# Tommy Ho

Thomas Ho (born June 17, 1973, in Winter Haven, Florida) is an American former professional tennis player.

## Tennis career
### Juniors

Ho first came to the tennis world's attention as an exceptionally successful junior player. He won several junior tennis events in the 1980s, and set a number of 'youngest-ever' records.

### Pro tour

In August 1988, Ho became the youngest male player in the open era to play in the main draw of the US Open singles at the age of 15 years and 2 months. He lost the first round match to Johan Kriek 6–4, 7–6, 7–6. That same month, Ho became the second youngest male player to win a main draw match at a top-level tour event when he beat Matt Anger in the first round at Rye Brook 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, just after Argentina's Franco Davín.
Ho's early successes drew many comparisons with Michael Chang, another Asian American tennis player who achieved great success as a junior. However Ho did not manage to make the same kind of impact on the professional circuit as Chang (who went on to win the French Open and reach the World No. 2 singles ranking). Ho enjoyed some success in satellite tournaments, but did not win any top-level singles events on the tour. He did, however, win four tour doubles titles (Beijing in 1994, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Indian Wells in 1995).
Ho's professional career was hampered by injuries. In 1995, Ho and Brett Steven became the fastest-ever losers of a match at Wimbledon. In the very first point of their men's doubles match, Steven served and Ho tried to intercept the return at the net, only to injure his back. The pair thus had had to forfeit the match after just one rally, which had lasted all of five seconds. The back injury was to recur again in future years, and eventually led to Ho's retirement from the tour in 1997.
During his professional career, Ho reached career-high rankings of World No. 85 in singles and World No. 13 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled $793,819.

## Post-retirement

Since retiring from the tour, Ho has completed a degree at Rice University in Houston and worked as a tennis journalist.
In 2011, Ho was inducted into the USTA Florida Hall of Fame.
After working as a partner at global recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, he is currently the Chief Talent Officer at Quantum Energy Partners.

## ATP career finals
### Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)

* Legend
* Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
* ATP Masters Series (1–0)
* ATP Championship Series (0–1)
* ATP World Series (3–2)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (2–2)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (2–1)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (2–1)
* Indoors (2–2)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Oct 1994 | Beijing, China | World Series | Carpet | Kent Kinnear | David Adams Andrei Olhovskiy | 7–6, 6–3 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Feb 1995 | Memphis, United States | Championship Series | Hard | Brett Steven | Jared Palmer Richey Reneberg | 6–4, 6–7, 1–6 |
| Win | 2–1 | Mar 1995 | Indian Wells, United States | Masters Series | Hard | Brett Steven | Gary Muller Pieter Norval | 6–4, 7–6 |
| Win | 3–1 | Apr 1995 | Hong Kong, Hong Kong | World Series | Hard | Mark Philippoussis | John Fitzgerald Anders Järryd | 6–1, 6–7$^{(2–7)}$, 7–6$^{(7–3)}$ |
| Win | 4–1 | Oct 1995 | Beijing, China | World Series | Carpet | Sébastien Lareau | Dick Norman Fernon Wibier | 7–6, 7–6 |
| Loss | 4–2 | Nov 1995 | Moscow, Russia | World Series | Carpet | Brett Steven | Byron Black Jared Palmer | 4–6, 6–3, 3–6 |
| Loss | 4–3 | Jan 1996 | Adelaide, Australia | World Series | Hard | Jonas Björkman | Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde | 5–7, 6–7 |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures Finals
### Singles: 8 (4–4)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (4–4)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (4–4)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Oct 1990 | Ponte Vedra, United States | Challenger | Hard | Chris Pridham | 7–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Sep 1991 | Bloomfield Hills, United States | Challenger | Hard | Chris Pridham | 3–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 2–1 | Dec 1992 | Hong Kong | Challenger | Hard | Greg Rusedski | 4–6, 6–4, 7–6 |
| Loss | 2–2 | Jan 1993 | Wellington, New Zealand | Challenger | Hard | Byron Black | 4–6, 6–4, 1–6 |
| Loss | 2–3 | Dec 1993 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Challenger | Hard | Alexander Mronz | 1–6, 0–6 |
| Win | 3–3 | Sep 1994 | Singapore, Singapore | Challenger | Hard | Chris Wilkinson | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Win | 4–3 | Mar 1995 | Indian Wells, United States | Challenger | Hard | Oliver Gross | 6–7, 7–6, 6–2 |
| Loss | 4–4 | Jul 1997 | Flushing Meadows, United States | Challenger | Hard | Gianluca Pozzi | 1–6, 4–6 |

