Brian Baker (tennis player)

Brian Baker
Brian Baker at the 2016 French Open
Nation:	United States
Birthday:	April 30, 1985
Size:	191 cm
Weight:	77 kg
1st professional season:	2003
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Trainer:	Ricardo Acuna
Prize money:	$ 1,184,653
singles
Career record:	20:40
Highest ranking:	52 (October 29, 2012)
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	35:33
Career title:	2
Highest ranking:	29 (May 22, 2017)
Grand Slam record
Mixed
Grand Slam record
Last update of the infobox: October 22, 2018
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Brian Baker (born April 30, 1985 in Nashville , Tennessee ) is an American tennis player .

life and career

2000–2003: Successes as a junior and first experiences as a professional

Brian Baker started playing tennis at the age of two. After surviving a serious operation in 1999, he competed in international junior tournaments from 2000. Until 2003 he won numerous tournaments, including the Orange Bowl in 2002, and during this time defeated the later top 10 players Marcos Baghdatis , Tomáš Berdych , John Isner , Gaël Monfils , Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stanislas Wawrinka, among others . In the junior world rankings, he rose to second place, his best result in a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the finals at the 2003 French Open .

From 2001 Baker also took part in professional tournaments. In April 2002 he was listed for the first time in the top 1000 of world ranking points after participating in the semi-finals in a future tournament . In August 2002 he got a wild card for the ATP tournament in Indianapolis , but lost his first round match against Wayne Ferreira . After reaching a future final for the first time in 2003, Brian Baker received a wildcard for the US Open in August 2003 . In his Grand Slam debut, he was defeated by Jürgen Melzer in four sets.

2004–2005: First Challenger title and ATP match wins

The year 2004 began for Brian Baker with his first future title. In February 2004, Baker won an ATP match for the first time against top 100 player Antony Dupuis at the ATP tournament in Memphis , for which he received a wildcard . In Newport in July 2004, a further second-round participation followed in an ATP tournament. After he had already reached several quarter-finals at Challenger tournaments this year , Baker was able to win his first title in this category in Denver in August 2004 by beating KJ Hippensteel in the final . At the US Open , for which he received a wildcard as in the previous year, he was able to win a set in the first round against Carlos Moyá , who was fourth in the world rankings at the time. In November 2004, Baker reached after two more Challenger quarter-finals with 172nd his best place in the world rankings. In doubles he was even able to move up to 113th place after three Challenger titles and a second round participation at the US Open.

In early 2005, Brian Baker defeated Novak Đoković, who would later be number one in the world rankings, when he qualified for the Adelaide ATP tournament . In February 2005, at the ATP tournament in Memphis, he only narrowly failed in three sets against the then top 50 player Max Mirny . This was followed by a ten-week break due to a wrist injury, but three months later he was in the final of a Challenger tournament for the second time in Tunica Resorts , but lost it to James Blake . Further Challenger semi-finals followed in Ettlingen , Lexington and Binghamton later in the year . Brian Baker caused a sensation at the US Open when he defeated the French Open winner of 2004, Gastón Gaudio, who was 9th in the first round, in three straight sets. In the second round, however, he was eliminated against Xavier Malisse .

2006–2010: injury break

The US Open 2005 was one of the last tournaments for Brian Baker for a long time: Due to persistent pain, Baker underwent an operation on his left hip in late 2005. This was not to be the last, however: The next year, he had a groin operation, in 2008 two more operations on the left and right hip and finally an operation on the elbow (known as Tommy John Surgery ). Between the surgeries, Baker tried a comeback on the Challenger Tour in November 2007, but gave up that plan after three tournaments. Instead, he studied economics and worked as an assistant coach for the tennis team at Belmont University in Nashville .

2011–2012: Comeback with the first ATP final and entry into the top 100

In July 2011, Brian Baker decided to make a second comeback attempt. At a future tournament in Pittsburgh, he qualified for the main draw and was able to win the title there without losing a set. In November, the comeback on the ATP Challenger Tour followed in Knoxville : Baker defeated the top 200 players Izak van der Merwe and Uladsimir Ihnazik as a qualifier and immediately reached the final, which he lost to Jesse Levine .

