Todd Martin

Todd Martin
Country (sports)  United States
Residence ?, Rhode Island, United States
Born (1970-07-08) July 8, 1970[1]
Hinsdale, Illinois, United States
Height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Turned pro 1990
Retired 2006
Plays Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money US$ 8,254,455
Singles
Career record 411–234
Career titles 8
Highest ranking No. 4 (September 13, 1999)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open F (1994)
French Open 4R (1991)
Wimbledon SF (1994, 1996)
US Open F (1999)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals RR (1999)
Grand Slam Cup F (1995)
Olympic Games 1R (2000)
Doubles
Career record 100–85
Career titles 5
Highest ranking No. 30 (April 26, 1996)
Last updated on: August 15, 2012.

Todd Martin (born July 8, 1970) is an American retired professional tennis player. He reached the Men's Singles final at the 1994 Australian Open and the 1999 US Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 4.

Playing career

Martin was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, and played tennis for two years at Northwestern University before turning professional in 1990. His parents lived in Lansing, Michigan, where Martin went to nearby East Lansing High School. At Northwestern, he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He won his first top-level singles title in 1993 at Coral Springs, Florida. Martin traveled with good friend David Helfer for much of the '92 season. Helfer went on to play at Kalamazoo College.

Coached by Robert Van't Hof, 1994 proved to be a breakout year for Martin. At the year's first Grand Slam tournament, he reached the men's singles final at the Australian Open, where he lost in straight sets to world no. 1 Pete Sampras, 6-7, 4-6, 4-6. At Wimbledon, he made it to the semifinals, before falling to the eventual champion Sampras; the set that Martin took from Sampras in the match was the only set that Sampras lost during the entire tournament. Martin's third Grand Slam semifinal of 1994 came at the US Open, where he again fell to the eventual champion, this time Andre Agassi. He also captured singles titles at Queen's Club and the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, the latter of which was the first back-to-back titles.

Martin was a member of the US team that won the Davis Cup in 1995 (beating Russia 3–2 in the final). He also reached the final of the 1995 Grand Slam Cup, where he lost in straight sets to Goran Ivanišević, 6-7, 3-6, 4-6. He reached the Wimbledon semifinals again in 1996, but eventually lost 10–8 in the fifth set against MaliVai Washington, after holding a 5–1 lead in the final set and serving for the match twice. Martin would later reflect on the outcome and admit that he choked during the crucial moments of the match.[2] He missed most of the 1997 season due to injury, but came back strongly in 1998 when he won two singles titles in Barcelona and Stockholm.

In 1999, Martin had a solid year, reaching the quarterfinals of both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and reached his second Grand Slam final in 1999 at the US Open. Along the way, Martin had a memorable battle with Greg Rusedski in the fourth round, in which Rusedski held numerous advantages, including a two sets to love lead, serving for the match in the third set, and a 4–1 advantage in the fifth. Yet Martin was able to prevail, 5–7, 0–6, 7–6, 6–4, 6–4. Martin won 20 of the final 21 points of the match, despite playing with a heavily bandaged leg and dealing with dehydration (he needed intravenous fluids after the match).[3] In the final, he faced Andre Agassi in a very high-quality five-set contest, which Agassi eventually won, 6–4, 6–7, 6–7, 6–3, 6–2. Martin also won another singles title in Sydney that year, and reached his career-high singles ranking of world no. 4.

In 2000, Martin again turned in a strong performance at the U.S. Open, reaching the semifinals before falling to the eventual champion, Marat Safin, in straight sets, 3-6, 6-7, 6-7. As with the previous year's tournament, Martin made another grueling comeback from a two-set deficit in the fourth round, this time against Carlos Moyà, 6–7, 6–7, 6–1, 7–6, 6–2.

Martin was named the ATP's Most Improved Player in 1993, and won its Sportsmanship Award in 1993 and 1994. He was President of ATP Players Council for 1995–97 and 1998–99.

From 1994 to 1996, Martin was coached by Robert Van't Hof. From 1997 to 2002, Martin was coached by Dean Goldfine.

During his career Martin won eight singles and five doubles titles, and earned prize money totaling US$8,254,455. He retired from the professional tour in 2004. He is currently the CEO of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 2 (0–2)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 1994 Australian Open Hard United States Pete Sampras 6–7(4–7), 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up 1999 US Open Hard United States Andre Agassi 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–2), 3–6, 2–6

Masters Series finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome Year Championship Surface Opponent in the final Score in the final
Runner-up 1993 Canada (Montreal) Hard Sweden Mikael Pernfors 6–2, 2–6, 5–7

Career finals

Martin serving at the 2006 U.S. Open.

