Malek Jaziri

Malek Jaziri
مالك الجزيري

Malek Jaziri at the 2012 Open de Nice Côte d’Azur
Country	Tunisia
Residence	Bizerte, Tunisia
Born	(1984-01-20) January 20, 1984 Bizerte, Tunisia
Height	1.83 m
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$434,446
Singles
Career record	13–18
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 69 (July 16, 2012)
Current ranking	No. 174 (July 22, 2013)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	Q1 (2010, 2012, 2014)
French Open	2R (2012)
Wimbledon	2R (2012)
US Open	2R (2011)
Doubles
Career record	3–9
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 196 (April 16, 2012)
Current ranking	No. 554 (July 22, 2013)
Last updated on: July 27, 2013.

Malek Jaziri

Medal record
Competitor for  Tunisia
Men's Tennis
Pan Arab Games
Gold	2011 Doha	Singles
Silver	2011 Doha	Doubles
Mediterranean Games
Silver	2013 Mersin	Doubles
Bronze	2013 Mersin	Singles

Malek Jaziri (Arabic: مالك الجزيري) (born January 20, 1984 in Bizerte, Tunisia) is a professional Tunisian tennis player.

Career overview

Jaziri reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour on June 11, 2012, when he became world number 69. 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 is the first time that Jaziri has played in the main draw of a major. In the first round, Jaziri defeated World No. 159 Thiemo de Bakker in four sets. Jaziri lost to World No. 8 Mardy Fish 6–2 6–2 6–4 in the second round.

In 2012, he kicked off his year at the ATP 250 event in Doha and pushed the then World No6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three sets in the first round, eventually losing 6–7(5), 7–6(5), 1–6. 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 6–3, 7–5, 7–6(7) over German Philipp Petzschner before losing a tight second round 6–7(1), 6–3, 1–6, 6–3, 5–7 to Spanish world No23 Marcel Granollers.

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.

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.

Controversy

In 2013, Jaziri was embroiled in a controversial political incident, in which he withdrew from a tournament rather than play an Israeli player.^[1]

In the October 2013 Tashkent Challenger, tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he was slated to play Israeli Amir Weintraub in the quarterfinals.^[2] But the Tunisian tennis federation ordered Jaziri to withdraw from the match, and he did so.^[2] “Following a meeting this afternoon with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, I have the immense regret to inform you that you are ordered not to play against the Israeli player,” the federation wrote Jaziri in an email made public by Jaziri’s brother, which was published by Tunisia’s state news agency.^[1] Tunisian sports ministry spokesman Sadok Touati confirmed that the federation sent the email after consulting the ministry.^[1]

Weintraub said that Jaziri is “a good friend,” and that “he really wanted to play.”^[2] 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.”^[2]

Jaziri's brother said he and his brother were afraid the decision could harm Jaziri's career.^[1] The ATP and ITF said they would look into the matter, and the ATP is considering possible sanctions against Jaziri.^[2][3]

The ATP cleared Jaziri of wrongdoing, but the International Tennis Federation investigated the incident and the ITF Board of Directors found that the Tunisian Tennis Federation had "breached the ITF Constitution by interfering with international sporting practice and ordering Tunisian player Malek Jaziri not to compete against Israeli player Amir Weintraub at the 2013 Tashkent Challenger in October. The Board ... voted to suspend Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup competition."^[4] 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."^[4]

Tour singles titles – all levels (11)

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

Tour singles finals – all levels (16)

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

Singles Performance Timeline

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

References

• ATP Profile
• ITF Profile
• Davis Cup Profile