Not only is Serbian super champion Novak Djokovic reigning supreme over the ATP right now in singles but the top team in ATP doubles is from neighboring Croatia.
Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic are the number one seeds at Wimbledon. Pavic is the no. 1 ranked ATP doubles player at the moment and Mektic is no. 3. The duo joined forces this year.
Pavic parted ways with last year’s partner Bruno Soares and connected with Mektic this year. They won Murray River Open (Australia), Miami Open, Rotterdam, Monte Carlo, Rome and Eastbourne this year. They reached the semis of AO.
Pavic has won two Grand Slam titles in doubles (AO 2018 with Marach and US Open 2020 with Soares).
Pavic has also won two mixed doubles Grand Slams – 2016 US Open and 2018 AO. The 27 year old has won 24 ATP doubles titles overall.
Mektic has yet to win a doubles Grand Slam title – he made finals of US Open last year, losing with Wesley Koolhof to Pavic and Soares 75 63. Mektic did win a mixed doubles Grand Slam with Barbora Krejcikova at AO in 2020 defeating Jamie Murray and Bethanie Mattek Sands 57 64 10-1.
The 32 year old Mektic has won 15 ATP doubles titles.
Pavic and Mektic defeated Tomislav Brkic and Nikola Cacic 62 36 76 64 in the round of 16 to advance to a quarterfinal showdown vs. 8 seed Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo. Pavic Mektic have only lost one set in three matches.
ATP · Croatia · Mate Pavic · Nikola Mektic · Novak Djokovic · Serbia · Wimbledon
Hartt · July 6, 2021 at 7:36 am
I am a big fan of Mektic and Pavic. Have been following Mate Pavic for a while, ever since he teamed with Gaby Dabrowski for the 2018 AO mixed doubles. There is a fun story around that. Despite having won the RG mixed doubles title with Gaby in 2017, Bopanna ditched her for Babos, apparently without even telling her. That left Gaby scrambling for a partner for the AO, and Pavic answered her call. They won the AO title against, you guessed it, Bopanna and Babos! Although they have done well since the team has not won another mixed title. Hopefully that will change at this year’s Wimby.
It was a shame that Mektic and Pavic missed a couple weeks this season because of testing positive for Covid. But they are back, and probably will win many more tourneys this season. They have an excellent chance to win Olympic gold.
Scoop Malinowski · July 6, 2021 at 9:11 am
Hartt, Dabrowski has dropped off since she broke up with Xu, her best doubles partner. I first saw Pavic play about six or seven years ago at Miami Open against Lopez and Mirnyi. Can’t remember who he was with. He has a very unique and nice serve motion. Pavic and Mektic have been dominant this year. They did get stunned in the Madrid final vs Granollers Zeballos, I saw this great match on TV.
Hartt · July 6, 2021 at 1:01 pm
I think there was a problem with Xu being able to play doubles often enough because Chinese officials wanted her to play often in China. But Gaby needs a regular partner, she has had so many different ones lately. Canadian Sharon Fichman, who came out of retirement to play doubles, has actually has been doing pretty well with her regular partner, Mexican player Olmos.
Bill McGill · July 6, 2021 at 1:37 pm
Croatia might also have the most important coach in the world. Djokovic was never a bad server, but the improvement in his service game over the last two years has been remarkable. And Ivanisevic did the same thing for Raonic and Cilic. Raonic had a great serve before working with Goran, but under Goran it probably became the best or second best on the ATP. It’s often forgotten now, but Cilic had a completely unremarkable serve for a man his height before Goran. Look at the aces per match difference between 2012 and 2013 versus 2014 and 2015 for Cilic. While still not among the best, Cilic’s serve today is probably top ten. Goran seems to be a difference maker in improving player serves. I doubt Toni Nadal or David Ferrer will do anything similar for FA2 and Zverev, respectively.
