Marcus Daniell (born 9 November 1989) is an inactive New Zealand professional tennis player. He reached his career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 34 on 29 January 2018 after reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He won a bronze medal in the men's doubles at the 2020 Summer Olympics, alongside Michael Venus.
Daniell is a philanthropist and an advocate for effective altruism through his work as the founder of High Impact Athletes and as a member of Giving What We Can.
Tennis career
2010: ATP debut
While mainly playing in futures events, Daniell received a doubles wild card entry to play in the 2010 Heineken Open, an ATP 250 event in his home country of New Zealand. With new doubles partner, Horia Tecău, they had an improbable run to the finals of the event. The pair first dispatched fellow New Zealanders the Statham brothers, 6–3, 6–2. Daniell and Tecău then won a three set showdown against the third seeded Spaniards Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers, 3–6. 7–6(5), 10–8. In the semifinal match Daniell and Tecău faced Johan Brunström and Jean-Julien Rojer who had defeated grand slam winners Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes. Daniell and Tecău prevailed 3–6, 7–6(4), 10–8 to set up a final with Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares. In the championship match, Daniell and Tecău won against the Brazilians 7–5, 6–4, each player winning their first ATP World Tour title.
Daniell was to represent New Zealand in both the singles and the doubles, paired with Rubin Statham, at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. However, he had to withdraw due to an ongoing back injury, leaving Statham to compete in the singles alone.
2015
Daniell first teamed up with Brazilian Marcelo Demoliner in the ATP Challenger grass series leading up to Wimbledon. They followed their runner-up finish to Ken and Neal Skupski at Surbiton by beating the same opponents a week later in the final at Ilkley.
2016
Daniell won the Stuttgart Open with Artem Sitak before again teaming up with Demoliner. They reached their first ATP World Tour final when runners-up in the Swedish Open.
Daniell competed with Michael Venus at the 2016 Summer Olympics, losing a close first round match to Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 6–4, 3–6, 6–7 (6).
2017
Daniell and Demoliner reached three ATP World Tour finals, at São Paulo, Lyon and Chengdu, although they were unable to win any of them, and improved their ranking as a team to World number 15. He achieved his best win when, having had to qualify for the Swiss Indoor tournament in Basel because Demoliner was playing in Vienna, he and new partner Dominic Inglot beat the top seeds, the world's second-ranked pair of Henri Kontinen and John Peers, in the first round. They eventually lost in the semi-final to Fabrice Martin and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
2018
After losing in first-round match tie-breaks in both Brisbane and Auckland, Daniell and Inglot won through to the quarter-finals in the Australian Open. In a high quality three-set match, where they saved match points in both the second and third sets, they lost to the eventual tournament winners, Oliver Marach and Mate Pavić, 4–6, 7–6 (10), 6–7 (5). Daniell also played in the Mixed Doubles, teaming up with Chinese player Xu Yifan. They drew third seeds and eventual semi-finalists Ekaterina Makarova and Bruno Soares as their first-round opponents and, although winning the second set, were outclassed in the match tie-break, the final score being 6–3, 5–7, 10–2.
Daniell and Artem Sitak teamed up for the doubles in the Davis Cup tie against China, but were beaten by Gong Mao-Xin and Zhang Ze. He then returned to the ATP tour with Inglot, losing in the first round in Montpellier before finishing runners-up to Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen in Marseille. Although Daniell had previously faced a New Zealander (Rubin Statham) in a Challenger doubles final, this was the first time that New Zealanders had been on opposite sides of the net in an ATP World Tour doubles final. Daniell and Inglot then moved to Dubai, where they lost in a match tie-break in the first round to second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecău.