Jonathan Erlich

Country	Israel
Residence	Tel Aviv, Israel
Born	(1977-04-05) April 5, 1977 (age 35) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	81 kg (180 lb; 12.8 st)
Turned pro	1996
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$1,578,642
Singles
Career record	6–6
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	292 (October 4, 1999)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	DNP
French Open	DNP
Wimbledon	DNP
US Open	DNP
Doubles
Career record	206–139
Career titles	17
Highest ranking	5 (July 7, 2008)
Current ranking	52 (January 31, 2011)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (2008)
French Open	3rd (2004, 2007)
Wimbledon	SF (2003), 2R (2012)
US Open	QF (2005)
Other Doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (2006, 2007)
Olympic Games	QF (2004)
Last updated on: August 4, 2008.

Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich (Hebrew: יונתן דאריו "יוני" ארליך, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 5, 1977) is a professional Israeli tennis player. Erlich has reached 27 doubles finals and won 15 of them, mostly with partner Andy Ram.

He attained his highest doubles ranking through July 2009, # 5, in July 2008.

  Background

Erlich, who is Jewish,^[1][2] was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He moved to Haifa, Israel, when he was a 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.^[3] 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.

Erlich is known as a fan of the football team Maccabi Haifa.^[4]

  Tennis career

  1996–2005

Erlich and 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, 7–6, 7–6, 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, 6–3, 7–6 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 7–6, 6–2. Erlich and Ram won their fourth major tournament in Rotterdam in February 2005. They beat Czechs Cyril Suk and Pavel Vízner 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 in the finals. Ram and Erlich missed the 2005 Roland Garros grand slam tournament. Ram's father had died 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.

  Ram/Erlich at the 2008 Gerry Weber Open

  2006–present

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.^[5]

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. In November, they again defeated the world # 1 ranked Bryan brothers at the Tennis Masters Cup in China, 7–6, 2–6, 6–1. 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. The team won their first Grand Slam by winning the 2008 Australian Open final against Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra 7–5, 7–6.

From September 2008 till May 2009 Erlich was recovering from right elbow surgery, and suffered setback after setback,^[6] while Ram was playing doubles with other partners. The Israel Open ATP Challenger tournament in May 2009 was the first where the two reunited. Erlich and Ram proceeded to the tournament's final, where they lost to George Bastl and Chris Guccione 6–3, 7–6³. After the tournament Ram announced that he was going to finish the season with his temporary partner Max Mirnyi, before returning to play with Erlich on a permanent basis.^[7] Later the same month, Erlich partnering Harel Levy won his first ATP tournament after returning to play, the Türk Telecom İzmir Cup (an ATP Challenger Tour event).

  Davis Cup

Playing for the Israel Davis Cup team in 2000 and from 2002–09, he has won 12 of his 16 matches, including wins in Israel's 2006 3–2 win over Great Britain, 2007 5–0 win over Luxembourg, 2007 3–2 wins over Italy and Chile (in which he and Ram defeated Olympic Gold Medal winners González and Massú), and 2009 win over Russia.^[8]

Israel (ranked 8th in the Davis Cup standings, with 5,394 points) hosted heavily favored Russia (which won in both 2002 and 2006, and was the top-ranked country in Davis Cup standings, with 27,897 points) in a Davis Cup quarterfinal tie in July 2009, on indoor hard courts at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.^[9][10] Israel was represented by Erlich, Ram, Dudi Sela, and Harel Levy. Russia's lineup consisted of Marat Safin (# 24 in the world; former world # 1), Igor Andreev (26), Igor Kunitsyn (35), and Mikhail Youzhny (44; former world # 8).^[11][12] The stage was set by Safin, who prior to the tie told the press: "With all due respect, Israel was lucky to get to the quarterfinals."^[13] The Israeli team's response was to beat the Russian team in each of their first three matches, thereby winning the tie. Levy, world # 210, beat Russia's top player, Andreev, world # 24, 6–4, 6–2, 4–6, 6–2 in the opening match. Sela (# 33) followed by beating Russian Youzhny 3–6, 6–1, 6–0, 7–5. Israeli captain Eyal Ran likened his players to two fighter jets on court, saying: "I felt as if I had two F-16s out there today, they played amazingly well." The 10,500 spectators were the largest crowd ever for a tennis match in Israel.^[14] The next day Erlich and Ram beat Safin and Kunitsyn 6–3, 6–4, 6–7, 4–6, 6–4 in front of a boisterous crowd of over 10,000.^[15] "This is something I will cherish for all of my life," said Erlich.^[16] He added, "Everybody has dreams, but there are some you don’t allow yourself to have, and beating Russia 3–0 was just like that .. but we have done it."^[17] Even the Saudi Gazette described the doubles match as a "thrilling" win.^[18] Ran was carried shoulder-high around the Tel Aviv stadium, as the 10,000-strong crowd applauded.^[19] With the tie clinched for Israel, the reverse singles rubbers were "dead", and instead of best-of-five matches, best-of-three sets were played, with the outcomes of little to no importance.^[16] Israel wrapped up a 4–1 victory over Russia, as Levy defeated Kunitsyn 6–4, 4–6, 7–6, while Sela retired with a wrist injury while down 3–4 in the first set against Andreev.^[20]

