Wayne Arthurs (tennis)

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Wayne Arthurs
Country Australia
Residence Melbourne, Australia
Date of birth March 18, 1971 (1971-03-18) (age 37)
Place of birth Adelaide, Australia
Height 6'3" (190 cm)
Weight 177 lb (80 kg)
Turned pro 1990
Plays Left-handed, one-handed backhand
Career prize money $3,565,838
Singles
Career record: 131-158
Career titles: 1
Highest ranking: 44 (July 9, 2001)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open 3rd (2001,2007)
French Open 4th (2001)
Wimbledon 4th (1999, 2002)
US Open 4th (2000)
Doubles
Career record: 310-249
Career titles: 12
Highest ranking: 11 (November 3, 2003)

Wayne Arthurs (b. March 18, 1971 in Adelaide, Australia) is an Australian professional tennis player. He is currently 195th in the ATP rankings for singles and is ranked 79th in doubles. However, Arthurs announced after his first round qualifying match at Wimbledon that he would retire after the tournament. [1]

Arthurs is left-handed and uses a one-handed backhand.

His serve is his strongest weapon by far, and has been referred to as the "best in the world" by several of his fellow players, including Jim Courier [2], Andre Agassi [3], and Thomas Johansson [4]. He consistently has one of the highest ace counts on the ATP Tour and favors a serve-and-volley style of play. Because of this, his game is best suited to fast surfaces.

Arthurs at the 2007 Australian Open
Arthurs at the 2007 Australian Open

A doubles specialist, Arthurs has won 12 ATP doubles titles in his career. In February of 2005 he achieved a belated breakthrough in singles by winning the ATP event in Scottsdale, U.S., the Tennis Channel Open, in straight sets over Croat Mario Ancic. No other player in history has won his first ATP singles title at such an advanced age (Arthurs was almost 34 at the time). He also was a runner up there for doubles with Paul Hanley, and lost to American team Bob and Mike Bryan. He is an Australian hero when it comes to Davis Cup, winning countless doubles rubbers for Australia.

In his last ever Australian Open match the Aussie retired just 3 games into his third round match against American Mardy Fish due to a rare reaction to a local anesthetic. In practice that morning he tried out a short term local anesthetic that worked well against his sore hip. Just before the match began, he took another shot that was supposed to last for the duration of the match. Unfortunately, the stronger dose deadened his leg and he could not coordinate his movements. He refused to blame his doctors who said that this adverse reaction happens to about 1 in 1000 patients. Arthurs became emotional during the match once he realized he couldn't compete. After the in between game break down 3–0 he waved to the crowd who thanked him for an outstanding career. It is uncertain, but likely, that it was the last Australian Open match of his career. At the time, he was the oldest participant in the Australian Open.

Arthurs played his final tournament at Wimbledon in 2007. He managed to win qualifying matches to advance to the main draw of the major tournament. In the first round he came back from two sets down to finally win in five sets against Dutch teenager, Thiemo De Bakker. In the second round Arthurs caused a major boilover by defeating the 11th seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo in straight sets. Arthurs was defeated in the third round by 19th seed Jonas Bjorkman in straight sets.

[edit] Singles wins (1)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (1)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 28 February 2005 Scottsdale, U.S. Hard Flag of Croatia Mario Ancic 7–5, 6–3

[edit] Major tournament singles performance timeline

Tournament 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Career SR
Australian Open A 1R 1R 3R 1R 2R 2R 1R 1R 3R 0 / 9
French Open A A 1R 4R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R A 0 / 7
Wimbledon A 4R 1R 1R 4R 2R 1R 2R 1R 3R 0 / 9
U.S. Open 2R 2R 4R 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R A A 0 / 8
Grand Slam SR 0 / 1 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 33

[edit] External links