Marcelo Melo added another achievement to his milestone-filled career on Wednesday at Roland Garros. The Brazilian, the ATP Tour’s active doubles wins leader, earned his 600th tour-level victory when he partnered John Peers past William Blumberg and Miomir Kecmanovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
“When I achieved 500, I thought it was crazy already,” Melo told ATPTour.com. “Now to achieve 600 it's even more crazy, so I'm very happy with that.”
The 39-year-old has shown great consistency for nearly two decades to reach the milestone. Melo has been inside the Top 50 of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings since 9 July 2007.
But the former doubles World No. 1 had not been overthinking the possibility of reaching 600 wins.
“Two or three weeks ago, I was checking how many matches because I was looking to see how many matches [I had played] because I'm about to get 1,000 matches,” said Melo, who is 12 matches from reaching that mark. “So I was looking to see, maybe I would achieve it, and then I saw I was 599. But then I completely forgot. After I finished the match, I did not even remember.”
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Melo holds a significant lead among active players. Next is Jamie Murray (524), followed by Jean-Julien Rojer (493), Rohan Bopanna (475) and Marcel Granollers (462).
“I believed that I could do it and could play well, but it's different when you believe and then when you achieve, right? So when I started to play very good, like 100, 200, 300 matches, and then when I go to 500, for me, it was a huge achievement already, because 500 is not easy,” Melo said. “I saw many players playing my age, very successful. They don't have 500 yet, and to be able to achieve 600, it's incredible.”
It was also special for Melo to achieve the feat at Roland Garros, where he won his first major title in 2015 alongside Ivan Dodig.
“I like a lot Roland Garros. Of course, the tournament, I won my first Grand Slam. Everything it represents to Brazil as well with clay courts and Guga,” Melo said. “So for me, it's a very special tournament. A lot of Brazilians here as well, so I'm very happy to be able to do this here.”
Bruno Soares, another Brazilian great who retired after last year’s US Open, said: “This is a very special day for Marcelo and of course for Brazil. It's a huge achievement. Six hundred wins is a huge number. It shows not only his amazing level of tennis, but also longevity. In order for someone to win 600 matches, you've got to be at a top level for a long, long time, and this is very, very special.
“I think it's a day to celebrate. Marcelo, being the guy with the most wins between active players. [It] says a lot about his career. So hopefully he's enjoying that and right now, I'm just cheering for him to get to 700, 800, who knows.”
Melo is eager to continue forging forward. He will be focussed on the task at hand in Paris.
“Of course I'm looking for more,” Melo said. “The match today, we played very, very good. So I'm very happy the way we played.”
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/RtKBurx
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