Scoop Malinowski · July 6, 2021 at 1:52 pm
Where is Raonic? Presume he’s injured again but didn’t hear anyone talk about it. Goran surely is an exceptional coach, as proven by the greatest player in history paying for his services. Toni Nadal might be a major reason why Felix has reached his first GS QF. Ferrer was not with Zverev in Paris or Wimbledon, I didn’t see him. ATP site does not mention Ferrer as Zverev’s coach, only his father.
Scoop Malinowski · July 6, 2021 at 1:57 pm
Hartt, the perception is Dabrowski has faltered without Xu. While Xu has had more success without Dabrowski. We never hear a doubles team break up being about, one player struggling with returns or second serves or a choking issue. No doubles player has ever publicly criticized a partner to a reporter. It’s always the old mutual amicable break up. Which of course it probably never really is )
Bill McGill · July 6, 2021 at 4:46 pm
Raonic pulled out of Wimbledon with a calf injury.
Felix has had a pretty mixed year with Toni Nadal. He made his first GS QF because Kyrgios wasn’t fit enough to play and Zverev double faulted 20 times. Kyrgios was humiliating FA2 before he injured his abs serving and Zverev outplayed him from the baseline, but his service troubles cost him the match.
Ferrer was Zverev’s coach, but they parted ways a few months back. Which makes a ridiculous number of coaches for Zverev in the last 3 years.
My real point, though, was that a lot of coaches may have some hard-to-define, difficult to assess impact on a player’s performance. Goran’s impact seems obvious and concrete, directly impacting a very specific component of the player’s game.
Scoop Malinowski · July 6, 2021 at 7:07 pm
Bill, Pressure of Felix’s shots factored into Zverev’s poor serving. There’s always a reason. Of all the NEXTGEN players Felix hits the ball the heaviest, a hitting partner revealed this over a year ago. Felix has had up and down results but this run at Wimbledon affirms Uncle Toni has made him a better player. If only Felix can win his first title after 8 final flops so far. It might open the floodgates. Zverev and Danielle Collins have employed the most coaches, I wish a tennis reporter kept track of them all. Felix beating Federer may be the turning point of his career.
Scoop Malinowski · July 6, 2021 at 7:10 pm
Felix may be one of those deceptively tough players like Gaston Gaudio, young Andre, young Lendl the choke artist. Gaudio was deemed too soft. Andre was a head case. Felix may be perceived as too nice, too soft, choker in finals. Then all the sudden he crushes Federer in Halle and Zverev at Wimbledon.
Bill McGill · July 6, 2021 at 9:35 pm
Don’t misinterpret me – I like Felix’s strokes and have been watching him and Shapo since they were juniors – but c’mon, that is not why Zverev’s second serve is so wonky. Zverev and Paire perennially lead the tour in double faults and Zverev’s double fault rate is actually even higher against top 100 players than it is against top 10 players, so I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the quality of the returns.
Also, while FA2 does indeed hit a pretty heavy ball off both wings, it is not the heaviest ball among the next gen. That award unquestionably goes to Sinner. It is pretty rare for someone to have both very high RPMs and KPHs, but Sinner does it. While only limited data from select Masters 1000 events and the AO are made publicly available, as a general matter, off the backhand wing, Sinner has the second highest RPMs on the tour after Nadal and the second highest average KPHs after Thiem. He bests every other member of the next gen on both counts (though Ruud is close on RPMs). On the forehand side, the story is pretty similar this year. While players like Karatsev and Basilashvili put up gaudy numbers, Sinner (who lost AO first round to Shapo, so small data set) had the highest average KPHs in Miami (6 KPHs faster than even Rublev) and routinely averages 130KPHs on the forehand wing, which puts him in the same category as Thiem.
I don’t have a particularly good record predicting the next big thing, but I’ll be surprised if Sinner doesn’t surpass them all in two years.
Scoop Malinowski · July 7, 2021 at 7:07 am
Bill, Zverev has been strong this summer, Felix just stunned him with super tennis. We may be seeing a lot more of Super Felix now that he’s evidently reached a new level. Sinner has the potential to be a Safin or a Fernando Gonzalez, there are a lot of young players who have the potential to become big champions but not all of them will. Great era right now in the ATP.