Malek Jaziri

Malek Jaziri
مالك الجزيري

Malek Jaziri in 2016
Country (sports)	Tunisia
Residence	Bizerte, Tunisia
Born	(1984-01-20) January 20, 1984 Bizerte, Tunisia
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand) *occasionally uses one-handed backhand
Prize money	$1,335,694
Singles
Career record	33–51
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 49 (October 10, 2016)
Current ranking	No. 58 (November 21, 2016)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (2015)
French Open	2R (2012, 2016)
Wimbledon	2R (2012)
US Open	2R (2011)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	2R (2012)
Doubles
Career record	6–18
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 196 (April 16, 2012)
Current ranking	No. 320 (February 1, 2016)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2015)
French Open	1R (2016)
Wimbledon	2R (2015, 2016)
US Open	1R (2016)
Medal record Pan Arab Games 2011 Doha Singles 2011 Doha Doubles Mediterranean Games 2013 Mersin Doubles 2013 Mersin Singles
Last updated on: February 3, 2016.

Malek Jaziri (Arabic: مالك الجزيري Mālik al-Jazīrī) (born January 20, 1984) is a professional Tunisian tennis player. He reached the semi-finals of Moscow in 2012 and Winston-Salem in 2015 and the quarterfinals of Dubai in 2014.

Career overview

Jaziri reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour of world no. 50 in October 2016. Jaziri dedicated this milestone to Michael Fahimian and Henry Cohanim, his two biggest fans. He appeared in the qualifying draw at the 2010 Australian Open, losing in the first round to Michał Przysiężny of Poland. He primarily plays on the Futures circuit and the Challenger circuit. Jaziri qualified for the 2011 US Open, defeating Brian Dabul, Michael Ryderstedt, and Guillaume Rufin in the qualifying draw. This was the first time Jaziri played in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. In the first round, Jaziri defeated world no. 159 Thiemo de Bakker in four sets. Jaziri lost to world no. 8 Mardy Fish in the second round. Jaziri has been coached by Tunisian legend Haythem Abid on and off throughout his career.

In 2012, he kicked off his year at the ATP 250 event in Doha and pushed world no. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three sets in the first round. He fell in the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open to Tim Smyczek. He then reached three Challenger finals in Quimper, Kyoto, and Pingguo to break into the top 100 for the first time.

In his clay season, he made the semi-finals in the Barletta Challenger and played his first Roland Garros main draw, winning his first-round match over German Philipp Petzschner before losing a tight second-round match to Spaniard Marcel Granollers, missing two match points.

On grass he reached the second round on his Wimbledon debut (lost to Kohlschreiber) and also the second round at the London Olympics (lost to John Isner).

He lost in the US Open first round, but later had his best-ever result on the ATP World Tour when he reached the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow (lost to eventual champion Andreas Seppi) to become the first Tunisian male to reach the semi-finals of an ATP event.

In 2013, Jaziri started off the year in Dubai, where he faced 17-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer and lost in three tight sets.

Jaziri started off 2015 making his first appearance at the Australian Open main draw, and beating Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin and France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin, making him the first Arab male tennis player to make it to the third round of a Grand Slam in over a decade. Jaziri then lost in the third round to Australian teen Nick Kyrgios.

Jaziri has been a member of the Tunisia Davis Cup team since 2000, posting an 18–12 record in singles and a 7–10 record in doubles in 29 ties.

Controversies

2013

Jaziri was embroiled in a controversial political incident, in which he withdrew from a tournament rather than play an Israeli player. In the October 2013 Tashkent Challenger, tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he was slated to play Israeli Amir Weintraub in the quarterfinals. But the Tunisian tennis federation ordered Jaziri by email to withdraw from the match, and he did so.

Weintraub said that Jaziri is "a good friend," and that "he really wanted to play." Israel Tennis Association CEO Shlomo Glickstein said: "It is sad to me that these kinds of things still happen. I feel bad for the athletes who find themselves embroiled in such situations, which end up hurting their careers.”

Jaziri was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the International Tennis Federation (ITF) found that the Tunisian Tennis Federation breached the ITF constitution by ordering him not to compete. The organization barred Tunisia from competing in the 2014 Davis Cup. ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said: "There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society. The ITF Board decided to send a strong message to the Tunisian Tennis Federation that this kind of action will not be tolerated by any of our members."

2015

In February 2015, Jaziri was again embroiled in a controversial political incident when he withdrew from a tournament before facing Israeli players. He withdrew from both the singles and doubles events at the Open Sud de France, citing an elbow injury, after winning his first set in his singles match against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. Had Jaziri won, he would have been scheduled to face Israeli Dudi Sela in the next round. In the doubles event, he and Spanish partner Marc López would have faced Israeli opponent Jonathan Erlich and František Čermák of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.

The ATP said that they had confirmed with on-site medical staff that Jaziri's elbow injury was genuine, but opened an inquiry, stating: "Given a previous incident involving the player's national federation in 2013, we are looking into any wider circumstances of his withdrawal as a matter of prudence." On February 10, the ATP closed its investigation after extensive discussions with Jaziri and medical staff, saying it was satisfied that Jaziri had a legitimate medical reason to retire from the event.

Tour singles titles – all levels (12)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (3)
Futures (9)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	2005	Tunis	Clay	Petar Popović	1–6, 6–2, 6–3
2.	2006	Mégrine	Hard	Blaž Kavčič	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
3.	2009	Kelibia	Clay	Haithem Abid	7–6, 5–7, 7–6
4.	2009	Tbilisi	Clay	David Savić	4–6, 6–4, 6–4
5.	2010	Sfax	Hard	Laurent Rochette	6–4, 6–3
6.	2010	Córdoba	Hard	Pablo Carreño-Busta	6–4, 5–7, 6–4
7.	2011	Newcastle	Clay	Yannick Mertens	6–3, 6–4
8.	2011	Manchester	Grass	Rudy Coco	7–6, 4–6, 6–2
9.	2011	Almaty	Hard	Denys Molchanov	6–3, 6–2
10.	2011	Geneva	Hard	Mischa Zverev	4–6, 6–3, 6–3
11.	2013	Geneva	Hard	Jan-Lennard Struff	6–4, 6–3
12.	9 April 2016	Le Gosier, Guadeloupe	Hard	Stefan Kozlov	6–2, 6–4

Tour singles finals – all levels (18)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (6)
Futures (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	2011	Samarkand	Clay	Denis Istomin	6–7(2–7), ret
2.	2012	Quimper	Hard	Igor Sijsling	3–6, 4–6
3.	2012	Kyoto	Carpet	Tatsuma Ito	7–6(7–5), 1–6, 2–6
4.	2012	Pingguo	Hard	Go Soeda	1–6, 6–3, 5–7
5.	2014	Dallas	Hard	Steve Johnson	4–6, 4–6
6.	2014	Izmir	Hard	Borna Ćorić	1–6, 7–6(9–7), 4–6

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	SR	W–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	Q1	A	Q1	3R	1R	0 / 2	2–2
French Open	A	2R	Q2	Q2	1R	2R	0 / 3	2–3
Wimbledon	A	2R	Q3	1R	1R	1R	0 / 4	1–4
US Open	2R	1R	Q3	Q2	1R	1R	0 / 4	1–4
Win–Loss	1–1	2–3	0–0	0–1	2–4	1–4	0 / 13	6–13

External links

• Malek Jaziri at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Malek Jaziri at the Davis Cup