### Doubles: 6 (4–2)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (4–2)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (2–2)
* Clay (2–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | May 1992 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Challenger | Hard | Patrick Rafter | Jamie Morgan Sandon Stolle | 4–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 1–1 | May 1993 | Taipei, Taiwan | Challenger | Hard | Patrick Rafter | Kent Kinnear Kenny Thorne | 6–4, 7–6 |
| Win | 2–1 | Dec 1993 | Hong Kong, Hong Kong | Challenger | Hard | Shuzo Matsuoka | Dirk Dier Alexander Mronz | 2–3 ret. |
| Win | 3–1 | Jun 1994 | Weiden, Germany | Challenger | Clay | Nuno Marques | Eyal Ran Gabriel Silberstein | 6–3, 6–1 |
| Win | 4–1 | Jun 1994 | Košice, Slovakia | Challenger | Clay | Mikael Tillström | Emanuel Couto Bernardo Mota | 7–6, 6–1 |
| Loss | 4–2 | Jan 1995 | Wellington, New Zealand | Challenger | Hard | Kenny Thorne | Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor | 6–1, 4–6, 6–7 |

## Performance timelines

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |

### Singles

| Tournament | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| Grand Slam tournaments |||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | A | Q1 | A | 1R | 1R | 2R | Q2 | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| French Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | 1R | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | A | 2R | A | A | Q1 | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| US Open | 1R | A | 2R | A | 3R | 1R | 1R | A | A | 1R | A | 0 / 6 | 3–6 | 33% |
| Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | 0–3 | 0–2 | 2–3 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 12 | 5–12 | 29% |
| ATP Masters Series |||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q2 | 2R | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Miami | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q2 | 3R | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 2–1 | 67% |
| Canada | A | 1R | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Cincinnati | A | A | A | A | Q1 | Q1 | Q3 | 1R | A | A | A | 0 / 1 | 0–1 | 0% |
| Paris | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q3 | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 3–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 5 | 3–5 | 38% |

### Doubles

| Tournament | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | SR | W–L | Win % |
| Grand Slam tournaments |||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | A | A | 2R | 3R | A | 0 / 2 | 3–2 | 60% |
| French Open | A | A | A | A | SF | A | A | 0 / 1 | 4–1 | 80% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | Q3 | A | 2R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 1–1 | 50% |
| US Open | 2R | 2R | 1R | Q1 | A | A | Q1 | 0 / 3 | 2–3 | 40% |
| Win–loss | 1–1 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 6–3 | 2–1 | 0–0 | 0 / 7 | 10–7 | 59% |
| Year-end Championships |||||||||||
| ATP Finals | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | RR | DNQ | DNQ | 0 / 1 | 1–2 | 33% |
| ATP Masters Series |||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | A | A | A | W | A | 1R | 1 / 2 | 5–1 | 83% |
| Miami | A | A | A | A | 3R | A | 1R | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Canada | A | A | Q2 | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Cincinnati | A | 2R | A | A | 2R | A | A | 0 / 2 | 2–2 | 50% |
| Paris | A | A | A | A | 2R | A | A | 0 / 1 | 2–1 | 50% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 8–3 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 1 / 7 | 9–6 | 60% |