Bruce Kleege

Last updated
Bruce Kleege
Full nameRobert Bruce Kleege
Country (sports)Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Born (1954-11-01) November 1, 1954 (age 69)
Frankfurt, West Germany
Turned pro1977
Retired1984
PlaysRight-handed
Singles
Career record10–35
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 148 (December 31, 1978)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open 3R (1982)
Wimbledon 1R (1983)
US Open 1R (1979, 1983)
Doubles
Career record22–40
Career titles1
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open 1R (1982)
Wimbledon 1R (1980)
US Open 2R (1979, 1982)

Robert Bruce Kleege (born November 1, 1954), known as Bruce Kleege, is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Contents

Biography

Early years and college

Kleege grew up in La Jolla, California, but was born in Frankfurt, West Germany. [1] He is of Latvian descent through his father Robert, who worked at the time for the United Nations. [2] After attending Clairemont High School, Kleege went to Brigham Young University from 1972 to 1977. [3] He had a noted varsity tennis career, which culminated in winning the No. 1 singles conference championship in 1977, a year he went undefeated and ranked sixth nationally. [3] For his efforts he was awarded All-American honors, in both singles and doubles. [4] Graduating in 1977 with a business management degree, Kleege made the decision to turn professional and made his first appearance on the Grand Prix circuit at a doubles tournament in Basel in October 1977. [3]

Professional career

Most of his singles matches in 1978 came in ATP Challenger events, but he made the main draw of the end of year Australian Open, in which he lost in the first round to Arthur Ashe, who was making his last appearance at the tournament. [3] He started 1979 by winning the doubles title at the Lagos Open, a Grand Prix tournament, with Joel Bailey. [5] A few weeks later he was a singles quarter-finalist in San Jose, Costa Rica. [6] The following year his best performance was when he made the third round of the 1982 Australian Open. [7] He suffered the disappointment of losing a five-and-a-half-hour match in the final round of qualifying for the 1983 Wimbledon Championships, to Tian Viljoen, 11–13 in the fifth set. [8] [9] However he got to enter the main draw when sixth seed Gene Mayer had to withdraw. [8] Later in the year he had an upset win over world number 14 and top seed Steve Denton at the 1983 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport. [10]

Later life

After leaving tennis he has been involved in real estate investment. [3] He is married and in 2007 his wife gave birth to twin boys. [3]

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

ResultW/LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1–0Mar 1979 Lagos, NigeriaHard Flag of the United States.svg Joel Bailey Flag of Egypt.svg Ismail El Shafei
Flag of Austria.svg Peter Feigl 		6–4, 6–7, 6–3

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

No.YearTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
1.1979 Lincoln, U.S.Hard Flag of the United States.svg Joel Bailey Flag of the United States.svg Steve Denton
Flag of the United States.svg Peter Rennert 		0–6, 6–4, 6–4
2.1981 Lagos, NigeriaHard Flag of the United States.svg Larry Stefanki Flag of the United States.svg Ian Harris
Flag of the United States.svg Craig Wittus 		6–2, 3–6, 6–3

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismail El Shafei</span> Egyptian tennis player

Ismail El Shafei is an Egyptian former professional tennis player and president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the International Tennis Federation and is chairman of the ITF Junior Circuit. He won six career singles titles and reached eleven finals. In doubles, he won nine career titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Monroe</span> American tennis player

Benjamin Nicholas Monroe is an American former professional tennis player. Monroe was a doubles specialist. He reached a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 30 on 2 October 2017 and won four ATP Tour doubles titles and thirteen ATP Challenger Tour titles in his career.

Jonathan Canter is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Derek John Tarr is a former American professional tennis player, originally from South Africa.

Greg Whitecross is a former professional tennis player from Australia.

Charlie Fancutt is a former professional tennis player from Australia.

Jiří Granát is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic who competed for Czechoslovakia.

Rick Fisher is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Joel Bailey is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Keith Richardson is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He is a member of both the North Carolina and South Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame.

Damien Roberts is a South African former professional tennis player.

Tony Lloyd is a former British professional tennis player.

Stefan Svensson is a former professional tennis player from Sweden.

Charles Honey is a former professional tennis player from South Africa.

Dominik Guido Utzinger is a former professional tennis player from Switzerland.

Mike Brunnberg is a Swedish born American former professional tennis player.

John Christopher Lewis is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Victor Eke is a former professional tennis player from Australia.

Ian Harris is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Harry Fritz is a Canadian-American former professional tennis player.

References

  1. ↑ "Sport". Daily Herald . May 17, 1977. p. 4. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  2. ↑ McIntosh, Linda (August 31, 2011). "Robert Kleege, United Nations official and World War II veteran". San Diego Union Tribune . Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Bruce Kleege Athlete Profile". The Official Site of BYU Athletics. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "NCAA singles finalists chosen as All-Americans". The Tuscaloosa News . May 30, 1977. p. 10. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "ITF Tennis - Pro Circuit - Lagos - 26 February - 04 March 1979". International Tennis Federation . Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "ITF Tennis - Pro Circuit - Costa Rica - 19 March - 25 March 1979". International Tennis Federation . Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "Sammy defies dad but wins". New Straits Times . December 11, 1982. p. 35. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  8. 1 2 Colebatch, Tim (June 20, 1983). "Threat to Wimbledon TV". The Age . p. 22. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  9. ↑ "Players Archive - Bruce Kleege". wimbledon.com. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Walker, Randy (July 7, 2010). "Querrey Falls in Newportas "Casino Curse" Continues". World Tennis Magazine. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.