Matt Mitchell (tennis)

Matt Mitchell (born March 16, 1957) is an American former professional tennis player who played in the 1970s and 1980s.

Born in Berkeley, California, Mitchell, as a junior, was the number one player in his age group in Northern California] every second year from the 10s through the 18s. He had four National Junior Titles: National 12-and-under Hardcourt Championships in doubles with Jeff Robinson (Burlingame, California); National 14-and-under Hardcourt Championships in singles where he defeated Perry Wright, (Burlingame, California); National 16-and-under Hardcourt Championships in singles where he defeated Walter Redondo (Burlingame, California); and, the National 16-and-under Hardcourt Championships in doubles with Nial Brash (Kalamazoo, Michigan).

It was in 1974 that Matt Mitchell was recruited by coach Dick Gould of Stanford University where Mitchell signed his letter of intent in 1975. At Stanford MItchell became at 3-time All-American where he achieved his first All-American honors when he beat the two-sport All-American John Lucas from the University of Maryland in the round of 32 at the NCAA Championships in Corpus Christi, Texas. That was the last year of the old 128 single-elimination Singles and Doubles Tournament where schools sent only four of their best players to the tournament.

In 1977 the NCAA Tournament was radically redesigned into two events in an eight day tournament: the first four days were the National Team Championships where the top 16 teams in the country played for the National Championship in a single-elimination tournament; and the second four day tournament was the National Singles and Doubles Tournament where the best players in the country played a single-elimination tournament to determine the individual National Singles & Doubles Champions.

That year, in 1977 Mitchell along with Bill Maze, Perry Wright, John Rast, Jim Hodges, Lloyd Bourne and Peter Rennert won the first ever full squad NCAA National Team Championships. Then in the next four days after Stanford University won the National Team Championships, Mitchell, who was seeded first in the singles event, turned around and won the NCAA Singles Title beating Tony Graham of UCLA in the best of five set final.

In 1979 Mitchell, in his first year as a professional player was nominated as Rookie of the Year after he was ranked the second highest rookie, behind Vince Van Patten. Mitchell's greatest success in singles came at the Black and Decker Championships, at Melbourne in 1984, where he beat Eliot Teltscher who was eight in the world and the number one seed, and Pat Cash who was ten in the world and the number two seed. That single tournament catapulted Mitchell's ranking from 160 in the world to his highest ranking as a professional, 53 in the world. Mitchell's greater successes, though, came as a doubles player, winning seven tournaments in doubles between 1980 and 1985, highlighted by the ATP Player's Championships in Cincinnati, Ohio with Francisco Gonzalez. In 1984 Mitchell achieved his highest doubles ranking as a professional, 30 in the world.

In 2006, Mitchell created his own website to try to bring back more fans to the game of tennis [1] including an introduction for new players (or beginners) to the tennis with his podcast "How to Score in Tennis" explaining the point of the game, the basic terms needed to score correctly, and how a player positions himself correctly when first learning how to play singles.

His website is devoted to sharing information he's acquired over the years from the greatest coaches (and players) who have mentored him over his forty years in the game. Also played football and baseball at Buckhorn High School.

In 2006, Mitchell was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. [2]

External links

• [3] Matt Mitchell's Website
• [4] Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame - Class of 2006
• Profile at ATPTennis.com