer and doubles is the closest to being in a team and celebrating together. It has helped my singles game — having to hit accurate returns, playing serve and volley. It is something the sport is missing with all the players playing from the baseline. Not lot of players are coming to net. (Nicolas) Mahut is still one who likes to charge.”
“There were singles matches that I lost because I played doubles but there were some I won because I got into rhythm because I played a doubles match first and got used to the conditions. I would not do any different If I have to do it again.”
When asked about if the men’s matches were trimmed to best of three in the majors would help in attracting top stars, Melzer feels it won’t make a difference unless the points format of the doubles is changed. “I think it still will be the same. If the top players want to play they will. It is possible to do it. It is not like it has never been done before.”
“But if you want top singles players to play doubles, the format of points needs to be changed. Why should they play? They don’t want the money nor they care about the rankings.”
At 35, Melzer is at the end of the career and injuries in the last two years has seen his rankings slip to below 300.
But he is not ready to give up yet. “I have always said that I wanted to leave the sport on my own terms. That’s why I did surgery and went through the rehab. At the end of last year and in the beginning after I came back I had good wins. I beat Dominic Thiem and Roberto Bautista-Agut. So I still feel there is a lot of tennis left in me.”
