# Eric Butorac

Eric Butorac (born May 22, 1981), nicknamed Booty, is an American retired professional tennis player. He was a doubles specialist, and for a period of approximately six years was the No. 3 ranked American doubles player. His best result was reaching the 2014 Australian Open finals with partner Raven Klaasen. Their run to the final included a victory over the World No. 1 team of Bob and Mike Bryan.
He attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he played on the men's tennis team for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he graduated in 2003.

## Family

Butorac is of Croatian descent. Butorac's parents, Jan and Tim Butorac, are directors of the Rochester Tennis Connection (Indoor & Outdoor site) in Rochester, Minnesota. His brother, Jeff, is a basketball coach at Century High School. Tim Butorac is a USPTA professional, teaching tennis at the Rochester Indoor Tennis Club during the winter and at the Kutzky/Rochester Outdoor Tennis Center during the summer months.

## College career

Eric Butorac played at Ball State University for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College. He has a long history with Gustavus: his father played for coach Steve Wilkinson, and, at age five, Eric attended tennis camp with Wilkinson. He closed out his senior season of 2003 by winning both the NCAA Division III singles and doubles championships, with Kevin Whipple as his partner.

## Recent activity

In July 2006, Butorac and Jamie Murray reached their first ATP Tour doubles final, in Los Angeles, losing in straight sets to the Bryan brothers, who were the world's top-ranked doubles team.
In early February 2007, the US-Scots pair claimed their first doubles title in a Challenger event in Dallas, and a week later they won their first ATP title at the SAP Open. They continued their winning run the following week when the unseeded pair defeated second seeds Julian Knowle and Jürgen Melzer, 7–5, 6–3, to capture the doubles title of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships at the Racquet Club of Memphis.
In April, May, and June 2009, Butorac and American Scott Lipsky won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, the Estoril Open in Portugal, and a tournament in Nottingham, England.
In 2010, Butorac paired with Rajeev Ram to make the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He also won titles in Chennai (with Ram), Tokyo and Stockholm (with Rojer). He was on the 2010 roster of the Boston Lobsters in the World Team Tennis pro league.
In 2011, Butorac had his best season reaching a career-high ranking of no. 17, and finishing as the no. 9 team in the world with partner Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands. They won three titles and made the semifinals of the Australian Open.
In 2012, Butorac made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and won the doubles title in São Paulo (with Bruno Soares).
In 2013, Butorac made it to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open and won the doubles title in Kuala Lumpur with Raven Klaasen.
In 2014, Butorac started his year with reaching the final of the Australian Open. He then went on to win titles in Memphis and Stockholm. All of these were with partner Raven Klaasen.

## Off court

In 2009 Butorac started the Minnesota Tennis Challenge, a charity event to benefit St. Paul Urban Tennis. Participants included Bob and Mike Bryan, Justin Gimelstob, Rajeev Ram, Melanie Oudin, and Somdev Devvarman. Butorac is a regular speaker at coaching conventions and USTA showcases around the country.
Starting in 2010, Butorac has been the volunteer assistant coach at Harvard University. He is one of only three players from the NCAA Division III ranks to ever make a living on the tour.
Butorac was the president of the ATP Player's Council. He succeeded Roger Federer as president (whom he served under as VP for the previous term). He was succeeded by Novak Djokovic on August 30, 2016.
In February 2022, Butorac was named Tournament Director of the Western & Southern Open. The Western & Southern Open features an ATP Masters 1000 as well as a WTA 1000 tournament in the same week at the same venue, making it one of five events to host concurrent top tier tour tournaments.

## Major finals
### Grand Slam finals
#### Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

| Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 2014 | Australian Open | Hard | Raven Klaasen | Łukasz Kubot Robert Lindstedt | 3–6, 3–6 |

