# Taylor Dent

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 Miami 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 in four sets. He advanced to the third round after beating Iván Navarro in the second round, in a five-set match. 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 in straight sets. 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, 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.

### 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)

## 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 US 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.
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, California, 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, Willie Alumbaugh and Mashona Washington. Jenny gave birth to a son in 2010 and a daughter in 2014.
Taylor has been a commentator on The Tennis Channel for the US Open in 2006, 2007, and 2011.
Dent currently resides in Keller, Texas, with wife Jennifer Hopkins and their four children. In 2020 the two along with Taylor's father, Phil Dent, opened The Birch Racquet and Lawn Club, located in Keller, Texas.

## 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 |

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

* Legend
* Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
* ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)
* ATP 500 Series (1–1)
* ATP 250 Series (3–2)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (2–3)
* Clay (0–1)
* Grass (1–0)
* Carpet (1–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (1–3)
* Indoors (3–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Jul 2002 | Newport, United States | International Series | Grass | James Blake | 6–1, 4–6, 6–4 |
| Win | 2–0 | Feb 2003 | Memphis, United States | Championship Series | Hard | Andy Roddick | 6–1, 6–4 |
| Win | 3–0 | Sep 2003 | Bangkok, Thailand | International Series | Hard | Juan Carlos Ferrero | 6–3, 7–6$^{(7–5)}$ |
| Win | 4–0 | Sep 2003 | Moscow, Russia | International Series | Carpet | Sargis Sargsian | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 6–4 |
| Loss | 4–1 | Oct 2004 | Tokyo, Japan | Championship Series | Hard | Jiří Novák | 7–5, 1–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 4–2 | Jan 2005 | Adelaide, Australia | International Series | Hard | Joachim Johansson | 5–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 4–3 | Jul 2005 | Indianapolis, United States | International Series | Hard | Robby Ginepri | 6–4, 3–6, 0–3, ret. |

### Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

* Legend
* Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
* ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)
* ATP 500 Series (0–0)
* ATP 250 Series (0–1)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (0–1)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
* Finals by setting
* Outdoors (0–1)
* Indoors (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | Sep 2004 | Beijing, China | International Series | Hard | Alex Bogomolov Jr. | Justin Gimelstob Graydon Oliver | 6–4, 4–6, 6–7$^{(6–8)}$ |

## ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
### Singles: 7 (5–2)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (3–1)
* ITF Futures (2–1)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (4–2)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (1–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Jul 1999 | USA F9, Redding | Futures | Hard | Wade McGuire | 6–4, 6–1 |
| Loss | 1–1 | Dec 1999 | USA F21, Laguna Niguel | Futures | Hard | Alexander Peya | 4–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 2–1 | Mar 2000 | USA F6, San Antonio | Futures | Hard | Daniel Melo | 6–2, 6–3 |
| Win | 3–1 | Jun 2001 | Surbiton, United Kingdom | Challenger | Grass | Neville Godwin | 4–6, 7–6$^{(7–3)}$, 6–2 |
| Win | 4–1 | Sep 2009 | Tulsa, United States | Challenger | Hard | Wayne Odesnik | 7–6$^{(11–9)}$, 7–6$^{(7–4)}$ |
| Win | 5–1 | Nov 2009 | Knoxville, United States | Challenger | Hard | Ilija Bozoljac | 6–3, 7–6$^{(8–6)}$ |
| Loss | 5–2 | Nov 2009 | Champaign-Urbana, United States | Challenger | Hard | Michael Russell | 5–7, 4–6 |

### Doubles: 1 (1–0)

* Legend
* ATP Challenger (1–0)
* ITF Futures (0–0)
* Finals by surface
* Hard (1–0)
* Clay (0–0)
* Grass (0–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Dec 2000 | Champaign-Urbana, United States | Challenger | Hard | Mardy Fish | Noam Behr Michael Russell | walkover |

## Performance timeline

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | P# | DNQ | A | Z# | PO | G | S | B | NMS | NTI | P | NH |

### Singles

| Tournament | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | SR | W–L | Win% |
| Grand Slam tournaments ||||||||||||||||||
| Australian Open | A | A | Q1 | Q2 | Q1 | 3R | A | 3R | 3R | 1R | A | A | 1R | 2R | 0 / 6 | 7–6 | 54% |
| French Open | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | 2R | 0 / 3 | 1–3 | 25% |
| Wimbledon | A | A | A | 1R | 2R | 3R | 1R | 3R | 4R | A | A | A | 1R | 2R | 0 / 8 | 9–8 | 53% |
| US Open | Q1 | 2R | 1R | 1R | 2R | 1R | 4R | 2R | 3R | A | A | A | 3R | 2R | 0 / 10 | 11–10 | 52% |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 2–2 | 4–3 | 3–3 | 5–4 | 7–3 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2–3 | 4–4 | 0 / 27 | 28–27 | 51% |
| Olympic Games ||||||||||||||||||
| Summer Olympics | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | A | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | 4th | Not Held | Not Held | Not Held | A | NH | NH | 0 / 1 | 4–2 | 67% |
| ATP Tour Masters 1000 ||||||||||||||||||
| Indian Wells | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 2R | A | 4R | 4R | A | A | A | 2R | 1R | 0 / 7 | 7–7 | 50% |
| Miami | A | A | A | A | 2R | Q1 | 2R | 2R | QF | A | A | A | 4R | 2R | 0 / 6 | 10–6 | 63% |
| Monte Carlo | A | A | A | A | A | A | 1R | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Madrid | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Not Masters Series | Q2 | Q2 | QF | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 3–2 | 60% |
| Canada | A | A | A | A | A | 3R | A | A | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 3–2 | 60% |
| Cincinnati | A | A | A | 2R | 1R | 3R | A | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | A | 2R | 0 / 6 | 4–6 | 40% |
| Paris | A | A | A | A | A | Q2 | Q2 | 1R | 2R | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 | 1–2 | 33% |
| Hamburg | A | A | A | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | A | A | A | NMS | NMS | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | – |
| Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–3 | 5–3 | 1–2 | 8–6 | 7–6 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 4–2 | 2–3 | 0 / 27 | 29–27 | 52% |
| Year-end ranking | | 410 | 227 | 181 | 124 | 57 | 33 | 32 | 29 | 574 | – | 865 | 76 | 118 | | | |