Israel will next face the Spain Davis Cup team in Spain on September 18–20, in Israel's first appearance in the Davis Cup semifinals.^[21] "Everything is possible, everything starts at zero-zero," said Erlich. "Obviously it will be very difficult, especially playing there on clay. We do our best, we give our hearts, and more than that we cannot do."^[22]

  Olympics

Erlich and Ram represented Israel at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, and reached the quarterfinals. They also represented Israel at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

  Major finals

  Grand Slam finals

  Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	2008	Australian Open	Hard	Andy Ram	Arnaud Clément Michaël Llodra	7–5, 7–6(7–4)

  ATP Career Finals

  Doubles: 29 (17-12)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	July 10, 2000	Newport, United States	Grass	Harel Levy	Kyle Spencer Mitch Sprengelmeyer	7–6(7–2), 7–5
Winner	2.	September 29, 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andy Ram	Jarkko Nieminen Andrew Kratzmann	6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Winner	3.	October 13, 2003	Lyon, France	Carpet	Andy Ram	Nicolas Mahut Julien Benneteau	6–1, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	January 11, 2004	Chennai, India	Hard	Andy Ram	Rafael Nadal Tommy Robredo	6–7(3–7), 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	February 22, 2004	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Radek Štěpánek	7–5, 6–7(5–7), 5–7
Winner	4.	October 11, 2004	Lyon, France	Carpet	Andy Ram	Radek Štěpánek Jonas Björkman	7–6(7–2), 6–2
Winner	5.	February 25, 2005	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard	Andy Ram	Cyril Suk Pavel Vízner	6–4, 4–6, 6–3
Winner	6.	June 20, 2005	Nottingham, England	Grass	Andy Ram	Simon Aspelin Todd Perry	4–6, 6–3, 7–5
Runner-up	3.	July 31, 2005	Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Rick Leach Brian MacPhie	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	August 13, 2005	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Andy Ram	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	7–6(7–5), 3–6, 0–6
Runner-up	5.	October 2, 2005	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Leander Paes	6–5(7–5), 1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	6.	October 16, 2005	Vienna, Austria	Hard (i)	Andy Ram	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	3–5, 4–5(2–5)
Winner	7.	January 9, 2006	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Kevin Ullyett	7–6(7–4), 7–6(12–10)
Runner-up	7.	February 26, 2006	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (i)	Andy Ram	Paul Hanley Kevin Ullyett	6–7(4–7), 6–7(2–7)
Runner-up	8.	May 13, 2006	Rome, Italy	Clay	Andy Ram	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	4–6, 7–5, [11–13]
Winner	8.	June 26, 2006	Nottingham, England	Grass	Andy Ram	Igor Kunitsyn Dmitry Tursunov	6–3, 6–3
Winner	9.	August 28, 2006	New Haven, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	6–3, 6–3
Winner	10.	October 2, 2006	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andy Ram	Andy Murray Jamie Murray	6–2, 2–6, [10–4]
Runner-up	9.	March 4, 2007	Las Vegas, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(6–8), 2–6
Runner-up	10.	March 18, 2007	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Martin Damm Leander Paes	4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	11.	August 5, 2007	Washington, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5–7), 6–3, [7–10]
Winner	11.	August 19, 2007	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	4–6, 6–3, [13–11]
Winner	12.	January 26, 2008	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Andy Ram	Arnaud Clément Michaël Llodra	7–5, 7–6(7–4)
Winner	13.	March 21, 2008	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Daniel Nestor Nenad Zimonjić	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	12.	August 3, 2008	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–7(2–7), [7–10]
Winner	14.	June 13, 2010	London, United Kingdom	Grass	Novak Djokovic	Karol Beck David Škoch	6–7(6–8), 6–2, [10–3]
Winner	15.	June 20, 2011	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Andy Ram	Grigor Dimitrov Andreas Seppi	6–3, 6–3
Winner	16.	August 27, 2011	Winston-Salem, United States	Hard	Andy Ram	Christopher Kas Alexander Peya	7–6(7–2), 6–4
Winner	17.	May 6, 2012	Belgrade, Serbia	Clay	Andy Ram	Martin Emmrich Andreas Siljeström	4–6, 6–2, [10–6]

  See also

• List of select Jewish tennis players

  References

  External links

• Jonathan Erlich at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Davis Cup bio
• Jewish Virtual Library bio
• Jews in Sports bio

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