Taylor Dent

Taylor Dent
Full name Taylor Phillip Dent
Country (sports)  United States
Residence Newport Beach, California
Born (1981-04-24) April 24, 1981
Newport Beach, California
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro 1998
Retired November 8, 2010
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $2,563,378
Singles
Career record 151–140 (ATP Tour and Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 4
Highest ranking No. 21 (August 8, 2005)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 3R (2002, 2004, 2005)
French Open 2R (2005)
Wimbledon 4R (2005)
US Open 4R (2003)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games SF – 4th (2004)
Doubles
Career record 16–37 (ATP Tour and Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 170 (August 20, 2001)
Last updated on: July 17, 2012.

Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21, winning 4 singles titles.

Career

Early career and back injury

Dent won ATP titles in Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour. His victory in Memphis is still often referred to as his most impressive victory, as he beat future World No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

Dent played with distinction at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semi-finals, where he was defeated by eventual Gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. He went on to lose the Bronze medal match 16-14 in the third set against Fernando González of Chile.

Dent, paired with Lisa Raymond, won the 2006 Hopman Cup, defeating the Netherlands two sets to one in the final.

In 2006 Dent did not play many competitive matches, due to a recurring back and groin problem. Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007.

Return from injury

On May 26, 2008 Dent received a wild card and played at the Carson challenger in the United States. It was his first match since February 2006. He lost his first round match to Cecil Mamiit. In July 2008 Dent took a wild card into his first ATP tour event for two seasons at the Hall of Fame tennis tournament in Newport, Rhode Island. He lost in three sets to Canada's Frank Dancevic.

On November 12, 2008 Dent won his first comeback match at the Champaign challenger against Frédéric Niemeyer, 6–3, 7–6(3). He followed this win up by defeating second seed and fellow American Robert Kendrick. In the third round, Dent had to withdraw against Sam Warburg.

Using his protected ranking of 56, Dent played the 2009 Australian Open, where he was eliminated in the first round by Amer Delic.

As a qualifier, he reached the fourth round of the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open, defeating Nicolás Almagro and Tommy Robredo in the process. He lost to Roger Federer in the fourth round, 3–6, 2–6. Despite the scoreline, the first set was a very entertaining encounter, with Federer's longest service game lasting just short of a quarter of an hour; Dent had eight break point opportunities. He had a poor run of form following this, but reversed the poor form by qualifying for Wimbledon, having entered the qualifying via a wildcard. He won his way through to the main draw, where he lost to Daniel Gimeno-Traver in five sets in the first round.

He received a wild card for the 2009 US Open and won his first US Open match since 2005, upsetting Feliciano López, 4–6, 7–6, 6–3, 7–5. He advanced to the third round after upsetting Iván Navarro in the second round, 6–4, 5–7, 6–7, 7–5, 7–6. Following the match, he took the umpire microphone and thanked the crowd for support, following it with a victory lap around the stadium. In the third round, he was beaten by Andy Murray, 3-6, 2-6, 2-6.

Following the US Open, Dent won the USTA Challenger of Oklahoma in Tulsa.

In his opening event of the 2010 season, he entered the main draw at the 2010 Australian Open. He defeated Fabio Fognini, 6–1, 6–2, 6–2, in the first round and moved on to face tenth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom he lost.

On May 25, 2010, in Roland Garros, against Nicolás Lapentti, Dent served at 240 km/h and set a new tournament record that Fernando Verdasco and Andy Roddick had held before him (with 232 km/h). Additionally, at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on June 23, 2010, Dent set a record with the fastest serve ever recorded at the Wimbledon tournament at 148 mph.

On November 8, 2010, Taylor Dent announced his retirement from professional tennis.[1]

Playing style

Unusual for a contemporary tennis player, Dent favored a pure serve-and-volley style of play. He possessed a powerful serve and strong volleys. He had the fourth fastest serve in the world, at a velocity of 243 km/h. At Wimbledon 2010 he set the record for the fastest serve ever recorded at the event with a speed of 238 km/h. (148 mph) [2]

Personal life

Dent is the son of former ATP player and 1974 Australian Open finalist Phil Dent. Taylor's mother, Betty Ann Grubb Stuart, who has remarried, reached the U.S. Open doubles final in 1977 with Renée Richards. Grubb was a former top-10 singles player in the United States.

Dent's stepbrother, Brett Hansen-Dent, played on ATP circuit for a short time after playing on the tennis team of the University of Southern California and reaching singles final of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship.

His godfather is the former top ten player John Alexander, of Australia, who was Phil Dent's doubles partner when that duo won the 1975 Australian Open doubles title.

