# Kevin Curren

Kevin Melvyn Curren (born 2 March 1958) is a South African former professional tennis player. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1985. During his career he won 5 singles and 16 doubles titles.

## Personal life

Curren was born in South Africa, and he became a naturalized American citizen in April 1985.

## Tennis career

Curren played both tennis and cricket at Glenwood High School in Durban. He also quickly rose among the ranks as a junior at Montclair Lawn Tennis Club in Montclair, Durban. At college he played tennis for the University of Texas at Austin in the United States and won the NCAA singles title in 1979. He turned professional later that year, and won his first top-level singles title in 1981 in Johannesburg.
In 1983, Curren reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon, beating defending champion, Jimmy Connors in the fourth round, snapping Connors' streak of 27 consecutive major quarterfinals appearances. It went on to be his only 4th round loss in 35 Grand Slam tournaments appearances. Curren lost to unseeded New Zealander Chris Lewis in a five-set semifinal match which allowed Lewis to become only the seventh unseeded player to reach the Wimbledon final. In 1984, Curren played Mats Wilander in the final of the Australian Open, after making a comeback from two sets down to defeat Ben Testerman in the semifinals. Wilander won the match, played on the grass courts at Kooyong, in four sets.
In 1985, after becoming an American citizen, Curren reached the final at Wimbledon with the help of coaching from Tony Roche. After defeating Larry Stefanki, Mike De Palmer, David Mustard and then future champion Stefan Edberg in the fourth round in straight sets, he eliminated the then-world No. 1, John McEnroe, in the quarterfinals, and world No. 3 Jimmy Connors, in the semifinals. Curren was the first player to beat both American players in the same Grand Slam event. McEnroe commented that he felt overpowered and later that he had difficulty in dealing with Curren's highly individualistic and very fast serving, which, in its low toss, was hard to read and tended to produce low balls that skipped on the grass courts of the time. In the final, he lost in four sets to Boris Becker, in a match best remembered for making the 17-year-old Becker the youngest male Grand Slam champion (a record which was later eclipsed by Michael Chang in 1989 at the French Open). The final was intense, and Becker sent several hostile glares to Curren before and after points. On one of the final change-overs, Becker bumped Curren's shoulder as they passed one another. After his defeat, Curren was noted as saying that he thought the game would see an increase in the number of successful young players and predicted that they would have more intense, but shorter careers. Curren was the last American man to reach the final at Wimbledon until Andre Agassi did so seven years later in 1992.
He followed his second Grand Slam singles finals appearance by being upset in straight sets by Guy Forget 7–6, 6–1, 6–2 on Grandstand court in the first round of the US Open on August 28, 1985. Frustration got the best of the fifth-seeded Curren at the post-match press conference when he commented, "I hate the city, the environment and Flushing Meadows. There is noise, the people in the grandstand are never seated and it takes an hour and a half in traffic to get here. It's sickening that with all the money they get from TV, the USTA doesn't build a better facility. The USTA should be shot. And they should drop an A-bomb on the place."
Though he never won a Grand Slam singles title, Curren did win four Grand Slam doubles titles. In 1981, he won the US Open mixed doubles, and in 1982 he won the Wimbledon mixed doubles and both men's doubles and mixed doubles at the US Open. During his career, Curren won five top-level singles titles and 26 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were world No. 5 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles. His final career singles title came in 1989 at Frankfurt, and his last doubles title was won in 1992 in Seoul. Curren retired from the professional tour in 1993.
Since retiring from the tour, Curren has served as captain of the South Africa Davis Cup team.

## Grand Slam finals
### Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 1984 | Australian Open | Grass | Mats Wilander | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 4–6, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 2–6 |
| Loss | 1985 | Wimbledon | Grass | Boris Becker | 3–6, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 4–6 |

### Doubles: 1 (1 title)

| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1982 | US Open | Hard | Steve Denton | Victor Amaya Hank Pfister | 6–2, 6–7$^{(4–7)}$, 5–7, 6–2, 6–4 |

### Mixed doubles: 3 (3 titles)

| Result | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1981 | US Open | Hard | Anne Smith | JoAnne Russell Steve Denton | 6–4, 7–6 |
| Win | 1982 | Wimbledon | Grass | Anne Smith | Wendy Turnbull John Lloyd | 2–6, 6–3, 7–5 |
| Win | 1982 | US Open | Hard | Anne Smith | Barbara Potter Ferdi Taygan | 6–7, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 7–6$^{(7–5)}$ |

