Chris Woodruff

Chris Woodruff
Country  United States
Residence Knoxville, TN, USA
Born January 2, 1973
Knoxville, TN, USA
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro 1993
Retired 2001
Plays Right-handed (2-handed backhand)
Prize money $1,903,659
Singles
Career record 109-104 (Grand Slam, ATP Tour level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles 2
Highest ranking No. 29 (August 25, 1997)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open QF (2000)
French Open 3R (1996, 1997, 1999)
Wimbledon 2R (1999, 2001)
US Open 3R (1999)
Doubles
Career record 38-61 (Grand Slam, ATP Tour level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 73 (November 11, 1996)

Chris Woodruff (born January 3, 1973) is an American former professional male tennis player. He hails from Knoxville, Tennessee and was trained at the Knoxville Racquet Club. Since 2002, he has served as an assistant coach with the University of Tennessee men's tennis program.

College career

Woodruff attended the hometown University of Tennessee where in 1993 he won the NCAA single's title by defeating Wade McGuire of Georgia. He remains the only individual champion the school has ever had. He was also an All-American in 1992.

After winning the collegiate crown,[1] Woodruff began his professional career.

Professional career

Woodruff won two singles titles during his career, and his first was also his biggest: The Canadian Open in 1997, an ATP Masters Series event.[1] After winning that title he posted the highest ranking of his career: World No. 29 on August 25, 1997. He also won the 1999 Newport, Rhode Island event at the Tennis Hall of Fame.[2]

He was named to the United States Davis Cup team in 2000, joining Andre Agassi after Pete Sampras and Todd Martin both were forced to drop out, and won his match against Wayne Black to help erase a 2–1 deficit and advance to the second round. He reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in the year 2000 before losing to Pete Sampras in straight sets.[3]

Coaching career

In the summer of 2002, Woodruff returned to the University of Tennessee as a volunteer assistant coach [4] He served first as an assistant tennis coach before being promoted to associate head coach in 2006 when Sam Winterbotham was hired as head coach. Since Woodruff has been back at Tennessee, the Vols have had 18 All-America and 29 All-Southeastern Conference selections.

Tennessee has steadily improved their record and ranking since Woodruff and Winterbotham began coaching together. The Vols have won 178 dual matches in their first eight seasons and have ended the year ranked in the top 10 nationally five of those years.[5] In 2010, the Vols won the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament titles and also reached the NCAA Tennis Championship final for the third time in program history. The team finished with 31 victories, the second-most in a season in Tennessee history.[6]

Woodruff was named the 2013 National Assistant Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association for his track record of player development and keeping the Vols ranked in the top 10 for five of the last six seasons. Since 2008, he has been responsible for coaching three players to the No. 1 national singles ranking: John-Patrick Smith (2010), Rhyne Williams (2011) and Mikelis Libietis (2013).[7]

In 2014, Woodruff served as the on-court coach for the Vols' first NCAA doubles title in 34 years. Libietis and Hunter Reese defeated Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Kevin Metka in the final.[8]

Career finals

Singles: 4 (2 titles - 2 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam (0-0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0-0)
ATP Masters Series (1-0)
ATP Tour (1-2)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. March 3, 1996 Philadelphia Carpet (i) United States Jim Courier 4-6, 3-6
Runner-up 2. May 20, 1996 Coral Springs Clay Australia Jason Stoltenberg 6-7(4-7), 6-2, 5-7
Winner 1. July 28, 1997 Montreal Hard Brazil Gustavo Kuerten 7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Winner 2. July 5, 1999 Newport Grass Denmark Kenneth Carlsen 6–7(7-5), 6–4, 6–4

Doubles: 3 (0 titles – 3 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam (0-0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0-0)
ATP Masters Series (0-0)
ATP Tour (0-3)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Runner-up 1. July 21, 1996 Washington Hard United States Doug Flach Canada Grant Connell
United States Scott Davis
6-7, 6-3, 3-6
Runner-up 2. November 10, 1996 Stockholm Hard (i) United States Todd Martin United States Patrick Galbraith
United States Jonathan Stark
6-7, 4-6
Runner-up 3. July 11, 1999 Newport Grass Armenia Sargis Sargsian Australia Wayne Arthurs
India Leander Paes
7-6(8-6), 6-7(7-9), 3-6

Singles performance timeline

Tournament1993199419951996199719981999200020012002SRW–L
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A A 3R A A QF 3R A 0 / 3 8–3
French Open A A A 3R 3R A 3R 1R 1R A 0 / 5 6–5
Wimbledon A A A 1R 1R A 2R 1R 2R A 0 / 5 2–5
US Open 1R A 1R 1R 2R A 3R 2R 2R A 0 / 7 5–6
Win–Loss 0–1 0–0 0–1 2–3 5–3 0–0 5–3 5–4 4–4 0–0 0 / 20 21–19
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells A A A A 3R 1R SF 1R 1R A 0 / 5 6–5
Miami A A A 1R 3R A 1R 1R 2R A 0 / 5 3–5
Monte Carlo A A A A A A A 1R A A 0 / 1 0–1
Hamburg A A A A A A A 1R A A 0 / 1 0–1
Rome A A A A 2R A 1R 1R A A 0 / 3 1–3
Canada A A A 2R W A 1R 1R 1R A 1 / 5 7–3
Cincinnati A A A 3R 2R A 3R 2R 1R A 0 / 5 6–5
Madrid1 A A A A 2R A 2R A A A 0 / 2 2–2
Paris A A A A 1R A A 2R A A 0 / 2 1–2
Win–Loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 3–2 13–6 0–1 7–6 2–8 1–4 0–0 1 / 29 26–27
Year End Ranking 337 300 135 43 30 1324 51 67 118 496

1This event was held in Stockholm through 1994, Essen in 1995, and Stuttgart from 1996 through 2001.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Woodruff benefits from his hard work". The Independent. August 4, 1997. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  2. "Woodruff bags singles crown". Rediff On The NeT. July 12, 1999. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  3. "Agassi, Sampras To Renew Rivalry in Australian semis". Sun Journal (Lewiston). January 24, 2000. p. 50.
  4. Associate Head Coach Chris Woodruff Biography.
  5. "Sam Winterbotham Bio". University of Tennessee. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  6. It All Adds Up, Tennessee Tennis Athletics Site.
  7. "ITA Announces 2013 NCAA Division I National Award Winners". Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  8. Frierson, John. "UT's Hunter Reese and Mikelis Libietis have 'something special' in NCAA doubles championship". GoVolsXtra. Knoxville News Sentinel. Retrieved 17 June 2014.