Taylor Dent

Taylor Dent

Full name	Taylor Phillip Dent
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Keller, Texas, U.S.
Born	(1981-04-24) April 24, 1981 (age 40) Newport Beach, California, U.S.
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	1998
Retired	November 8, 2010
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,563,378
Singles
Career record	151–140 (ATP Tour and Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 21 (August 8, 2005)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	3R (2002, 2004, 2005)
French Open	2R (2005)
Wimbledon	4R (2005)
US Open	4R (2003)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	SF – 4th (2004)
Doubles
Career record	16–37 (ATP Tour and Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 170 (August 20, 2001)
Last updated on: July 17, 2012.

Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21, winning 4 singles titles.

Career[]

Early career and back injury[]

Dent won ATP titles in Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour. His victory in Memphis is still often referred to as his most impressive victory, as he beat future World No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

Dent played with distinction at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semi-finals, where he was defeated by eventual Gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. He went on to lose the Bronze medal match 16–14 in the third set against Fernando González of Chile.

Dent, paired with Lisa Raymond, won the 2006 Hopman Cup, defeating the Netherlands two sets to one in the final.

In 2006 Dent did not play many competitive matches, due to a recurring back and groin problem. Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007.

Return from injury[]

On May 26, 2008 Dent received a wild card and played at the Carson challenger in the United States. It was his first match since February 2006. He lost his first round match to Cecil Mamiit. In July 2008 Dent took a wild card into his first ATP tour event for two seasons at the Hall of Fame tennis tournament in Newport, Rhode Island. He lost in three sets to Canada's Frank Dancevic.

On November 12, 2008 Dent won his first comeback match at the Champaign challenger against Frédéric Niemeyer, 6–3, 7–6⁽³⁾. He followed this win up by defeating second seed and fellow American Robert Kendrick. In the third round, Dent had to withdraw against Sam Warburg.

Using his protected ranking of 56, Dent played the 2009 Australian Open, where he was eliminated in the first round by Amer Delić.

As a qualifier, he reached the fourth round of the 2009 Sony Ericsson Open, defeating Nicolás Almagro and Tommy Robredo in the process. He lost to Roger Federer in the fourth round, 3–6, 2–6. Despite the scoreline, the first set was a very entertaining encounter, with Federer's longest service game lasting just short of a quarter of an hour; Dent had eight break point opportunities. He had a poor run of form following this, but reversed the poor form by qualifying for Wimbledon, having entered the qualifying via a wildcard. He won his way through to the main draw, where he lost to Daniel Gimeno-Traver in five sets in the first round.

He received a wild card for the 2009 US Open and won his first US Open match since 2005, upsetting Feliciano López, 4–6, 7–6, 6–3, 7–5. He advanced to the third round after upsetting Iván Navarro in the second round, 6–4, 5–7, 6–7, 7–5, 7–6. Following the match, he took the umpire microphone and thanked the crowd for support, following it with a victory lap around the stadium. In the third round, he was beaten by Andy Murray, 3–6, 2–6, 2–6.

Following the US Open, Dent won the USTA Challenger of Oklahoma in Tulsa.

In his opening event of the 2010 season, he entered the main draw at the 2010 Australian Open. He defeated Fabio Fognini, 6–1, 6–2, 6–2, in the first round and moved on to face tenth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom he lost.

On May 25, 2010, in Roland Garros, against Nicolás Lapentti, Dent served at 240 km/h and set a new tournament record that Fernando Verdasco and Andy Roddick had held before him (with 232 km/h). Additionally, at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on June 23, 2010, Dent set a record with the fastest serve ever recorded at the Wimbledon tournament at 148 mph.

On November 8, 2010, Taylor Dent announced his retirement from professional tennis.^[1]

Playing style[]

Unusual for a contemporary tennis player, Dent favored a pure serve-and-volley style of play. He possessed a powerful serve and strong volleys. He had the fourth fastest serve in the world, at a velocity of 243 km/h. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships he set the record for the fastest serve ever recorded at the event with a speed of 238 km/h. (148 mph)^[2]

Personal life[]

Dent is the son of former ATP player and 1974 Australian Open finalist Phil Dent. Taylor's mother, Betty Ann Grubb Stuart, who has remarried, reached the U.S. Open doubles final in 1977 with Renée Richards. Grubb was a former top-10 singles player in the United States. Dent's half-brother, Brett Hansen-Dent, played on the ATP circuit for a short time after playing on the tennis team of the University of Southern California and reaching the singles final of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship.^[3]

His godfather is the former top ten player John Alexander, of Australia, who was Phil Dent's doubles partner when that duo won the 1975 Australian Open doubles title.

Dent's first cousin, Misty May-Treanor, was one of the top pro volleyball players in the world, and she and her teammates won the gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Dent appeared in an American TV commercial for the insurance company Genworth Financial as the opponent of a boy playing the role of Jaden Agassi, the young son of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Dent attended Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., and he was on the interscholastic tennis team there. Dent also attended the Monte Vista High School, in Northern California.

On December 8, 2006, Dent married WTA Tour player, Jennifer Hopkins. Their wedding party included Maria Sharapova, Nick Bollettieri, Jan-Michael Gambill, Tommy Haas, Xavier Malisse, and Mashona Washington. Jenny gave birth to a baby boy in 2010 and a baby girl in 2014.

Taylor has been a commentator on The Tennis Channel for the US Open in 2006, 2007, and 2011.

Dent has a tattoo of the American flag and of the Australian flag on his right shoulder.

Dent currently resides in Keller, Texas, with wife Jennifer Hopkins and their four children. The two along with Taylor's father, Phil Dent, are opening , located in Keller, Texas, which is presently being built.

Major finals[]

Olympic finals[]

Singles: 1 (0–1)[]

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
4th place	2004	Athens, Greece	Hard	Fernando González	4–6, 6–2, 14–16

Career finals[]

Singles: 7 (4 wins, 3 losses)[]

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2002	Newport, United States	Grass	James Blake	6–1, 4–6, 6–4
Win	2–0	Feb 2003	Memphis, United States	Hard (i)	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–4
Win	3–0	Sep 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Win	4–0	Sep 2003	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Sargis Sargsian	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss	4–1	Oct 2004	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Jiří Novák	7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Loss	4–2	Jan 2005	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Joachim Johansson	5–7, 3–6
Loss	4–3	Jul 2005	Indianapolis, United States	Hard	Robby Ginepri	6–4, 3–6, 0–3, ret.

Doubles: 1 (0–1)[]

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2004	Beijing, China	Hard	Alex Bogomolov Jr.	Justin Gimelstob Graydon Oliver	6–4, 4–6, 6–7(6–8)

Singles performance timeline[]

See also[]

• List of male tennis players

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taylor Dent.

• Taylor Dent at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Taylor Dent at the International Tennis Federation
• Taylor Dent at the Davis Cup