## ATP career finals
### Singles: 13 (5 titles, 8 runner-ups)

| Result | W/L | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Apr 1981 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Hard | Bernard Mitton | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Sep 1982 | Los Angeles-2 WCT, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Ivan Lendl | 6–7$^{(5–7)}$, 5–7, 1–6 |
| Loss | 1–2 | Oct 1982 | Amsterdam WCT, Netherlands | Carpet (i) | Wojtek Fibak | 5–7, 6–3, 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 2–2 | Nov 1982 | Cologne, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Shlomo Glickstein | 2–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
| Loss | 2–3 | Mar 1983 | Milan, Italy | Carpet (i) | Ivan Lendl | 7–5, 3–6, 6–7$^{(4–7)}$ |
| Loss | 2–4 | Dec 1984 | Australian Open, Melbourne | Grass | Mats Wilander | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 4–6, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 2–6 |
| Win | 3–4 | Feb 1985 | Toronto, Canada | Carpet (i) | Anders Järryd | 7–6$^{(8–6)}$, 6–3 |
| Loss | 3–5 | Mar 1985 | Houston WCT, U.S. | Carpet (i) | John McEnroe | 5–7, 1–6, 6–7$^{(4–7)}$ |
| Loss | 3–6 | Jul 1985 | Wimbledon, U.K. | Grass | Boris Becker | 3–6, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 6–7$^{(3–7)}$, 4–6 |
| Win | 4–6 | Apr 1986 | Atlanta, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Tim Wilkison | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 7–6$^{(7–2)}$ |
| Loss | 4–7 | Oct 1986 | Scottsdale, U.S. | Hard | John McEnroe | 3–6, 6–3, 2–6 |
| Loss | 4–8 | Aug 1988 | Toronto, Canada | Hard | Ivan Lendl | 6–7$^{(10–12)}$, 2–6 |
| Win | 5–8 | Oct 1989 | Frankfurt, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Petr Korda | 6–2, 7–5 |

