James McGee (tennis)

James McGee

Country (sports)	Ireland
Residence	Castleknock, Ireland
Born	(1987-06-10) 10 June 1987 Castleknock, Ireland
Turned pro	2008
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$300,915
Singles
Career record	9–10
Career titles	0 1 Challenger, 4 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 146 (22 June 2015)
Current ranking	No. 194 (19 September 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	Q3 (2016)
French Open	Q3 (2014)
Wimbledon	Q1 (2013, 2014, 2015)
US Open	1R (2014)
Doubles
Career record	4–3
Career titles	0 0 Challenger, 5 Futures
Highest ranking	No. 430 (17 May 2010)
Current ranking	No. 922 (19 September 2016)
Last updated on: 19 September 2016.

James McGee (born 10 June 1987) is an Irish professional tennis player. He was born in Castleknock, Ireland. He attended Belvedere College in Dublin, Co. Dublin. He currently is the highest ranked Irish tennis player^[1] and has been playing for the Ireland Davis Cup team since 2009.^[2]

He is sponsored by HEAD, Fila and Aer Lingus.

Personal life

McGee was born to Kieran and Marie McGee.^[3] He started playing tennis at the age of seven at Castleknock.^[4] He won his school's tennis championship in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and was also awarded the Most Outstanding Player of the Year in Ireland in 2003.^[3] He was educated at Belvedere College in Dublin and then obtained a major in Psychology from North Carolina State University in 2008.^[4]

Career

McGee has spent most of his career on the Futures and Challenger circuits. As of 9 June 2014, he has played in 10 Davis Cup ties for Ireland with a record of 13 wins and 8 losses (9–5 in singles & 4–3 in doubles).^[2]

2014

James McGee at the Nice Open 2014.

McGee had finished 2013 in good form and continued this into 2014, reaching the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas de Nouvelle-Calédonie in Nouméa, equalling his best performance at a challenger.^[5] He then competed in Australian Open qualifying but lost in his first match to eventual qualifier Jimmy Wang.^[6] McGee later recorded an impressive win over top 100 player Alex Bogomolov, Jr.^[7] at the Challenger of Dallas and then narrowly missed out on making his first ATP World Tour main draw the following week, losing in the final round of qualifying at the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships to David Goffin.^[7] In March, McGee played in qualifying for the BNP Paribas Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event, but was again defeated by Goffin.^[7] He then helped Ireland to a 3-2 victory over Egypt in the Davis Cup, winning both his singles rubbers in straight sets.^[8]

In late April, McGee once again equalled his best challenger result, reaching the semi-finals of the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger.^[9] He then went on to win his first ever Grand Slam qualifying match, defeating Norbert Gomboš at the French Open and then stunning Guido Pella in two sets in the following round. McGee, however, was unable to become the first Irish tennis player since Sean Sorensen, in 1982, to reach the French Open main draw, as he lost in straight sets to Andrea Arnaboldi.^[10] In early June, McGee once again reached the final round of qualifying for an ATP World Tour event, this time at the Queen's Club Championships, but came up just short in a tight three sets match against Daniel Brands. McGee next competed at Wimbledon qualifying but was defeated in straight sets by Aljaž Bedene.^[11]

McGee then travelled to North America for the summer hardcourt swing. He first competed at the Nielsen Pro Tennis Championships but lost out to Tim Smyczek in the second round. McGee then came his closest to making an ATP World Tour main draw at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, where he lost to Ante Pavić in a final set tie-break in the final qualifying round. He then reached the semi-finals of the Challenger Banque Nationale de Granby. This result saw him break into the top 200 of the rankings for the first time in his career, reaching a new high of 193.^[12] He also made the semi-finals of the doubles with Chase Buchanan. The following week, at the Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships, McGee defeated the number one seed Evgeny Donskoy in the opening round.^[13] He was eliminated at the quarter-final stage by 2011 champion Wayne Odesnik.^[14] In the doubles he again played with Chase Buchanan and the pair reached the final, the first challenger final of McGee's career, but they were defeated in straight sets.^[15] The following week he lost to Vincent Millot in the opening round of the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open.^[16]

