João Cunha e Silva
João Cunha e Silva ( born November 27, 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal ) is a former Portuguese tennis player.
Life
Cunha e Silva began at the age of eight years with the sport of tennis. He won several national junior champion and came back in 1984 for the first time in Portugal Davis Cup team. In 1987 he became a professional tennis player, but initially was able to record any significant success. In 1989 he reached the final of the ATP tournament of Nancy on the side of Eduardo Masso. As a result, he played on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he was successful and in 1990 the double title of Nairobi won. In the same year he scored in Turin and Sao Paulo twin titles on the Challenger Tour. In 1992 he won at the side of Mike Bauer his first doubles title on the ATP Tour, which he was until then first Portuguese tennis player who had succeeded. His second and last doubles title followed in 1997 in Casablanca. In addition, he was two more times in an ATP doubles final, but lost. Its highest listing in the tennis world ranking he reached in 1991 with position 108 in single and in 1989 with position 72 in doubles.
His best individual results in Grand Slam tournaments were to reach the second round of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. In the doubles competition, he managed to qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments, but never got beyond the first round. His only appearance in Mixed took place at the Australian Open in 1989, and here he left in the first round.
Cunha e Silva played 1984-2000 53 singles and 24 doubles matches for the Portuguese Davis Cup team. His single balance was 25:28, the double balance balanced with 12:12. During this time he played only once in the World Group for the first-round defeat in 1994 against Croatia. Here, he stepped to the side of Nuno Marques in a double, the game went smoothly in three sets to Saša and Goran Ivanisevic Hiršzon.