Dent's first cousin, Misty May-Treanor, was one of the top pro volleyball players in the world, and she and her teammates won the gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Dent appeared in an American TV commercial for the insurance company Genworth Financial as the opponent of a boy playing the role of Jaden Agassi, the young son of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Dent attended Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., and he was on the interscholastic tennis team there. Dent also attended the Monte Vista High School, in Northern California.

On December 8, 2006, Dent married WTA Tour player, Jennifer Hopkins. Their wedding party included Maria Sharapova, Nick Bollettieri, Jan-Michael Gambill, Tommy Haas, Xavier Malisse, Willie Alumbaugh and Mashona Washington. Jenny gave birth to a baby boy on January 26, 2010, named Declan and on October 22, 2014, a baby girl named Reagan Janice.

Taylor has been a commentator on The Tennis Channel for the US Open in 2006, 2007, and 2011.

Dent has a tattoo of the American flag and of the Australian flag on his right shoulder.

Major finals

Olympic finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
4th place2004 Athens Hard Chile Fernando González 4–6, 6–2, 14–16

Career finals

Singles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runners-up)

Legend (pre/post 2009)
Grand Slam (0–0)
Tennis Masters Cup /
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series /
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP International Series Gold /
ATP World Tour 500 series (1–1)
ATP International Series /
ATP World Tour 250 series (3–2)
Titles by Surface
Hard (2–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (1–0)
Carpet (1–0)
Titles by Surface
Outdoors (1–3)
Indoors (3–0)
Outcome No. Date (Final) Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. July 7 2002 Newport, United States Grass United States James Blake 6–1, 4–6, 6–4
Winner 2. February 17, 2003 Memphis, United States Hard (i) United States Andy Roddick 6–1, 6–4
Winner 3. September 22, 2003 Bangkok, Thailand Hard (i) Spain Juan Carlos Ferrero 6–3, 7–6(7-5)
Winner 4. September 29 2003 Moscow, Russia Carpet (i) Armenia Sargis Sargsian 7–6(7-5), 6–4
Runner-up 5. October 10, 2004 Tokyo, Japan Hard Czech Republic Jiří Novák 7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Runner-up 6. January 9 2005 Adelaide, Australia Hard Sweden Joachim Johansson 5–7, 3–6
Runner-up 7. July 24 2005 Indianapolis, United States Hard United States Robby Ginepri 6–4, 3–6, 0–3, ret.

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Legend (pre/post 2009)
Grand Slam (0–0)
Tennis Masters Cup /
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series /
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP International Series Gold /
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP International Series /
ATP World Tour 250 series (0–1)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0–1)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Titles by Surface
Outdoors (0–1)
Indoors (0–0)
Outcome No. Date (Final) Tournament Surface Partner Opponents in the final Score
Runner-up 1. September 19, 2004 Beijing, China Hard United States Alex Bogomolov Jr. United States Justin Gimelstob
United States Graydon Oliver
6–4, 4–6, 6–7(6-8)

Singles performance timeline

Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Career W-L Career Win % Career SR
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A A 3R A 3R 3R 1R A A 1R 2R 7–6 57.14 0/6
French Open A A A A A 1R 1R A A A A A 2R 1–3 25.00 0/3
Wimbledon A A 1R 2R 3R 1R 3R 4R A A A 1R 2R 9–8 52.94 0/8
US Open 2R 1R 1R 2R 1R 4R 2R 3R A A A 3R 2R 11–10 52.38 0/10
Win-Loss 1–1 0–1 0–2 2–2 4–3 3–3 5–4 7–3 0–1 0–0 0–0 2–3 4–4 28–27 50.90 N/A
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A 1R 2R 1R A 4R 4R A A A 2R 1R 7–7 50.00 0/7
Miami A A A 2R A 2R 2R QF A A A 4R 2R 10–6 62.50 0/6
Monte Carlo A A A A A 1R 2R A A A A A A 1–2 33.33 0/2
Rome A A A A A A A A A A A A A 0–0 00.00 0/0
Madrid A A A A A A QF 1R A A A A A 3–2 60.00 0/2
Hamburg A A A A A A A A A A A NMS 0–0 00.00 0/0
Toronto / Montreal A A A A 3R A A 2R A A A A A 3–2 60.00 0/2
Cincinnati A A 2R 1R 3R A 1R 1R A A A A 2R 4–6 40.00 0/6
Shanghai NMS YEC NMS YEC A 0–0 00.00 0/0
Paris A A A A A A 1R 2R A A A A 1–2 33.33 0/2
Career Statistics
Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
ATP Finals Reached 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 7
Titles 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
Runners-up 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3
Year End Ranking 410 227 181 124 57 33 32 29 574 N/A 865 76 N/A

See also

References

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