John-Patrick Smith

John-Patrick Tracey Smith^[1]

John-Patrick Smith playing at Wimbledon 2013
Country	Australia
Residence	Townsville, Australia
Born	(1989-01-24) 24 January 1989 Townsville, Australia
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	July, 2011
Plays	Left-handed (Two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 197,932
Singles
Career record	0–1 (in ATP World Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 (ATP World Tour and Grand Slam)
Highest ranking	No. 205 (28 October 2013)
Current ranking	No. 221 (27 January 2014)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	1R (2013)
French Open	A
Wimbledon	Q1 (2013)
US Open	Q1 (2012)
Australian Open Junior	QF (2007)
French Open Junior	2R (2007)
Wimbledon Junior	2R (2007)
US Open Junior	2R (2007)
Doubles
Career record	5–9 (in ATP World Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0 (ATP World Tour and Grand Slam)
Highest ranking	No. 69 (29 July 2013)
Current ranking	No. 75 (27 January 2014)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2012), 2R (2013)
Australian Open Junior	2R (2007)
French Open	1R (2013)
French Open Junior	SF (2007)
Wimbledon	2R (2013)
Wimbledon Junior	2R (2006)
US Open	A
US Open Junior	1R (2007)
Last updated on: 31 January 2014.

John-Patrick "JP" Smith (born 24 January 1989) is an Australian professional tennis player and competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour, both in singles and doubles. He attended the University of Tennessee from 2007 through 2011 where he was a four-time All-American and made it to the college No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles.^[1]

Smith reached his highest ATP singles ranking, No. 205 on 28 October 2013, and his highest ATP doubles ranking, No. 69, on 29 July 2013.^[2]

College career

Knoxville became Smith's home away from home when he enrolled at the University of Tennessee in August 2007. It was on those campus' hard courts that he became one of the most prolific athletes in Tennessee and Intercollegiate Tennis Association history.

Coached by Sam Winterbotham and former American tennis star Chris Woodruff, Smith became a mainstay in the college top 10 in singles and doubles while helping the Volunteers to their best four-year period in program history. Smith played No. 1 in the singles and doubles lineups nearly his entire career. He was voted the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2010 and 2011 as a junior and senior. As a team, Tennessee won the conference title both those years and reached the NCAA final in 2010. Smith eventually became the Vols' career combined wins leader with 298 (152 singles wins, 146 doubles wins).^[1]

He was consistently among the top tennis players year in, year out. He finished his career as the second player in college tennis history to earn singles and doubles ITA All-America honors all four years of his career, joining eventual world No. 1 doubles player Rick Leach of Southern California.

Smith enjoyed his best season as a junior in 2009-10. He swept the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 ITA All-American Championships, one of college tennis' "Grand Slams." His superb play during the fall's individual tournament season helped eventual propel Smith to the No. 1 national singles ranking on 17 April 2010. In addition to being ranked No. 1 in singles, he also held the No. 1 ITA national doubles ranking during portions of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons. He was part of the ITA National Doubles Team of the Year with Davey Sandgren in 2009 and Boris Conkic in 2011. He reached the NCAA finals in doubles with Sandgren in 2010 and 2011.

One of Smith's major career accomplishments at Tennessee came off the court entirely. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics in May 2011. He was an academic award winner for the Vols, year in, year out. He earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was a three-time ITA Academic Scholar Athlete.^[3]

2011 SEC Athlete of the Year

A month after his college career ended, Smith became the first Vol since Peyton Manning in 1998 to be voted SEC Athlete of the Year by conference athletic directors.^[4] Other male athletes from Tennessee to earn this honor at the time included baseball star Todd Helton (1995) and football wide receiver Larry Seivers (1977).

2012

In April, Smith won the US F11, defeating Pedro Zerbini 6-2, 6-0 in the final. In July 2012, Smith won the Winnetka Challenger against Ricardas Berankis 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 in the final. This was his first challenger title.

2013

In 2013, Smith competed mostly on the challenger circuit. His first title came on August 25 at the Canada F6, where he defeated Ante Pavic 3–6, 6–4, 6–3 in the final ^[5] Smith also enjoyed a successful week in Tiburon; with his quarterfinal finish he vaulted 15 spots to a new career-high ranking of No.208.

ATP career finals (14)

Singles (1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponents in the final	Score
Winner	1.	7 July 2012	Winnetka, United States	Hard	Ričardas Berankis	3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–3)

Doubles (13)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
Winners	1.	4 February 2012	Burnie, Australia	Hard	John Peers	Divij Sharan Vishnu Vardhan	6–2, 6–4
Winners	2.	11 February 2012	Caloundra, Australia	Hard	John Peers	John Paul Fruttero Raven Klaasen	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Winners	3.	15 April 2012	León, Mexico	Hard	John Peers	César Ramírez Bruno Rodríguez	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	7 July 2012	Winnetka, United States	Hard	John Peers	Devin Britton Jeff Dadamo	6–1, 2–6, [6–10]
Runner-up	2.	5 August 2012	Vancouver, Canada	Hard	John Peers	Maxime Authom Ruben Bemelmans	4–6, 2–6
Winners	4.	6 October 2012	Belém, Brazil	Hard	John Peers	Nicholas Monroe Simon Stadler	6–3, 6–2
Winners	5.	4 November 2012	Charlottesville, United States	Indoor Hard	John Peers	Jarmere Jenkins Jack Sock	7–5, 6–1
Winners	6.	2 February 2013	Burnie, Australia	Hard	Ruan Roelofse	Brydan Klein Dane Propoggia	6–2, 6–2
Winners	7.	24 March 2013	Rimouski, Canada	Indoor Hard	Samuel Groth	Philipp Marx Florin Mergea	7-6 (5), 7-6 (7)
Runner-up	3.	13 April 2013	Guadalajara, Mexico	Hard	Samuel Groth	Marin Draganja Mate Pavic	5-7, 6-2, [13-11]
Runner-up	4.	21 April 2013	Mexico City, Mexico	Hard	Jordan Kerr	Carsten Ball Chris Guccione	6-3, 3-6, [11-9]
Runner-up	5.	5 May 2013	Anning, China	Clay	Samuel Groth	Victor Baluda Dino Marcan	7–6(7–5), 4–6, [7–10]
Winners	8.	12 May 2013	Kun-Ming, China	Hard	Samuel Groth	Go Soeda Yasutaka Uchiyama	6-4, 6-1

Doubles performance timeline

References

External links

• John-Patrick Smith at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• John-Patrick Smith at the International Tennis Federation

v t e Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten Australian male singles tennis players, as of 3 February, 2014 1. Lleyton Hewitt (40 1) 2. Marinko Matosevic (541) 3. Matthew Ebden (62 1) 4. Bernard Tomic (66 1) 5. James Duckworth (143 1) 6. Nick Kyrgios (167 5) 7. Samuel Groth (165 6) 8. Matt Reid (183 50) 9. J P Smith (217 4) 10. Benjamin Mitchell (248 14)