Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delray Beach in 2004) and reached the semifinals three times at the Brasil Open. He played most of his tennis in Challenger tournaments, where he won 15 singles titles and three doubles titles.

Career

Early days

Ricardo was born in Campinas, Brazil and started to play tennis at the age of three. At 15, he drew a wild card into a tournament in his hometown. He lost to veteran and French Open winner Gustavo Kuerten. However, he gained his first ATP career points. In 1999, Ricardo won his first Futures events in Uruguay and Paraguay.

2004

Mello won his lone ATP title at Delray Beach, defeating Vincent Spadea in the final. One of his first major feats was qualifying for the main singles draw in the Australian Open that year, his first participation in a Grand Slam tournament; he lost to #8 seed David Nalbandian in the first round.

2006

At the Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships, Mello played top seed Andy Murray. Murray was in control of the first set, winning 6–1, but Mello won the second set 6–1. Mello took the third and final to a tiebreak, after having three match points. He lost in the tiebreak 5–7. At the RCA Championships in Indianapolis, Mello faced Jean-René Lisnard in the first round and won in straight sets. In the second round, he faced 14th seed Vincent Spadea and lost.

Sponsorship

The sponsor for his clothes, shoes and racquets was Babolat.

ATP Tour Career Finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 30 (21–9)

Doubles: 16 (3–13)

Grand Slam performance timeline