### Doubles: 53 (26 titles, 27 runner-ups)

| Result | No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1. | 1980 | Denver, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Wojtek Fibak Heinz Günthardt | 7–5, 6–2 |
| Loss | 1. | 1980 | Washington D.C., U.S. | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Ferdi Taygan Brian Teacher | 6–4, 3–6, 6–7 |
| Loss | 2. | 1980 | North Conway, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Jimmy Connors Brian Gottfried | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Win | 2. | 1980 | Indianapolis, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Wojtek Fibak Ivan Lendl | 3–6, 7–6, 6–4 |
| Win | 3. | 1980 | Basel, Switzerland | Hard (i) | Steve Denton | Bob Hewitt Frew McMillan | 6–7, 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 4. | 1981 | Monterrey WCT, Mexico | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Johan Kriek Russell Simpson | 7–6, 6–3 |
| Loss | 3. | 1981 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Sandy Mayer Frew McMillan | 6–4, 3–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 4. | 1981 | Queen's Club, U.K. | Grass | Steve Denton | Pat DuPré Brian Teacher | 6–3, 6–7, 9–11 |
| Loss | 5. | 1981 | Newport, U.S. | Grass | Billy Martin | Brad Drewett Erik van Dillen | 2–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 5. | 1981 | Indianapolis, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Raúl Ramírez Van Winitsky | 6–3, 5–7, 7–5 |
| Win | 6. | 1981 | Stockholm, Sweden | Hard (i) | Steve Denton | Sherwood Stewart Ferdi Taygan | 6–7, 6–4, 6–0 |
| Loss | 6. | 1982 | Masters Doubles WCT, London | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy | 7–6, 3–6, 5–7, 4–6 |
| Win | 7. | 1982 | Denver, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Phil Dent Kim Warwick | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 8. | 1982 | Memphis, U.S. | Hard (i) | Steve Denton | Peter Fleming John McEnroe | 7–6, 4–6, 6–2 |
| Loss | 7. | 1982 | Munich WCT, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Mark Edmondson Tomáš Šmíd | 6–4, 5–7, 2–6 |
| Loss | 8. | 1982 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Carpet (i) | Fritz Buehning | Mark Edmondson Sherwood Stewart | 5–7, 2–6 |
| Win | 9. | 1982 | Houston, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Mark Edmondson Peter McNamara | 7–5, 6–4 |
| Win | 10. | 1982 | US Open, New York | Hard | Steve Denton | Victor Amaya Hank Pfister | 6–2, 6–7, 5–7, 6–2, 6–4 |
| Win | 11. | 1982 | Los Angeles-2 WCT, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Hank Pfister | Andy Andrews Drew Gitlin | 4–6, 6–2, 7–5 |
| Loss | 9. | 1982 | Amsterdam WCT, Netherlands | Carpet (i) | Buster Mottram | Fritz Buehning Tomáš Šmíd | 6–4, 3–6, 0–6 |
| Win | 12. | 1983 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Peter Fleming John McEnroe | 6–4, 7–6 |
| Win | 13. | 1983 | Munich WCT, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy | 7–5, 2–6, 6–1 |
| Win | 14. | 1983 | Houston WCT, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Mark Dickson Tomáš Šmíd | 7–6, 6–7, 6–1 |
| Win | 15. | 1983 | Las Vegas, U.S. | Hard | Steve Denton | Tracy Delatte Johan Kriek | 6–3, 7–5 |
| Loss | 10. | 1983 | Forest Hills WCT, U.S. | Clay | Steve Denton | Tracy Delatte Johan Kriek | 7–6, 5–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 11. | 1983 | Queen's Club, U.K. | Grass | Steve Denton | Brian Gottfried Paul McNamee | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 12. | 1984 | Richmond WCT, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | John McEnroe Patrick McEnroe | 6–7, 2–6 |
| Loss | 13. | 1984 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Tim Gullikson Tom Gullikson | 4–6, 7–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 16. | 1984 | Rotterdam, Netherlands | Carpet (i) | Wojtek Fibak | Fritz Buehning Ferdi Taygan | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Loss | 14. | 1984 | Milan, Italy | Carpet (i) | Steve Denton | Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 15. | 1985 | Memphis, U.S. | Hard (i) | Steve Denton | Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd | 6–1, 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 16. | 1985 | Brussels, Belgium | Carpet (i) | Wojtek Fibak | Stefan Edberg Anders Järryd | 3–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 17. | 1986 | Queen's Club, U.K. | Grass | Guy Forget | Darren Cahill Mark Kratzmann | 6–2, 7–6 |
| Win | 18. | 1987 | Tokyo Outdoor, Japan | Hard | Paul Annacone | Andrés Gómez Anders Järryd | 6–4, 7–6 |
| Win | 19. | 1987 | Los Angeles, U.S. | Hard | David Pate | Brad Gilbert Tim Wilkison | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Win | 20. | 1987 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Hard (i) | David Pate | Eric Korita Brad Pearce | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 21. | 1988 | Memphis, U.S. | Hard (i) | David Pate | Peter Lundgren Mikael Pernfors | 6–2, 6–2 |
| Loss | 17. | 1988 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet (i) | Danie Visser | Kelly Evernden Johan Kriek | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 18. | 1988 | Vienna, Austria | Carpet (i) | Tomáš Šmíd | Alex Antonitsch Balázs Taróczy | 6–4, 3–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 22. | 1988 | Stockholm, Sweden | Hard (i) | Jim Grabb | Paul Annacone John Fitzgerald | 7–5, 7–5 |
| Win | 23. | 1988 | Johannesburg, South Africa | Hard (i) | David Pate | Gary Muller Tim Wilkison | 7–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 19. | 1989 | Indian Wells, U.S. | Hard | David Pate | Boris Becker Jakob Hlasek | 6–3, 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 20. | 1989 | Tokyo Outdoor, Japan | Hard | David Pate | Ken Flach Robert Seguso | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 24. | 1989 | Tokyo Indoor, Japan | Carpet (i) | David Pate | Andrés Gómez Slobodan Živojinović | 4–6, 6–3, 7–6 |
| Loss | 21. | 1989 | Frankfurt, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Eric Jelen | Pieter Aldrich Danie Visser | 6–7, 7–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 22. | 1989 | Wembley, U.K. | Carpet (i) | Jeremy Bates | Jakob Hlasek John McEnroe | 1–6, 6–7 |
| Loss | 23. | 1990 | Toronto Indoor, Canada | Carpet (i) | Neil Broad | Patrick Galbraith David Macpherson | 6–2, 4–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 24. | 1990 | Hong Kong, UK | Hard | Joey Rive | Pat Cash Wally Masur | 3–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 25. | 1990 | Queen's Club, U.K. | Grass | Jeremy Bates | Henri Leconte Ivan Lendl | 6–2, 7–6 |
| Loss | 25. | 1990 | West Berlin, West Germany | Carpet (i) | Patrick Galbraith | Pieter Aldrich Danie Visser | 6–7, 6–7 |
| Loss | 26. | 1991 | Lyon, France | Hard (i) | Jeremy Bates | Steve DeVries David Macpherson | 6–7, 6–3, 3–6 |
| Loss | 27. | 1992 | Memphis, U.S. | Hard (i) | Gary Muller | Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde | 5–7, 6–4, 6–7 |
| Win | 26. | 1992 | Seoul, South Korea | Hard | Gary Muller | Kelly Evernden Brad Pearce | 7–6, 6–4 |

## Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
| | South Africa | South Africa | South Africa | South Africa | South Africa | South Africa | South Africa | United States | United States | United States | United States | United States | United States | United States | United States | | |
| Tournament | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | SR | W–L |
| Australian Open | A | A | A | 2R | A | A | F | A | NH | 3R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 3 | 9–3 |
| French Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 2R | 0 / 1 | 1–1 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | 4R | 2R | 3R | SF | 4R | F | 1R | 2R | 1R | 3R | QF | 2R | 1R | 0 / 13 | 28–13 |
| US Open | 2R | 2R | A | 4R | 1R | A | 2R | 1R | 2R | A | 2R | A | 4R | 2R | 1R | 0 / 11 | 12–11 |
| Win–loss | 1–1 | 1–1 | 3–1 | 5–3 | 2–2 | 5–1 | 10–3 | 6–2 | 1–2 | 3–2 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 7–2 | 2–2 | 1–3 | 0 / 28 | 50–28 |