Gilles Müller

Junior tennis

In 2001, the year in which he would turn pro, Müller reached the final of the Boys' Singles at the 2001 Wimbledon Championships, where he was defeated by Roman Valent of Switzerland, 6–3, 5–7, 3–6. Müller also won the Boys' Singles final at the 2001 US Open, defeating Taiwan's Yeu-Tzuoo Wang, 7–6, 6–2. He finished the year 2001 as the world No. 1 junior, posting a singles record of 72–26 throughout his junior career.

2004–2005 and success against top players

Starting 2004 ranked 193, Müller had several victories over top players including Andre Agassi in the semifinals of the 2004 Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C., Rafael Nadal in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon, and Andy Roddick in the first round of the 2005 US Open. He reached two ATP finals during that time span, losing to Lleyton Hewitt at the Washington Open in 2004 and to Andre Agassi at the LA Open in 2005.^[1]

Müller led the Davis Cup team to a surprise victory against Finland in February 2004.^[2][3]

2008: First Grand Slam quarterfinal

At the 2008 US Open, Müller, ranked 130 at the time, had to go through the qualification tournament. He reached the main draw and advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career, earnining a win over fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko in the fourth round. He lost to defending and eventual champion Roger Federer in straight sets, 6–7, 4–6, 6–7.

2009–2013 and injuries

On 19 January 2009, Müller beat Spaniard Feliciano López, 6–3, 7–6, 4–6, 4–6, 16–14, in an epic four-hour, 24-minute match in the first round of the 2009 Australian Open. His run in the tournament would be ended in the third round by the eighth-seeded Argentine, Juan Martín del Potro.

Müller at the 2011 US Open

In September 2011, he advanced to the fourth round of the US Open, losing to Rafael Nadal, whom he had already lost to in the third round of Wimbledon earlier that same year.

Müller registered his 100th singles win by defeating Australian Marinko Matosevic 7–6, 6–4 in Atlanta.^[4] He also reached the Atlanta Open final, losing to Andy Roddick, 6–1, 6–7, 2–6, after the American came back from one set and one break down to win what would be his last final on the ATP tour.^[5]

Müller's final match in 2013 was at the 2013 French Open where he lost in round 1 to Roberto Bautista Agut. He finished the year at No. 368 in the world rankings after missing the second half of the season with an elbow injury.^[6][7]

2014: Back inside the top 50

In January, Müller returned to playing tennis and competed mostly on the Challenger Tour, winning five titles.

Müller qualified for Wimbledon where he lost to Roger Federer in the second round.

Müller lost in the first round at the US Open to Paul-Henri Mathieu 7–6, 5–7, 6–7, 7–6, 1–6.

Müller lost to Federer in the first round of the 2014 Swiss Indoors before falling in the qualifying rounds of the Paris Masters. He finished 2014 with a ranking of No. 47 and was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year.

2015: Breaking the top 40

Müller began 2015 at the Aircel Chennai Open, where he made the quarterfinals, losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka. He then competed in the Sydney International losing in the semifinals to Viktor Troicki, the eventual champion. He put together his best Australian Open campaign to date, losing in the fourth round to world No. 1 and eventual champion Novak Djokovic in 4–6, 5–7, 5–7. His performance during the entire month saw him crack the top 40 for the first time in his career on the 2nd of February.^[7]

He had a strong showing in Rotterdam, defeating David Goffin and Grigor Dimitrov, before losing to Wawrinka in the quarterfinals. Because he didn't defend his titles on the Challenger Tour, he subsequently fell out of the top 50 for the first time of the year on 11 May.

Müller had a strong start to the grass court season, reaching the semifinals of the Topshelf Open as well as the quarterfinals at Queen's, beating defending champion Dimitrov for the second time in two meetings since the beginning of the year. He then lost to eventual champion Andy Murray.

This was followed up by a semifinals appearance at the Atlanta, where he eventually lost to Marcos Baghdatis in three sets 7–6, 3–6, 6–7.

He also reached the quarterfinals of the Moselle Open in addition to the semifinals of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.

Müller finished the year with a world ranking of No. 38 and was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year for the second year in a row.

2016: Fourth and fifth ATP finals

He started 2016 by reaching the semifinals of both the Sydney International and the 2016 Garanti Koza Sofia Open.

At the 2016 Ricoh Open, he reached the final, losing to the defending champion Nicolas Mahut in straight sets. At the 2016 Aegon Open Nottingham, he reached the semifinals, falling to second-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay.

He advanced to the final of the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, losing to second-seeded Ivo Karlović in three sets.

Müller represented Luxembourg in singles at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning in the first round against Jerzy Janowicz and then beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round before losing to Roberto Bautista Agut 4–6, 6–7.

At the 2016 Swiss Indoors, Müller defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the first round and then went on to reach the semifinals, falling to Kei Nishikori in three sets.

He finished 2014 with a ranking of No. 34 and was again elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year.

2017: Career-best year

Müller finally won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the 2017 Sydney International, over a decade after his first final. He saved a match point in the first round against Alexandr Dolgopolov. This came less than a week after he lost in the men's doubles final of the 2017 Brisbane International, playing alongside Sam Querrey.

He also made the final of Estoril, losing to Pablo Carreño Busta in what was his first ATP final played on clay. This resulted in him reaching a singles ranking of 26.