## ATP career finals
### Doubles: 29 (18 titles, 11 runners-up)

* Legend ( Doubles)
* Grand Slam tournaments (0–1)
* ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
* ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
* ATP World Tour 500 Series (2–2)
* ATP World Tour 250 Series (16–8)
* Titles by surface
* Hard (12–9)
* Clay (5–2)
* Grass (1–0)
* Carpet (0–0)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | Jul 2006 | Los Angeles Open, United States | International | Hard | Jamie Murray | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 2–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 1–1 | Feb 2007 | Pacific Coast Championships, United States | International | Hard (i) | Jamie Murray | Chris Haggard Rainer Schüttler | 7–5, 7–6$^{(8–6)}$ |
| Win | 2–1 | Feb 2007 | U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States | Intl. Gold | Hard (i) | Jamie Murray | Jürgen Melzer Julian Knowle | 7–5, 6–3 |
| Win | 3–1 | Jun 2007 | Nottingham Open, United Kingdom | International | Grass | Jamie Murray | Joshua Goodall Ross Hutchins | 4–6, 6–3, [10–5] |
| Win | 4–1 | Aug 2008 | Los Angeles Open, United States | International | Hard | Rohan Bopanna | Travis Parrott Dušan Vemić | 7–6$^{(7–5)}$, 7–6$^{(7–5)}$ |
| Win | 5–1 | Jan 2009 | Chennai Open, India | 250 Series | Hard | Rajeev Ram | Jean-Claude Scherrer Stan Wawrinka | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Win | 6–1 | May 2009 | Estoril Open, Portugal | 250 Series | Clay | Scott Lipsky | Martin Damm Robert Lindstedt | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 7–1 | Oct 2009 | Thailand Open, Thailand | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Rajeev Ram | Guillermo García López Mischa Zverev | 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 6–3 |
| Loss | 7–2 | May 2010 | Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany | 250 Series | Clay | Michael Kohlmann | Oliver Marach Santiago Ventura | 7–5, 3–6, [14–16] |
| Loss | 7–3 | Aug 2010 | Los Angeles Open, United States (2) | 250 Series | Hard | Jean-Julien Rojer | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 7–6$^{(8–6)}$, 2–6, [7–10] |
| Win | 8–3 | Oct 2010 | Japan Open, Japan | 500 Series | Hard | Jean-Julien Rojer | Andreas Seppi Dmitry Tursunov | 6–3, 6–2 |
| Win | 9–3 | Oct 2010 | Stockholm Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Jean-Julien Rojer | Johan Brunström Jarkko Nieminen | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Loss | 9–4 | Feb 2011 | U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States | 500 Series | Hard (i) | Jean-Julien Rojer | Max Mirnyi Daniel Nestor | 2–6, 7–6$^{(8–6)}$, [3–10] |
| Win | 10–4 | May 2011 | Estoril Open, Portugal (2) | 250 Series | Clay | Jean-Julien Rojer | Marc López David Marrero | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Win | 11–4 | May 2011 | Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France | 250 Series | Clay | Jean-Julien Rojer | Santiago González David Marrero | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Win | 12–4 | Oct 2011 | Malaysian Open, Malaysia | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Jean-Julien Rojer | František Čermák Filip Polášek | 6–1, 6–3 |
| Loss | 12–5 | Nov 2011 | Valencia Open, Spain | 500 Series | Hard (i) | Jean-Julien Rojer | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 4–6, 6–7$^{(9–11)}$ |
| Win | 13–5 | Feb 2012 | Brasil Open, Brazil | 250 Series | Clay | Bruno Soares | Michal Mertiňák André Sá | 3–6, 6–4, [10–8] |
| Loss | 13–6 | Oct 2012 | Thailand Open, Thailand | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Paul Hanley | Lu Yen-hsun Danai Udomchoke | 3–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 13–7 | Jan 2013 | Brisbane International, Australia | 250 Series | Hard | Paul Hanley | Marcelo Melo Tommy Robredo | 6–4, 1–6, [5–10] |
| Loss | 13–8 | May 2013 | Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany | 250 Series | Clay | Marcos Baghdatis | Jarkko Nieminen Dmitry Tursunov | 1–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 14–8 | Sep 2013 | Malaysian Open, Malaysia (2) | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Raven Klaasen | Pablo Cuevas Horacio Zeballos | 6–2, 6–4 |
| Loss | 14–9 | Jan 2014 | Australian Open, Australia | Grand Slam | Hard | Raven Klaasen | Łukasz Kubot Robert Lindstedt | 3–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 15–9 | Feb 2014 | U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Raven Klaasen | Bob Bryan Mike Bryan | 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 16–9 | Oct 2014 | Stockholm Open, Sweden (2) | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Raven Klaasen | Treat Huey Jack Sock | 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 16–10 | Aug 2015 | Winston-Salem Open, United States | 250 Series | Hard | Scott Lipsky | Dominic Inglot Robert Lindstedt | 2–6, 4–6 |
| Win | 17–10 | Nov 2015 | Valencia Open, Spain | 250 Series | Hard (i) | Scott Lipsky | Feliciano López Max Mirnyi | 7–6$^{(7–4)}$, 6–3 |
| Loss | 17–11 | Jan 2016 | Auckland Open, New Zealand | 250 Series | Hard | Scott Lipsky | Mate Pavić Michael Venus | 5–7, 4–6 |
| Win | 18–11 | May 2016 | Estoril Open, Portugal (3) | 250 Series | Clay | Scott Lipsky | Łukasz Kubot Marcin Matkowski | 6–4, 3–6, [10–8] |

## Doubles performance timeline

Key :
| W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | DNQ | A | NH |
Current till 2016 US Open.
| Tournament | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | SR | W-L |
| Grand Slam tournaments |||||||||||||
| Australian Open | 2R | 3R | 1R | QF | SF | QF | 3R | F | 3R | 2R | 0 / 10 | 23–10 |
| French Open | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 3R | 2R | 2R | 1R | 3R | 0 / 10 | 6–10 |
| Wimbledon | 3R | 2R | 2R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 1R | 3R | 2R | A | 0 / 9 | 9–9 |
| US Open | 2R | 1R | 1R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 2R | QF | 3R | 1R | 0 / 10 | 9–10 |
| Win–loss | 4–4 | 3–4 | 1–4 | 3–4 | 6–4 | 7–4 | 4–4 | 11–4 | 5–4 | 3-3 | 0 / 39 | 47–39 |