Bruno Soares · Biography

In January 2016 in Melbourne, Bruno Fraga Soares won two finals at the same tournament. With Scotland’s Jamie Murray he beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Štěpánek 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 for his first Grand Slam men’s doubles title, and he also won the mixed doubles with Russia’s Elena Vesnina, against Coco Vandeweghe and Horia Tecău. Soares was born on 27 February 1982 in Belo Horizonte and specialised in doubles. He was right-handed with a two-handed backhand, turned professional in 2001 and retired in September 2022 with 35 ATP doubles titles.

A childhood in Iraq

He was two months old when his family moved to Iraq. His father, Malthus, was a civil engineer working on a highway project, and the Soares family lived in camps with other Brazilian families, who had their own school and club. Bruno started playing tennis at five. Once the family moved to Baghdad, the apartment hotel they lived in had a court and a coach, and he asked his father to sign him up for lessons. He kept playing after the family returned to Belo Horizonte, the city where he settled.

Early years and a knee injury

He played his first ATP events in 1999 and turned professional in 2001. His best singles ranking was No. 221, reached in March 2004, and his career moved towards doubles. In 2005 a serious knee injury kept him off the tour for about two years, until his comeback in 2007. In June 2008 he won his first ATP title in Nottingham with Zimbabwe’s Kevin Ullyett, and the same year he reached the French Open doubles semi-finals. In October 2009 he won again with Ullyett, this time in Stockholm.

Melo, Peya and the top 10

After Ullyett retired, Soares teamed up with fellow Brazilian Marcelo Melo from late 2009 until the end of 2011. The big step came with Austria’s Alexander Peya, his partner from July 2012 to October 2015. In 2012 he won four titles — Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Valencia and Stockholm — and his first Grand Slam, the 2012 US Open mixed doubles with Ekaterina Makarova, against Květa Peschke and Marcin Matkowski. In 2013, with Peya, he won the Canadian Masters 1000, lost the US Open final to Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek and reached the ATP Finals semi-finals. On 7 October 2013 he rose to No. 3 in the doubles rankings. In 2014 he won Canada again and took another US Open mixed title, this time with India’s Sania Mirza.

The Jamie Murray years

In 2016 he began playing with Jamie Murray, and the pair won in Sydney before the double title in Melbourne. That September they won the 2016 US Open, beating Pablo Carreño Busta and Guillermo García-López 6-2, 6-3 in the final. On 17 October 2016 Soares reached No. 2 in the doubles rankings, his career high, and the pair finished the year top of the team race. With Murray he also won the Cincinnati Masters 1000 in 2018 and reached the ATP Finals semi-finals in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Pavić and a second US Open

After the 2019 French Open he partnered Croatia’s Mate Pavić, and they won the Shanghai Masters 1000 that year. In 2020 they won the 2020 US Open, beating Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektić 7-5, 6-3 in the final, and reached the French Open final, which they lost to Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies.

Brazil and the Olympics

He played Davis Cup for Brazil. In February 2013 he and Melo beat the Bryan brothers in the United States. At the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics he partnered Melo, reaching the quarter-finals both times.

Final seasons and retirement

Back with Murray, in 2021 he lost the US Open final to Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury and won the title in Saint Petersburg. His last match came on 2 September 2022, in the US Open second round alongside Murray, and he announced his retirement the next day, 3 September 2022. He finished with 35 ATP doubles titles, four of them at Masters 1000 level, and six Grand Slam titles: three in men’s doubles and three in mixed.