Belarusian tennis great Maxim Mirnyi celebrates his 48th birthday today. The GoTennis.ru team joins the many well-wishers sending him congratulations and wishes for continued luck, success, and robust health.
Born in Minsk, Belarus, Maxim is the older son of Nikolai and Tatiana Mirnyi, and brother to Petr. Sports run in the Mirnyi family: his father was a top-division volleyball player in the 1960s, while his mother was a sprint swimmer who set a national record in 1971. Maxim began playing tennis at the age of six.
Mirnyi turned professional in 1996. While primarily known for doubles, he had success in singles, winning one ATP title in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2003. That same year, on August 18, he achieved his career-best singles ranking of world No. 18. He also reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2002.
It was in doubles where Mirnyi truly excelled. He captured an impressive 52 ATP doubles titles, including six Grand Slam championships and two ATP Finals titles. He was also a four-time Grand Slam runner-up. His success culminated in reaching the world No. 1 doubles ranking for the first time in June 2003.
Mirnyi also found significant success in mixed doubles at the Grand Slams. He won the US Open three times (1998, 2007, 2013) and Wimbledon once (1998), in addition to reaching four other mixed doubles finals.
A highlight of his career was winning the mixed doubles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics alongside compatriot Victoria Azarenka. They defeated the British pair Andy Murray and Laura Robson in the final.
Over his distinguished career, the Belarusian earned $11,763,620 in prize money. He officially retired from professional tennis in November 2018.
Married to Ksenia since July 10, 2004, Max and his wife have four children: daughters Melania (b. December 16, 2004) and Petra (b. March 8, 2007), and sons Demid (b. November 10, 2009) and Trofim (b. August 2, 2014).
Giving back to the sport, Mirnyi opened the Max Mirnyi Tennis Center in Minsk in 2011, which currently provides training for over 400 young athletes.
Since November 2019, Mirnyi has served as the coach for Japanese tennis professional Kei Nishikori.
In more recent news, it was reported in December 2023 that Mirnyi had been diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor and has since been recovering in Florida.