At the beginning of 2012, Brian Baker won two more future titles, which brought him back into the top 400 in the world rankings. At the end of April 2012, Baker reached a Challenger final in Savannah for the second time since his long break, which he won in two sets against Augustin Gensse . Since this tournament was also a USTA qualification tournament for the French Open 2012 , Baker had also won a wildcard for his first Grand Slam tournament in almost seven years when he reached the final . As a final preparation for this, Baker entered the ATP tournament in Nice , where he reached his first ATP final after successfully qualifying with victories, among others over the 4th placed Gaël Monfils and the former world number three Nikolai Dawydenko . There, however, he had no chance against defending champion Nicolás Almagro, who was third . In the world rankings, Baker made a jump to 141st place after this tournament, improving his old record from 2004. At the French Open, Baker won his first round match in three sets against Xavier Malisse , against whom he was eliminated in his last Grand Slam match in 2005. In the second round he played on the center court against the local hero Gilles Simon , who was in 11th position , against whom he fought his way into a fifth set after a 2-0 set deficit, but then clearly lost it. A month later, Baker succeeded in qualifying for the main draw at Wimbledon , where he advanced to the round of 16 with victories over Rui Machado , Jarkko Nieminen and Benoît Paire . There he was defeated by Philipp Kohlschreiber , who was in 27th position , but the collected world ranking points were enough for the first entry into the top 100 of the world ranking list.

Parts of this article seem out of date as of 2012 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

successes

Legend (number of victories) Grand Slam ATP World Tour Finals ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ATP World Tour 500 ATP World Tour 250 (2) ATP Challenger Tour (10)

ATP title by topping Hard Court (1) Sand (1) Lawn (0)

singles

Tournament victories

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	August 8, 2004	Denver	Hard court	KJ Hippensteel	7: 6 5 , 6: 4
2.	April 29, 2012	Savannah	sand	Augustin Gensse	6: 4, 6: 3

Final participation

No.	date	competition	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	May 26, 2012	Nice	sand	Nicolás Almagro	3: 6, 2: 6

Double

Tournament victories

ATP World Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	19th February 2017	Memphis	Hard court (i)	Nikola Mektic	Ryan Harrison Steve Johnson	6: 3, 6: 4
2.	April 30, 2017	Budapest	sand	Nikola Mektic	Juan Sebastián Cabal Robert Farah	7: 6 2 , 6: 4

ATP Challenger Tour

No.	date	competition	Topping	partner	Final opponent	Result
1.	July 18, 2004	Granby	Hard court	Frank Dancevic	Harel Levy Davide Sanguinetti	6: 2, 7: 6 5
2.	August 8, 2004	Denver	Hard court	Rajeev Ram	Jamie Delgado Jonathan Marray	6: 2, 6: 2
3.	November 20, 2004	Champaign	Hard court (i)	Rajeev Ram	Justin Gimelstob Oliver Graydon	7: 6 5 , 7: 6 7
4th	April 24, 2016	Savannah	sand	Ryan Harrison	Purav Raja Divij Sharan	5: 7, 7: 6 4 , [10: 8]
5.	October 9, 2016	Stockton	Hard court	Sam Groth	Matt Reid John-Patrick Smith	6: 2, 4: 6, [10: 2]
6th	October 16, 2016	Fairfield	Hard court	Mackenzie McDonald	Sekou Bangoura Eric Quigley	6: 3, 6: 4
7th	October 23, 2016	Las Vegas	Hard court	Matt Reid	Björn Fratangelo Denis Kudla	6: 1, 7: 5
8th.	November 6, 2016	Charlottesville	Hard court (i)	Sam Groth	Brydan Klein Ruan Roelofse	6: 3, 6: 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jason Gay: The Wonder That Tennis Forgot. In: wsj.com. May 21, 2012, accessed October 26, 2018 . 
2. ^ Geoff MacDonald: Straight Sets, Straight Sets Tennis Blog of The New York Times For Brian Baker, a Career Derailed by Injuries. In: nytimes.com. June 29, 2009, accessed October 26, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Whatever happened to top American junior Brian Baker ?! In: worldtennismagazine.com. April 16, 2012, accessed October 26, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Donald Heath: Baker, Gensse advance to final of Savannah Challenger. In: savannahnow.com. April 28, 2012, accessed October 26, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Brian Baker  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ATP profile of Brian Baker (English)
• ITF Profile of Brian Baker (English)
• ITF junior profile Brian Baker (English)