Gilles Müller

Country (sports)	Luxembourg
Residence	Reckange-sur-Mess, Luxembourg
Born	(1983-05-09) 9 May 1983 (age 35) Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Turned pro	2001
Retired	2018
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$5,937,874
Singles
Career record	233–213 (52.24%)
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 21 (31 July 2017)
Current ranking	No. 127 (27 August 2018)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	4R (2015)
French Open	2R (2012, 2015)
Wimbledon	QF (2017)
US Open	QF (2008)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	3R (2016)
Doubles
Career record	61–88 (40.94%)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 74 (1 May 2017)
Current ranking	No. 243 (27 August 2018)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2016, 2017)
French Open	1R (2005, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2016)
Wimbledon	2R (2014, 2015)
US Open	2R (2015, 2016)
Last updated on: 27 August 2018.

Gilles Müller (Luxembourgish pronunciation: [ˈʒil ˈmylɐ]; born 9 May 1983) is a Luxembourgish retired professional tennis player. He was the most successful male tennis player in the history of his country and made twice the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Müller won two titles on the ATP World Tour and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 21 on 31 July 2017. He was known for his powerful left-handed serve and excellent net skills.

Career[edit]

Junior tennis[edit]

In 2001, the year in which he would turn pro, Müller reached the final of the Boys' Singles at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, where he was defeated by Roman Valent of Switzerland (6–3, 5–7, 3–6). Müller also won the Boys' Singles final at the 2001 US Open, defeating Taiwan's Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (7–6, 6–2). He finished the year 2001 as the world No. 1 junior, posting a singles record of 72–26 throughout his junior career.

2004–2005 and success against top players[edit]

Starting 2004 ranked 193, Müller had several victories over top players including Andre Agassi in the semifinals of the 2004 Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., Rafael Nadal in the second round of the 2005 Wimbledon Championships, and Andy Roddick in the first round of the 2005 US Open. He reached two ATP finals during that time span, losing to Lleyton Hewitt at the Washington Open in 2004 and to Andre Agassi at the LA Open in 2005.^[1]

Müller led the Davis Cup team to a surprise victory against Finland in February 2004.^[2][3]

2008: First Grand Slam quarterfinal[edit]

At the 2008 US Open, Müller, ranked 130 at the time, had to go through the qualification tournament. He reached the main draw and advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career, earnining a win over fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko in the fourth round. He lost to defending and eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets (6–7, 4–6, 6–7).

2009–2013 and injuries[edit]

On 19 January 2009, Müller beat Spaniard Feliciano López (6–3, 7–6, 4–6, 4–6, 16–14) in an epic four-hour, 24-minute match in the first round of the 2009 Australian Open. His run in the tournament would be ended in the third round by the eighth-seeded Argentine, Juan Martín del Potro.

Müller at the 2011 US Open

In September 2011, he advanced to the fourth round of the US Open, losing to Rafael Nadal, whom he had already lost to in the third round of Wimbledon earlier that same year.

Müller registered his 100th singles win by defeating Australian Marinko Matosevic (7–6, 6–4) in Atlanta.^[4] He also reached the Atlanta Open final, losing to Andy Roddick (6–1, 6–7, 2–6) after the American came back from one set and one break down to win what would be his last final on the ATP World Tour.^[5]

Müller's final match in 2013 was at the 2013 French Open where he lost in round 1 to Roberto Bautista Agut. He finished the year at No. 368 in the world rankings after missing the second half of the season with an elbow injury.^[6][7]

2014: Back inside the top 50[edit]

In January, Müller returned to playing tennis and competed mostly on the Challenger Tour, winning five titles.

Müller qualified for the 2014 Wimbledon Championships where he lost to Roger Federer in the second round.

Müller lost in the first round at the US Open to Paul-Henri Mathieu (7–6, 5–7, 6–7, 7–6, 1–6).

Müller lost to Federer in the first round of the 2014 Swiss Indoors before falling in the qualifying rounds of the Paris Masters. He finished the season with a ranking of No. 47 and was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year.

2015: Breaking the top 40[edit]

Müller began 2015 at the Aircel Chennai Open, where he made the quarterfinals, losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka. He then competed in the Sydney International losing in the semifinals to Viktor Troicki, the eventual champion. He put together his best Australian Open campaign to date, losing in the fourth round to world No. 1 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic (4–6, 5–7, 5–7). His performance during the entire month saw him crack the top 40 for the first time in his career on 2 February.^[7]

He had a strong showing in Rotterdam, defeating David Goffin and Grigor Dimitrov, before losing to Wawrinka in the quarterfinals. However, he subsequently fell out of the top 50 for the first time of the year on 11 May because he didn't defend his titles on the Challenger Tour.