McGee qualified for his first ever grand slam main draw at the 2014 US Open after defeating Zhang Ze in the final round of qualifiers in 3 sets.^[17] He also defeated Gonzalo Lama^[18] and Yuki Bhambri^[19] during the qualifying stages. McGee faced Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the first round of the main draw where he lost in 4 sets.^[20] Despite this defeat, the prize money earned for reaching the first round accounted for more than a quarter of his career earnings to date.^[21]

Singles titles

Wins (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	23 July 2011	Dublin, Ireland	Carpet	Charles-Antoine Brezac	6–3, 6–3
2.	31 March 2012	Manama, BahrainM	Hard	Jordi Samper-Montaña	6–4, 6–4
3.	18 June 2012	Melilla, Spain	Hard	Mohamed Safwat	6–3, 7–5
4.	19 August 2013	Libreville, Gabon	Hard	Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan	6–4, 7–6(7–4)
5.	18 September 2016	Cary, United States	Hard	Ernesto Escobedo	1-6, 6-1, 6-4

Runner-up (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	29 September 2008	Rethymno, Greece	Carpet	Daniel Danilovic	6–4, 4–6, 3–6
2.	5 June 2011	Madrid, Spain	Hard	Arnau Brugués-Davi	5–7, 7–6(7–3), 6–7(0–7)
3.	2 July 2011	Rabat, Morocco	Clay	Mehdi Ziadi	4–6, 4–6
4.	21 January 2013	Eilat, Israel	Hard	Jiří Veselý	2–6, 4–6
5.	18 February 2013	Brownsville, United States	Hard	Rik de Voest	6–7(6–8), 1–6
6.	30 March 2015	San Luis Potosí, Mexico	Clay	Guido Pella	3–6, 3–6
7.	20 April 2015	Savannah, United States	Clay	Hyeon Chung	3–6, 2–6

Doubles

Wins (5)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	8 February 2009	Austria, F3	Carpet	Jiri Krkoska	Kevin Deden Bastian Knittel	6–3, 6–7(6–8), [10–4]
2.	16 May 2009	Great Britain, F7	Clay	Colin O'Brien	Nick Cavaday Barry King	6–4, 6–4
3.	27 October 2009	Great Britain, F16	Hard	Barry King	Tim Bradshaw Alexander Slabinsky	6–4, 7–6(7–3)
4.	3 October 2010	Greece, F6	Carpet	Ioan-Alexandru Cojanu	Paris Gemouchidis Bogdan-Victor Leonte	6–4, 6–2
5.	26 March 2012	Bahrain, F1	Hard	Sam Barry	Jeremy Jahn Matthew Short	7–5, 4–6, [10–8]

Runner-up (6)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	15 August 2009	Russia, F4	Clay	Romano Frantzen	Ivan Anikanov Artem Smirnov	3–6, 4–6
2.	27 February 2010	Bosnia & Herzegovina, F2	Carpet	Colin O'Brien	Chris Eaton Dominic Inglot	W/O
3.	18 April 2010	France, F6	Clay	Olivier Charroin	Charles-Antoine Brezac Vincent Stouff	4–6, 1–6
4.	22 July 2011	Ireland, F1	Carpet	James Cluskey	Albano Olivetti Neal Skupski	6–7(4–7), 3–6
5.	23 July 2012	Ireland, F1	Carpet	Jaime Pulgar-Garcia	Albano Olivetti Elie Rousset	3–6, 4–6
6.	26 July 2014	Lexington	Hard	Chase Buchanan	Peter Polansky Adil Shamasdin	4–6, 2–6

Grand Slam Singles Performance Timeline

References

External links

• James McGee at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• James McGee at the International Tennis Federation
• James McGee at the Davis Cup

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top Irish male singles tennis players as of 12 December 2016
1. James McGee (196 ) 2. Sam Barry (283 7) 3. Peter Bothwell (913 25) 4. Simon Carr (1132 11) 5. Daniel Glancy (1580 22)