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Taylor Dent

Country	United States
Residence	Bradenton, Florida
Date of birth	April 24, 1981 (1981-04-24) (age 28)
Place of birth	Newport Beach, California
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Weight	91 kg (200 lb; 14.3 st)
Turned pro	1998
Plays	Right-handed; one-handed backhand
Career prize money	$2,067,634
Singles
Career record	127–104
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 21 (August 8, 2005)
Current ranking	No. 76 (December 7, 2009)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3rd (2002, 2004, 2005)
French Open	1st (2003, 2004)
Wimbledon	4th (2005)
US Open	4th (2003)
Doubles
Career record	14–35
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	170 (August 20, 2001)
Last updated on: November 16, 2006.

Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a professional tennis player from the United States.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early career and back injury 1.2 Return from injury 1.3 Playing style 2 Personal life 3 Facts 4 Career finals 4.1 Singles: 7 (4-3) 5 Performance timeline 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career and back injury

He has won 4 ATP singles titles during his career: Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour.

Dent's most memorable performance of his career so far came at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semifinals, where he was defeated by eventual gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. Even more memorable was his bronze medal match against Fernando González, also of Chile, which he lost 16-14 in the 3rd set.

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 very many competitive matches, due to the recurring back and groin problem. Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007.

[edit] 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 Frederic Niemeyer 6-3 7-6(3). He followed this win up by defeating number 2 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 Nicolas 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 8 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 Lopez 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 7-5. He advanced to the third round after upsetting Ivan Navarro in the second round 6-4, 5-7, 6-7, 7-5, 7-6. Following the match he became the first player to take the umpire microphone and thank the crowd for support, following it with a victory lap around the stadium. In the third round, he was beaten by Andy Murray 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

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

[edit] Playing style

Unusual for a contemporary tennis player, Dent favors a pure serve-and-volley style of play. He possesses a powerful serve and strong volleys. He is the owner of the fourth fastest serve in the world, at a velocity of 243 km/h. Andy Roddick, Ivo Karlović and Joachim Johansson are the only three players to have served faster.

[edit] 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 and was a former Top 10 player in U.S. His stepbrother, Brett Hansen-Dent (born July 2, 1972), played on ATP circuit briefly after reaching the NCAA singles final while representing the University of Southern California. His godfather is former top ten player, Australian John Alexander, who was also Phil Dent's doubles partner when they won the 1975 Australian Open doubles title. His first cousin Misty May-Treanor is one of top pro volleyball players in the world and a gold medalist at both the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Dent appeared in a US television commercial for insurer Genworth Financial as the opponent of a young boy playing the role of Jaden Agassi, the son of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Dent attended Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, California, which he played for. He also attended Monte Vista High School, also in California. He has a tattoo of American and Australian flags on his right shoulder. On December 8, 2006, he married WTA Tour player Jennifer Hopkins. Wedding guests included Maria Sharapova, Nick Bollettieri, Jan-Michael Gambill, Tommy Haas and Mashona Washington.

[edit] Facts

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2007)

• Being once over 215 lb (98 kg), he was very injury prone. His injury areas include his ankle, wrist, pinched nerve, and back. This has often caused Taylor to have to quit some of his matches before their completion.
• Dent was forced to change his service motion after he returned to tennis from a back injury. Initially, it seemed to work, as Taylor still averaged a high service speed, but his back problems began to occur again in early 2006.
• Taylor has a somewhat high number of five-set losses in Grand Slam match play (seven overall), including two to Lleyton Hewitt, one at both the 2001 and 2009 Wimbledon tournament, and the other at the 2005 U.S. Open.
• Taylor was a color commentator on the The Tennis Channel for the 2006 U.S. Open with announcer Tim Ryan and was invited back to the 2007 U.S. Open to do both commentating and host the popular "Off-Court Spotlight with Taylor Dent" interviews.

[edit] Career finals

[edit] Singles: 7 (4-3)

Wins (4)

Legend

Grand Slam (0)

Tennis Masters Cup (0)

ATP Masters Series (0)

ATP International Series Gold (1)

ATP Tour (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	7 July 2002	Newport, United States	Grass	James Blake	6–1, 4–6, 6–4
2.	17 February 2003	Memphis, U.S.	Hard (i)	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–4
3.	22 September 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6–3, 7–6(5)
4.	29 September 2003	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Sargis Sargsian	7–6(5), 6–4

Runner-ups (3)

• 2004
  • Tokyo (lost to Jiří Novák)
• 2005
  • Adelaide (lost to Joachim Johansson)
  • Indianapolis (lost to Robby Ginepri)

[edit] Performance timeline

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[edit] See also

• List of male tennis players

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site (Coming soon)
• Taylor Dent at the Association of Tennis Professionals