Müller had a strong start to the grass court season, reaching the semifinals of the Topshelf Open as well as the quarterfinals at Queen's, beating defending champion Dimitrov for the second time in two meetings since the beginning of the year. He then lost to eventual champion Andy Murray.

This was followed up by a semifinals appearance at the 2015 BB&T Atlanta Open, where he eventually lost to Marcos Baghdatis in three sets (7–6, 3–6, 6–7).

He also reached the quarterfinals of the Moselle Open in addition to the semifinals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.

Müller finished the season with a world ranking of No. 38 and was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year for the second year in a row.

2016: Fourth and fifth ATP finals[edit]

He started 2016 by reaching the semifinals of both the Sydney International and the 2016 Garanti Koza Sofia Open.

At the 2016 Ricoh Open, he reached the final, losing to the defending champion Nicolas Mahut in straight sets. At the 2016 Aegon Open Nottingham, he reached the semifinals, falling to second-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.

He advanced to the final of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, losing to second-seeded Ivo Karlović in three sets.

Müller represented Luxembourg in singles at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning in the first round against Jerzy Janowicz and then beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round before losing to Roberto Bautista Agut (4–6, 6–7).

At the 2016 Swiss Indoors, Müller defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the first round and then went on to reach the semifinals, falling to Kei Nishikori in three sets.

He finished 2016 with a ranking of No. 34 and was again elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year.

2017: Career-best year[edit]

Müller finally won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the 2017 Sydney International, over a decade after his first final. He saved a match point in the first round against Alexandr Dolgopolov. This came less than a week after he lost in the men's doubles final of the 2017 Brisbane International, playing alongside Sam Querrey.

He also made the final of Estoril, losing to Pablo Carreño Busta in what was his first ATP final played on clay. This resulted in him reaching a singles ranking of 26.

Then, at the 2017 Ricoh Open aged 34, Müller would set up the oldest ATP World Tour tournament singles final in 41 years against Ivo Karlović, aged 38.^[8] He won the match in two straight tiebreaks (7–6, 7–6), claiming his second ATP World Tour title in the process.

Despite being ranked 26 in the world, Müller's excellent form on grass in the last 12 months saw him earn a seeding of sixteenth at Wimbledon, where he made the quarterfinals after defeating world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller, winning (6–3, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6, 15–13) in 4 hours and 48 minutes.^[9] Müller would subsequently have his run at The Championships ended by Marin Čilić, who beat him in another match that went five sets.

After reaching a career-high singles ranking of 21 on 31 July and ending the season ranked world No. 25, he was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year for the fourth year in a row.

2018: Final season[edit]

Müller entered an ATP tournament as a defending champion for the first time in his career at the 2018 Sydney International, ousting John Millman before subsequently losing to Benoît Paire. He then reached the third round of the 2018 Australian Open, ultimately bowing out to Pablo Carreño Busta in four sets.

Müller announced on 16 July that he would be retiring at the end of the season.^[10] He played his last match on the ATP World Tour at the 2018 US Open, losing in a five-setter to Lorenzo Sonego in the first round.

National representation[edit]

Davis Cup[edit]

Müller competed in 30 ties after he was first nominated in 2000. Out of 71 matches he won 54 and lost 17, which made him Luxembourg's most successful Davis Cup player.

Olympic Games[edit]

Müller qualified for the Olympic Games twice: in London 2012 and in Rio 2016, reaching the second round at the former and the third round at the latter.

ATP career finals[edit]

Singles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)[edit]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 2004	Washington Open, US	International	Hard	Lleyton Hewitt	3–6, 4–6
Loss	0–2	Jul 2005	Los Angeles Open, US	International	Hard	Andre Agassi	4–6, 5–7
Loss	0–3	Jul 2012	Atlanta Open, US	250 Series	Hard	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–7(2–7), 2–6
Loss	0–4	Jun 2016	Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands	250 Series	Grass	Nicolas Mahut	4–6, 4–6
Loss	0–5	Jul 2016	Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, US	250 Series	Grass	Ivo Karlović	7–6(7–2), 6–7(5–7), 6–7(12–14)
Win	1–5	Jan 2017	Sydney International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Dan Evans	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Loss	1–6	May 2017	Estoril Open, Portugal	250 Series	Clay	Pablo Carreño Busta	2–6, 6–7(5–7)
Win	2–6	Jun 2017	Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands	250 Series	Grass	Ivo Karlović	7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–4)

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)[edit]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 2015	Atlanta Open, US	250 Series	Hard	Colin Fleming	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–7(2–7), [4–10]
Loss	0–2	Jan 2017	Brisbane International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Sam Querrey	Thanasi Kokkinakis Jordan Thompson	6–7(7–9), 4–6

