Bates became a professional tennis player in 1982. Together with Jo Durie he won the mixed competitions in 1987 at Wimbledon and in 1991 at the Australian Open . Together with Peter Lundgren , he was also in the double finals of the Australian Open in 1988. During his career he won a single tournament on the ATP World Tour as well as three doubles tournaments. His highest placement on the tennis world rankings was 54th in singles in 1995 and 25th in doubles in 1991.
Bates played 36 singles and 15 doubles games for the British Davis Cup team between 1985 and 1994 . His greatest success with the team was participating in the quarterfinals of the world group, which Australia won 4-1. He lost on the side of Colin Dowdeswell the double encounter and his single game against Pat Cash . He won his second individual against Paul McNamee .
At the 1988 Summer Olympics , he competed in singles and doubles for Great Britain. In doubles he was eliminated on the side of Andrew Castle against the doubles from Yugoslavia in the first round. He reached the second round by beating Gilad Bloom , where he was defeated by the later gold medalist Miloslav Mečíř .
After retiring from professional sport, he became team boss of the British Davis Cup team.
United Kingdom
Seoul
Jörn Renzenbrink
Tel Aviv
Rikard Bergh Per Henricsson
Kevin Curren
Henri Leconte Ivan Lendl
Rotterdam
Darren Cahill Nicole Provis