Jonathan Erlich

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**Jonathan Erlich**

Country	Israel
Residence	Tel Aviv, Israel
Date of birth	April 5, 1977 (1977-04-05) (age 31)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	81 kg (180 lb/12.8 st)
Turned pro	1996
Plays	Right; One- handed backhand
Career prize money	$1,459,143
Singles
Career record:	6 - 6
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	292 (4 October 1999)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	DNP
French Open	DNP
Wimbledon	DNP
US Open	DNP
Doubles
Career record:	196 - 128
Career titles:	13
Highest ranking:	7 (24 March 2008)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	W (2008)
French Open	3rd (2004, 2007)
Wimbledon	SF (2003)
US Open	QF (2005)
Infobox last updated on: March 24, 2008.

Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich (Hebrew: יונתן דאריו "יוני" ארליך, born April 5, 1977) is a professional right-handed Israeli tennis player. Erlich has reached 24 doubles finals and won 13 of them, mostly with partner Andy Ram with whom they are known in israel as AndYony.

1 Background
2 Tennis career
3 Grand Slam doubles finals
- 3.1 Win (1)
4 Doubles finals
- 4.1 Wins (13)
- 4.2 Runner-ups (11)
5 External links

[edit] Background

Erlich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He moved to Haifa, Israel when he was one-year-old, and now resides in Tel Aviv and competes as an Israeli.

Erlich first started playing tennis when he was three years old and he played his first tournament at the age of seven.[1] He was later trained at the Wingate Institute, where he met Andy Ram, his future doubles partner. He turned pro in 1996 at the age of 19.

[edit] Tennis career

[edit] 1996-2005

Erlich and Andy Ram first competed at Queen's Club in June 2001.

In 2002, in singles Erlich defeated world # 64 ranked Adrian Voinea of Romania, 6–2, 6–3, in Indianapolis.

The Israeli duo's best achievement was reaching the semifinal of the Wimbledon championships in 2003. They defeated No. 2 seeded Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor in straight sets, 7–6 (10-8), 7–6 (7–2), 7–6 (9–7), before losing in the semifinals to defending Wimbledon champions Jonas Björkman and Todd Woodbridge. They were the first Israelis to ever advance to the semifinals in any Grand Slam event.

They won their first doubles title at the Thailand Open in September 2003.

In October they won their second doubles title in three weeks by capturing the Grand Prix de Lyon, defeating the French team of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut 6–1, 6–3 in the final.

Erlich and partner Liezel Huber of South Africa advanced to the semifinals in the mixed doubles tournament in 2004 at the Australian Open by beating the top-seeded team of Mark Knowles and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6–7 (6–8), 6–3, 7–6 (7–5) in the quarterfinals. They finally fell to the 4th-seeded pair Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova in the semifinals.

Ram and Erlich won the Lyon tournament for the second year running in October 2004. They met the premier duo Jonas Björkman and Radek Štěpánek in the final and beat them emphatically, 7–6(2), 6–2.

Erlich and Ram won their fourth major tournament in Rotterdam in February 2005. They beat Czechs Cyril Suk and Pavel Vizner 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 in the finals.

Ram and Erlich missed the 2005 Roland Garros grand slam tournament. Ram's father had passed away as he was preparing to fly to France.

They reached 8th place in the doubles ranking at the end of 2005, and served as alternates at the Masters Cup in Shanghai.

[edit] 2006-current

Erlich and Ram claimed the Adelaide title in the first week of the 2006 season.

Erlich and Ram in March 2006 defeated the Russian finalists Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn 6–3, 6–2 to retain their Red Letter Days Open doubles title. Erlich and Ram became the first to successfully defend the doubles title in Nottingham.[2]

In November 2006 they defeated the world # 1 ranked Bryan brothers at the Tennis Masters Cup in China, 7–6 (2), 2–6, 6–1.

At Cincinnati, at the ATP Masters, in August he and Ram won, upsetting the world # 1 Bryan brothers in the final 4–6, 6–3, 13-11.

At the US Open, he played doubles with Ram, losing in the round of 16 to the eventual winners Simon Aspelin and Julian Simon, 5–7, 6–7 (4).

The team won their first Grand Slam by winning the 2008 Australian Open final against Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra, 7–5, 7–6 (4).

[edit] Davis Cup

Playing for Israel in 2000 and from 2002-07, he has won 11 of his 15 matches, including wins in Israel's 2006 3–2 win over Great Britain, 2007 5–0 win over Luxembourg, and 2007 3–2 wins over Italy and Chile (in which he and Ram defeated Olympic Gold Medal winners Gonzalez and Massu).[3]

[edit] Olympics

Erlich and Ram represented Israel at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and reached the quarterfinals.

[edit] Grand Slam doubles finals

[edit] Win (1)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2008	Australian Open	Andy Ram	Arnaud Clément Michaël Llodra	7–5, 7–6 (4)

[edit] Doubles finals

[edit] Wins (13)

Legend
Grand Slam (1)
Tennis Masters Cup
ATP Masters Series (2)
ATP Tour (10)

No	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1	10 July 2000	Newport, U.S.	Grass	Harel Levy	Kyle Spencer Mitch Sprengelmeyer	7–6(2), 7–5
2	29 September 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andy Ram	Jarkko Nieminen Andrew Kratzmann	6–3, 7–6(4)
3	13 October 2003	Lyon, France	Carpet	Andy Ram	Nicolas Mahut Julien Benneteau	6–1, 6–3
4	11 October 2004	Lyon, France	Carpet	Andy Ram	Radek Štěpánek Jonas Björkman	7–6(2), 6–2
5	25 February 2005	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard	Andy Ram	Cyril Suk Pavel Vízner	6–4, 4–6, 6–3
6	20 June 2005	Nottingham, England	Grass	Andy Ram	Simon Aspelin Todd Perry	4–6, 6–3, 7–5
7	9 January 2006	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Kevin Ullyett	7–6(4), 7–6(10)
8	26 June 2006	Nottingham, England	Grass	Andy Ram	Igor Kunitsyn Dmitry Tursunov	6–3, 6–3
9	28 August 2006	New Haven, U.S.	Hard	Andy Ram	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	6–3, 6–3
10	2 October 2006	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andy Ram	Andy Murray Jamie Murray	6–2, 2–6, [10-4]
11	19 August 2007	Cincinnati, U.S.	Hard	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	4–6, 6–3, [13-11]
12	26 January 2008	Australian Open, Australia	Hard	Andy Ram	Arnaud Clément Michaël Llodra	7–5, 7–6(4)
13	21 March 2008	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Andy Ram	Daniel Nestor Nenad Zimonjić	6–4, 6–4

[edit] Runner-ups (11)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2004	Chennai, India	Andy Ram	Rafael Nadal Tommy Robredo	6–7(3), 6–4, 3–6
2004	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Radek Štěpánek	7–5, 6–7(5), 5–7
2005	Los Angeles, U.S.	Andy Ram	Rick Leach Brian MacPhie	3–6, 4–6
2005	Toronto, Canada	Andy Ram	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	7–6(5), 3–6, 0–6
2005	Bangkok, Thailand	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Leander Paes	6–5(5), 1–6, 2–6
2005	Vienna, Austria	Andy Ram	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	3–5, 4–5(2)
2006	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Kevin Ullyett	6–7(4), 6–7(2)
2006	Rome AMS, Italy	Andy Ram	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	4–6, 7–5, 11-13
2007	Las Vegas, U.S.	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(6), 2–6
2007	Indian Wells AMS	Andy Ram	Martin Damm Leander Paes	4–6, 4–6
2007	Washington, U.S.	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5), 6–3, 7-10