Singles: 20 (8 titles, 12 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–2)
Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)
Grand Slam Cup (0–1)
ATP Masters Series (0–1)
ATP Championship Series (3–4)
ATP World Series (5–4)
Titles by Surface
Hard (5–7)
Grass (1–0)
Clay (2–3)
Carpet (0–2)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. February 15, 1993 Memphis, Tennessee, United States Hard (i) United States Jim Courier 7–5, 6–7(4–7), 6–7(4–7)
Winner 1. May 17, 1993 Coral Springs, Florida, United States Clay United States David Wheaton 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up 2. July 26, 1993 Washington D.C., USA Hard Israel Amos Mansdorf 6–7(3–7), 5–7
Runner-up 3. August 2, 1993 Montreal, Canada Hard Sweden Mikael Pernfors 6–2, 2–6, 5–7
Runner-up 4. October 18, 1993 Tokyo, Japan Carpet Czech Republic Ivan Lendl 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up 5. January 31, 1994 Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia Hard United States Pete Sampras 6–7(4–7), 4–6, 4–6
Winner 2. February 14, 1994 Memphis, Tennessee, USA Hard United States Brad Gilbert 6–4, 7–5
Runner-up 6. May 2, 1994 Atlanta, Georgia, USA Clay United States Michael Chang 7–6(7–4), 6–7(4–7), 0–6
Runner-up 7. May 9, 1994 Pinehurst, USA Clay United States Jared Palmer 4–6, 6–7(5–7)
Winner 3. June 13, 1994 London (Queen's Club), UK Grass United States Pete Sampras 7–6(7–4), 7–6(7–4)
Winner 4. February 20, 1995 Memphis, Tennessee, USA Hard Netherlands Paul Haarhuis 7–6(7–2), 6–4
Runner-up 8. December 18, 1995 Grand Slam Cup, Munich, Germany Carpet Croatia Goran Ivanišević 6–7(4–7), 3–6, 4–6
Winner 5. January 15, 1996 Sydney, Australia Hard Croatia Goran Ivanišević 5–7, 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up 9. February 26, 1996 Memphis, Tennessee, USA Hard (i) United States Pete Sampras 4–6, 6–7(2–7)
Runner-up 10. November 4, 1996 Stockholm, Sweden Hard (i) Sweden Thomas Enqvist 5–7, 4–6, 6–7(0–7)
Winner 6. April 20, 1998 Barcelona, Spain Clay Spain Alberto Berasategui 6–2, 1–6, 6–3, 6–2
Winner 7. November 16, 1998 Stockholm, Sweden Hard Sweden Thomas Johansson 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
Winner 8. January 18, 1999 Sydney, Australia Hard Spain Àlex Corretja 6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up 11. April 12, 1999 Estoril, Portugal Clay Spain Albert Costa 6–7(4–7), 6–2, 3–6
Runner-up 12. September 12, 1999 US Open, New York City, United States Hard United States Andre Agassi 4–6, 7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–2), 3–6, 2–6

Singles performance timeline

Tournament 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Career SR Career Win-Loss
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A A A 1R F 4R 3R A 2R QF 2R QF 3R A 3R 0 / 10 25–10
French Open A A 4R A 1R 3R 3R 3R A 1R A 1R 1R 2R 2R 1R 0 / 11 11–11
Wimbledon A A A 2R QF SF 4R SF A 4R QF 2R 4R 2R 3R 2R 0 / 12 33–12
U.S. Open A 1R 3R 3R 3R SF 4R 3R 2R 2R F SF 2R 1R 4R 1R 0 / 15 33–15
Grand Slam SR 0 / 0 0 / 1 0 / 2 0 / 2 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 1 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 48 N/A
Annual Win-Loss 0–0 0–1 5–2 3–2 6–4 18–4 11–4 11–4 1–1 5–4 14–3 7–4 8–4 4–4 6–3 3–4 N/A 102–48
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells NME A A A 3R 3R QF 3R A 2R QF A A SF 1R 1R 0 / 9 15–9
Miami NME A A A 2R 2R 2R 4R A 3R A A 1R 2R QF 4R 0 / 9 13–9
Monte Carlo NME A A A A A A 1R A 1R A A A A A A 0 / 2 0–2
Rome NME A A A A A 2R 3R A 2R A 1R 1R A A 1R 0 / 6 4–6
Hamburg NME A A A A A A A A A A 2R 2R 1R A A 0 / 3 2–3
Canada NME A A 2R F 2R 3R SF A 2R QF 1R 3R 3R A A 0 / 10 18–10
Cincinnati NME A A 2R 1R A 3R 2R A 3R 2R QF 2R 1R 3R A 0 / 10 13–10
Madrid (Stuttgart) NME A A A 3R 3R 2R 3R QF 3R QF A A A A A 0 / 7 11–7
Paris NME A A A 3R 3R 3R 3R 1R SF 2R A A A A A 0 / 7 8–7
Masters Series SR N/A 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 2 0 / 6 0 / 5 0 / 7 0 / 8 0 / 2 0 / 8 0 / 5 0 / 4 0 / 5 0 / 5 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 63 N/A
Annual Win-Loss N/A 0–0 0–0 2–2 10–6 3–5 9–7 12–8 3–2 13–8 8–5 4–4 4–5 7–5 6–3 3–3 N/A 84–63
Year End Ranking 257 269 134 87 13 10 18 12 81 16 7 55 57 47 68 145 N/A

A = did not participate in the tournament

Post-playing

Martin participates on the Outback Champions Series tennis event for the former members of the ATP tour.[4] Martin finished 2006 ranked third and 2007 ranked first in the Outback Series.

Senior tour titles

Coaching

Martin spent a brief time coaching Mardy Fish.

From late August 2009 until April 12, 2010, Martin was part of the coaching team of Novak Djokovic, at that time the number 3 player on the ATP list. The idea on Djokovic's part was for Martin to be the supplemental, part-time coach working alongside existing full-time coach Marián Vajda who continued in the role. Due to Djokovic's shoulder pain problems, the player wanted to try a different serve motion which was one of Martin's primary tasks.[5] The results weren't satisfactory as the player ended up with a cumbersome serve and a loss of confidence that followed a string of sub-par results such as the quarterfinal exit to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2010 Australian Open. Additionally, long-time coach Vajda and newly added Martin never got on thus the setup was soon dismantled as Djokovic and Martin parted ways and Vajda went back to being the only coach.[6]

Martin is also a contributor to ESPN.com.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Todd Martin.
Awards
Preceded by
Henrik Holm
ATP Most Improved Player
1993
Succeeded by
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.