Then, at the 2017 Ricoh Open aged 34, Müller would set up the oldest ATP World Tour tournament singles final in 41 years against Ivo Karlović, aged 38.^[8] He won the match in two straight tiebreaks (7–6, 7–6), claiming his second ATP World Tour title in the process.

Despite being ranked 26 in the world, Müller's excellent form on grass in the last 12 months saw him earn a seeding of sixteenth at Wimbledon, where he made the quarterfinals after defeating world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller, winning (6–3, 6–4, 3–6, 4–6, 15–13) in 4 hours and 48 minutes.^[9] Müller would subsequently have his run at The Championships ended by Marin Čilić, who beat him in another match that went five sets.

After reaching a career-high singles ranking of 21 on 31 July and ending the year ranked world No. 25, he was elected Luxembourg's Sportsman of the Year for the fourth year in a row.

2018: Final Season

Müller entered an ATP tournament as a defending champion for the first time in his career at the 2018 Sydney International, ousting John Millman before subsequently losing to Benoît Paire. He then reached the third round of the Australian Open, ultimately bowing out to Pablo Carreño Busta in four sets.

On the 16th of July, Müller announced he will be retiring at the end of the season.^[10] He played his last match on the ATP tour at the US Open, losing in a five-setter to Lorenzo Sonego in the first round.

Davis Cup

Müller has competed in 30 ties since his first nomination in 2000. Out of 71 matches he has won 54 and lost 17, which makes him Luxembourg's most successful Davis Cup player.

Olympic Games

Muller qualified for the Olympic Games twice: in London 2012, where he reached the 2nd round, and in Rio 2016, where he served as the flagbearer for Luxembourg and reached the 3rd round, after earning a top ten victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Singles: 8 (2 titles, 6 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 2004	Washington Open, US	International	Hard	Lleyton Hewitt	3–6, 4–6
Loss	0–2	Jul 2005	Los Angeles Open, US	International	Hard	Andre Agassi	4–6, 5–7
Loss	0–3	Jul 2012	Atlanta Open, US	250 Series	Hard	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–7(2–7), 2–6
Loss	0–4	Jun 2016	Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands	250 Series	Grass	Nicolas Mahut	4–6, 4–6
Loss	0–5	Jul 2016	Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, US	250 Series	Grass	Ivo Karlović	7–6(7–2), 6–7(5–7), 6–7(12–14)
Win	1–5	Jan 2017	Sydney International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Dan Evans	7–6(7–5), 6–2
Loss	1–6	May 2017	Estoril Open, Portugal	250 Series	Clay	Pablo Carreño Busta	2–6, 6–7(5–7)
Win	2–6	Jun 2017	Rosmalen Championships, Netherlands	250 Series	Grass	Ivo Karlović	7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–4)

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Aug 2015	Atlanta Open, US	250 Series	Hard	Colin Fleming	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–7(2–7), [4–10]
Loss	0–2	Jan 2017	Brisbane International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Sam Querrey	Thanasi Kokkinakis Jordan Thompson	6–7(7–9), 4–6

Singles: 15

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	9 April 2001	Kuwait City, Kuwait	Hard	Hermes Gamonal	4–6, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(8–6)
2.	11 February 2002	Glasgow, United Kingdom	Hard	Maximilian Abel	7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–3)
3.	22 April 2002	Montego Bay, Jamaica	Hard	Julien Cassaigne	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
4.	26 August 2002	Florianópolis, Brazil	Clay	Rodrigo Monte	3–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–1
1.	21 July 2003	Valladolid, Spain	Hard	Iván Navarro	6–4, 6–3
2.	19 April 2004	Napoli, Italy	Clay	Arnaud Di Pasquale	7–6(9–7), 6–7(1–7), 6–1
3.	28 June 2004	Córdoba, Spain	Hard	Nicolás Almagro	6–1, 6–2
4.	7 April 2008	Humacao, Puerto Rico	Hard	Iván Miranda	7–5, 7–6(7–2)
5.	26 May 2008	Izmir, Turkey	Hard	Kristian Pless	7–5, 6–3
6.	5 June 2011	Nottingham, Great Britain	Grass	Matthias Bachinger	7–6(7–4), 6–2
7.	2 April 2014	Guadalajara, Mexico	Hard	Denis Kudla	6–2, 6–2
8.	27 April 2014	Shenzen, China	Hard	Lukáš Lacko	7–6(7–4), 6–3
9.	4 May 2014	Taipei, Taiwan	Carpet	John-Patrick Smith	6–3, 6–3
10.	11 May 2014	Gimcheon, South Korea	Hard	Tatsuma Ito	7–6(7–5), 5–7, 6–4
11.	20 July 2014	Recanati, Italy	Hard	Ilija Bozoljac	6–1, 6–2

Doubles: 4

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents	Score
1.	6 August 2001	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Clay	Mike Scheidweiler	Steve Adamson Raoul Snijders	6–4, 6–3
1.	21 June 2004	Andorra la Vella, Andorra	Hard	Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	Santiago González Alejandro Hernández	6–3, 7–5
2.	12 September 2010	Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France	Hard	Édouard Roger-Vasselin	Andis Juška Deniss Pavlovs	6–0, 2–6, [13–11]
3.	30 September 2012	Orléans, France	Hard	Lukáš Dlouhý	Xavier Malisse Ken Skupski	6–2, 6–7(5–7), [10–7]

Singles

Current through the 2018 US Open

Doubles