Andrei Pavel (born 27 January 1974) is a Romanian tennis coach and former professional tennis player.
He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 13 and won three titles, including the 2001 Canada Masters. He also reached a career-high in doubles of No. 18 and won six doubles titles.
Pavel began playing tennis at the age of eight and moved to Germany at sixteen in 1990.
In 2001, he won the biggest title of his career, the 2001 Canada Masters in Montreal, defeating Patrick Rafter in the final.
In 2002, while he was about to play a quarterfinal at Roland Garros, he jumped into a car and made an express round-trip to Germany to attend the birth of his son. It equalled to 1000 miles in 24 hоurs, in the pouring rain with... Àlex Corretja waiting for his return on the Central.
"It's a bit odd that these two events overlapped, said the Romanian. But no matter the sporting challenge: I would not have missed the birth of Marius for the world. The whole story with the rain was a godsend for the press, but for me, it didn’t really made a difference: I would have gone no matter what."
In 2006, Pavel played what John McEnroe considers to be the best first round match at a Grand Slam he has ever seen at the US Open in August 2006, where he lost to Andre Agassi in four sets; 6–7(4), 7–6(8), 7–6(6), 6–2; taking three and half hours. Had Pavel won, it would have been Agassi's last match in a professional tournament.
In 2009, he played his last singles match in his homeland tournament in Bucharest against Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay. At the same tournament, he also played two more exhibition matches, one facing Goran Ivanišević, while in the other he paired up with Ilie Năstase against Mansour Bahrami and Yannick Noah.
He attended the Olympic Games five times, and played for 20 years on the Romania Davis Cup team. He became the captain of the team in 2009.
After retiring from professional tennis in 2009, Pavel moved into coaching and worked with several ATP and WTA players as well as Romanian prospects. Some notable players he has coached include Benjamin Becker, a former ATP Top 40 player; Marius Copil, whom he coached during part of Copil’s rise into the Top 100; and Horia Tecău, the Romanian doubles specialist and Grand Slam champion.
On the WTA Tour, Pavel worked with several prominent players, including former world No. 1 Simona Halep, joining her coaching team in 2017 alongside Darren Cahill. Earlier in his coaching career he also coached former world No. 1 Jelena Janković and collaborated with Tamira Paszek on the WTA Tour. In addition, he worked with Romanian WTA players such as Sorana Cîrstea and Monica Niculescu during parts of their careers.
He is currently coaching Nicholas David Ionel, Ștefan Paloși and Sebastian Gima.
Pavel was married to a German woman, Simone, from 1994 to 2014, and they have two children: a daughter, Caroline, and a son, Marius.
In 2010, after spending 20 years in Germany, he relocated to Arizona, United States, where he co-founded the Pavel Blackwood Tennis Academy. Since 2018, he has been in a relationship with Adriana Vărbanciu, and in April 2023, they welcomed their daughter, Andreea. He currently resides in Bucharest, Romania.
Doubles (6 titles, 5 runners-up)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
a 2004 US Open counts as 3 wins, 0 losses. Roger Federer walkover in round 4, after Pavel withdrew because of a back injury, does not count as a Pavel loss (nor a Federer win).
Andrei Pavel at the Association of Tennis Professionals