ATP Challengers and ITF Futures titles[edit]

Singles: 15[edit]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	9 April 2001	Kuwait City, Kuwait	Hard	Hermes Gamonal	4–6, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(8–6)
2.	11 February 2002	Glasgow, United Kingdom	Hard	Maximilian Abel	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
3.	22 April 2002	Montego Bay, Jamaica	Hard	Julien Cassaigne	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
4.	26 August 2002	Florianópolis, Brazil	Clay	Rodrigo Monte	3–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–1
1.	21 July 2003	Valladolid, Spain	Hard	Iván Navarro	6–4, 6–3
2.	19 April 2004	Napoli, Italy	Clay	Arnaud Di Pasquale	7–6(9–7), 6–7(1–7), 6–1
3.	28 June 2004	Córdoba, Spain	Hard	Nicolás Almagro	6–1, 6–2
4.	7 April 2008	Humacao, Puerto Rico	Hard	Iván Miranda	7–5, 7–6(7–2)
5.	26 May 2008	Izmir, Turkey	Hard	Kristian Pless	7–5, 6–3
6.	5 June 2011	Nottingham, Great Britain	Grass	Matthias Bachinger	7–6(7–4), 6–2
7.	2 April 2014	Guadalajara, Mexico	Hard	Denis Kudla	6–2, 6–2
8.	27 April 2014	Shenzen, China	Hard	Lukáš Lacko	7–6(7–4), 6–3
9.	4 May 2014	Taipei, Taiwan	Carpet	John-Patrick Smith	6–3, 6–3
10.	11 May 2014	Gimcheon, South Korea	Hard	Tatsuma Ito	7–6(7–5), 5–7, 6–4
11.	20 July 2014	Recanati, Italy	Hard	Ilija Bozoljac	6–1, 6–2

Doubles: 4[edit]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents	Score
1.	6 August 2001	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Clay	Mike Scheidweiler	Steve Adamson Raoul Snijders	6–4, 6–3
1.	21 June 2004	Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Hard	Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	Santiago González Alejandro Hernández	6–3, 7–5
2.	12 September 2010	Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France	Hard	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	Andis Juška Deniss Pavlovs	6–0, 2–6, [13–11]
3.	30 September 2012	Orléans, France	Hard	Lukáš Dlouhý	Xavier Malisse Ken Skupski	6–2, 6–7(5–7), [10–7]

Performance timelines[edit]

Singles[edit]

Current through the 2018 US Open

Doubles[edit]

Wins over top 10 players[edit]

No.	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score	Müller Rank
2004
1.	Andre Agassi	6	Washington, United States	Hard	SF	6–4, 7–5	124
2.	David Nalbandian	10	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	3R	7–6(7–4), 3–6, 6–4	78
2005
3.	Rafael Nadal	3	Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom	Grass	2R	6–4, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4	69
4.	Andy Roddick	3	US Open, New York, United States	Hard	1R	7–6(7–4), 7–6(10–8), 7–6(7–1)	68
2008
5.	Nikolay Davydenko	5	US Open, New York, United States	Hard	4R	6–4, 4–6, 6–3, 7–6(12–10)	130
2013
6.	Richard Gasquet	10	Marseille, France	Hard	1R	2–6, 6–4, 7–6(7–5)	70
2015
7.	Gilles Simon	10	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	QF	6–3, 6–4	43
2016
8.	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	9	Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Hard	2R	6–4, 6–3	37
9.	Tomáš Berdych	9	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	1R	7–6(9–7), 6–1	36
2017
10.	Alexander Zverev	10	Rosmalen, Netherlands	Grass	SF	7–6(7–5), 6–2	28
11.	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	10	Queen's Club, London, United Kingdom	Grass	2R	6–4, 6–4	26
12.	Rafael Nadal	2	Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom	Grass	4R	6–3, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6, 15–13	26

Record against top 10 players[edit]

Müller's ATP-only record against players who have been ranked world No. 10 or higher. Statistics correct as of 28 August 2018.

Player	Years	Matches	Record	Win %	Hard	Clay	Grass
Number 1 ranked players
Andre Agassi	2004–2005	2	1–1	50%	1–1	0–0	0–0
Rafael Nadal	2005–2017	6	2–4	33%	0–2	0–1	2–1
Andy Roddick	2005–2012	5	1–4	20%	1–4	0–0	0–0
Juan Carlos Ferrero	2007	1	0–1	0%	0–0	0–0	0–1
Lleyton Hewitt	2004–2012	2	0–2	0%	0–2	0–0	0–0
Novak Djokovic	2015–2016	4	0–4	0%	0–3	0–1	0–0
Roger Federer	2005–2014	5	0–5	0%	0–4	0–0	0–1
Andy Murray	2011–2017	6	0–6	0%	0–4	0–1	0–1
Number 2 ranked players
Tommy Haas	2006–2017	4	3–1	75%	1–1	1–0	1–0
Number 3 ranked players
David Nalbandian	2004	1	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0
Grigor Dimitrov	2012–2016	5	3–2	60%	2–1	0–0	1–1
Milos Raonic	2011–2017	4	2–2	50%	1–1	0–1	1–0
David Ferrer	2004–2016	2	1–1	50%	0–1	0–0	1–0
Alexander Zverev	2017–2018	2	1–1	50%	0–0	0–1	1–0
Nikolay Davydenko	2006–2012	4	1–3	25%	1–2	0–1	0–0
Juan Martín del Potro	2000–2012	2	0–2	0%	0–2	0–0	0–0
Ivan Ljubičić	2006–2011	2	0–2	0%	0–2	0–0	0–0
Stan Wawrinka	2015	3	0–3	0%	0–3	0–0	0–0
Marin Čilić	2016–2018	4	0–4	0%	0–1	0–0	0–3
Number 4 ranked players
Tomáš Berdych	2016–2017	2	1–1	50%	1–1	0–0	0–0
Dominic Thiem	2016	2	1–1	50%	1–1	0–0	0–0
Sébastien Grosjean	2005	1	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0
Tim Henman	2004	1	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0
Robin Söderling	2009–2011	3	0–3	0%	0–2	0–0	0–1
Kei Nishikori	2009–2017	4	0–4	0%	0–4	0–0	0–0
Number 5 ranked players
Gastón Gaudio	2007	1	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0
Kevin Anderson	2008–2017	5	3–2	60%	2–1	1–0	0–1
Tommy Robredo	2005–2017	2	1–1	50%	0–0	1–0	0–1
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	2014–2017	5	2–3	40%	1–2	0–0	1–1
Fernando González	2006	1	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0
Jiří Novák	2004	1	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0
Rainer Schüttler	2006	1	0–1	0%	0–0	0–1	0–0
Number 6 ranked players
Nicolás Lapentti	2004–2006	2	2–0	100%	1–0	1–0	0–0
Gaël Monfils	2015–2016	3	1–2	33%	1–1	0–1	0–0
Gilles Simon	2014–2015	3	1–2	33%	1–2	0–0	0–0
Number 7 ranked players
David Goffin	2015	2	1–1	50%	1–0	0–0	0–1
Richard Gasquet	2005–2015	6	2–4	33%	2–3	0–0	0–1
Mardy Fish	2011–2012	3	1–2	33%	1–2	0–0	0–0
Fernando Verdasco	2005–2016	4	1–3	25%	1–2	0–1	0–0
Thomas Johansson	2005	1	0–1	0%	0–0	0–0	0–1
Number 8 ranked players
Mark Philippoussis	2005	1	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0
Radek Štěpánek	2005	1	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0
Janko Tipsarević	2002–2012	3	2–1	67%	1–1	1–0	0–0
Mikhail Youzhny	2005–2018	7	4–3	57%	2–1	0–2	2–0
Marcos Baghdatis	2015–2018	5	2–3	40%	1–2	0–1	1–0
John Isner	2010–2017	6	2–4	33%	1–4	0–0	1–0
Jürgen Melzer	2005–2012	3	1–2	33%	1–0	0–1	0–1
Jack Sock	2015	1	0–1	0%	0–1	0–0	0–0
Number 9 ranked players
Nicolás Almagro	2008–2016	2	2–0	100%	2–0	0–0	0–0
Nicolás Massú	2005	1	1–0	100%	1–0	0–0	0–0
Number 10 ranked players
Félix Mantilla	2005	1	1–0	100%	0–0	0–0	1–0
Ernests Gulbis	2011–2018	2	1–1	50%	1–0	0–1	0–0
Pablo Carreño Busta	2015–2018	4	1–3	25%	1–1	0–2	0–0
Juan Mónaco	2006	1	0–1	0%	0–0	0–1	0–0
Arnaud Clément	2004–2005	2	0–2	0%	0–2	0–0	0–0
Total	2002–2018	157	53–104	34%	35–71	5–17	13–16

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gilles Müller.

• 
  Gilles Müller at the Association of Tennis Professionals
  


• 
  Gilles Müller at the International Tennis Federation
  


• 
  Gilles Müller at the Davis Cup
  


• Gilles Müller at stevegtennis.com

Olympic Games
Preceded by Marie Muller	Flagbearer for  Luxembourg Rio de Janeiro 2016	Succeeded by Incumbent