Brian Teacher

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brian Teacher
Country Flag of United States United States
Residence San Diego, California
Date of birth December 23, 1954 (age 52)
Place of birth Omaha, Nebraska
Height 6'3 (190 cm)
Weight 175 lbs (79 kg)
Turned Pro -
Plays Right-handed
Career Prize Money $1,426,514
Singles
Career record: 335 - 235
Career titles: 8
Highest ranking: 7 (19-Oct-81)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open W (1980)
French Open -
Wimbledon -
U.S. Open -
Doubles
Career record: 220 - 172
Career titles: 16
Highest ranking: 28 (2-Jan-84)

Infobox last updated on: January 22, 2007.

Brian David Teacher was born in San Diego, California, on (December 23, 1954) and was a 6' 3" right handed professional American male tennis player.

He was World # 7 in 1981.

Contents

[edit] Tennis career

Teacher learned both tennis and swimming at the age of five, but concentrated solely on tennis after ear and throat troubles caused him to give up swimming.

In 1972 he won the Boys' 18 singles and doubles titles.

The following year, Teacher enrolled at the University of California-Los Angeles where he was an All-American from 1973-76, won the Pacific 8 singles and doubles championship in 1974, and was a member of UCLA's NCAA championship teams in 1975-76.

In 1976, just shy of graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics, Teacher turned pro.

In 1977 he won his first singles title, and reached the finals in both the South Australian and New South Wales Opens.

In 1978, Teacher created a sensation at the Seiko World Super Tennis Tournament in Tokyo, by upsetting UCLA graduates Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe, losing only in the finals to Bjorn Borg, 6-3, 6-4.

Teacher is best remembered for his victory at the Australian Open in 1980. He won the Open in straight sets (7-5, 7-6, 6-2) over Kim Warwick of Australia, becoming the first Jewish male to win a singles title in a Grand Slam event since the 1950s.

He won eight career singles titles, and 16 in doubles.

[edit] Style of play

He was a terrific player on faster surfaces, where he could use a serve-and-volley attack.

[edit] Hall of Fame

Teacher was inducted in 2001 into the ITA Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.[1]

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (1)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1980 Australian Open Kim Warwick 7-5, 7-6, 6-2

[edit] Singles titles (8)

  • 1977
    • Jackson
  • 1978
    • Taipei
  • 1979
    • Newport
  • 1980
    • Australian Open
  • 1981
    • Columbus
  • 1983
    • Dortmund WCT, Munich WCT, Columbus

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • He has two daughters with wife Lori: Noel and Kelly.
  • The book Superlearning 2000 (update on the 1979 original version) contributes the rise in Teacher's career during 1980 to his experiments with suggestive accelerated learning methods, which were introduced to him by Powell Blankenship, a tennis teacher in San Diego.

[edit] Links