Mike Estep

Mike Estep
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Hurst, Texas, USA
Born	July 19, 1949 (age 74); Dallas, Texas, USA
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Turned pro	1969 (amateur from 1966)
Retired	1983
Plays	Right-handed
Singles
Career record	117–179
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 59 (August 23, 1973)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (1982)
French Open	2R (1973, 1975)
Wimbledon	4R (1975)
US Open	2R (1975)
Doubles
Career record	182–168 (Open era)
Career titles	7 (Open era)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	QF (1980, 1982)

Last updated March 26, 2024

Mike Estep (born July 19, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

He was a board member of the Association of Tennis Professionals from 1982 to 1989, holding the position of chairman of the ATP ranking Committee at the same time. He also worked with the U.S. Tennis Association, creating a method for ranking juniors in 1999 that is now used nationwide, and serving on the junior development council for Texas from 1993 to 1995.^[1]

Estep resides in Hurst, Texas.

Early life

Estep grew up in Dallas, where he graduated from the St. Mark's School of Texas. As a junior tennis player, Estep held a No 1 national ranking for five straight years (from 1963 to 1967). Estep was named the Texas High School Player of the Year, and led the U.S. to the Sunshine Cup Title and played on the U.S. Junior Davis Cup Team.^[2] When Estep and George Taylor won the USTA national junior doubles tournament, they became the first team of Texans to win a national tennis championship. .^[3]

College tennis

At Rice University, Estep was an All American tennis player for three years. As a senior in 1970, he won the Southwest Conference titles in both singles and doubles. At the NCAA Division 1 annual tournament, Estep was an NCAA doubles semifinalist (1968), a singles finalist (1969), and a singles semifinalist (1970). He graduated from Rice with a degree in political science.^[4]

Grand Prix and WCT finals

Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Aug 1973	Merion, U.S.	Grass	Gene Scott	7–5, 3–6, 7–6, 3–6, 7–5
Win	2–0	Feb 1976	Khartoum, Sudan	Hard	Thomaz Koch	6–4, 6–7, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	2–1	1982	Tampa, U.S.	Hard	Brian Gottfried	7–6, 2–6, 4–6
Loss	2–2	1982	Newport, U.S.	Grass	Hank Pfister	1–6, 5–7

Doubles: 16 (7 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Result	No.	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	1973	Omaha, U.S.	Hard (i)	William Brown	Jimmy Connors Juan Gisbert Sr.	default
Win	2.	1973	Salt Lake City, U.S.	Hard (i)	Raúl Ramírez	Jiří Hřebec Jan Kukal	6–4, 7–6
Win	3.	1973	Calgary, Canada	Indoor	Ilie Năstase	Szabolcs Baranyi Péter Szőke	6–7, 7–5, 6–3
Win	4.	1973	Valencia, Spain	Clay	Ion Țiriac	Patrick Hombergen Bernard Mignot	6–4, 1–6, 10–8
Loss	1.	1973	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Ion Țiriac	Juan Gisbert Sr. Manuel Orantes	4–6, 6–7
Win	5.	1973	Djakarta, Indonesia	Hard	Ian Fletcher	John Newcombe Allan Stone	7–5, 6–4
Win	6.	1974	Philadelphia WCT, U.S.	Carpet	Pat Cramer	Jean-Baptiste Chanfreau Georges Goven	6–1, 6–1
Loss	2.	1974	Hampton, U.S.	Carpet	Pat Cramer	Željko Franulović Nikola Pilić	6–4, 5–7, 1–6
Loss	3.	1974	Melbourne, Australia	Clay	Paul Kronk	Grover Raz Reid Allan Stone	6–7, 4–6
Loss	4.	1974	Manila, Philippines	Clay	Marcello Lara	Syd Ball Ross Case	3–6, 6–7, 7–9
Win	7.	1975	Washington Indoor WCT, U.S.	Carpet	Jeff Simpson	Anand Amritraj Vijay Amritraj	7–6, 6–3
Loss	5.	1975	Houston, U.S.	Clay	Jeff Simpson	Robert Lutz Stan Smith	5–7, 6–7
Loss	6.	1975	Boston, U.S.	Clay	John Andrews	Brian Gottfried Raúl Ramírez	6–4, 3–6, 6–7
Loss	7.	1976	Cologne, Germany	Carpet	Colin Dowdeswell	Bob Hewitt Frew McMillan	1–6, 6–3, 6–7
Loss	8.	1981	Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany	Clay	Mark Edmondson	Peter McNamara Paul McNamee	6–2, 4–6, 6–7
Loss	9.	1981	Brisbane, Australia	Grass	Mark Edmondson	Rod Frawley Chris Lewis	5–7, 6–4, 6–7

Coaching

Estep entered coaching after retiring from competitive tennis in 1983.

He is best known for coaching Martina Navratilova during her rise to dominance.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Martina Navratilova is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era. Alongside Chris Evert, her greatest rival, Navratilova dominated women's tennis for much of the 1970s and 1980s.

Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur. She now shares her knowledge of doubles with tennis enthusiasts throughout the US by conducting Master Doubles with Gigi Clinics and Doubles Boot Camps. Fernández is the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Hana Mandlíková is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia who later obtained Australian citizenship. During her career, she won four Grand Slam singles titles - the 1980 Australian Open, 1981 French Open, 1985 US Open and 1987 Australian Open. She was also runner-up in four Grand Slam singles events - twice at Wimbledon and twice at the US Open. The graceful right-hander secured one Grand Slam women's doubles title, at the 1989 US Open with Martina Navratilova. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994, Mandlíková was one of the brightest stars of her generation and is considered one of the greatest female players of the Open Era.

Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4.

Helena Suková is a Czech former professional tennis player. During her career, she won 14 major doubles titles, nine in women's doubles and five in mixed doubles. She is also a two-time Olympic silver medalist in doubles, a four-time major singles runner-up, and won a total of 10 singles titles and 69 doubles titles.

Betty Flippina Stöve is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best remembered for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 1977. She also won ten Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles.

Jonathan Stark is a former professional tennis player from the United States. During his career he won two Grand Slam doubles titles. Stark reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in 1994.

Steve Denton is a former professional tennis player. He is currently the head men's tennis coach at Texas A&M University.

Kathryn Jordan is a former American tennis player. During her career, she won seven Grand Slam titles, five of them in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. She also was the 1983 Australian Open women's singles runner-up and won three singles titles and 42 doubles titles.

Lori McNeil is an American tennis coach and former top 10 player. McNeil was a singles semifinalist at the US Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1994, a women's doubles finalist at the Australian Open in 1987 with Zina Garrison and French Open mixed-doubles winner in 1988 with Jorge Lozano.

Barry MacKay was an American tennis player, tournament director and broadcaster. He was ranked #1 in the U.S. in 1960.

Ioana Raluca Olaru is an inactive tennis player from Romania. The winner of eleven singles and fifteen doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, Olaru reached one WTA Tour singles final, at the 2009 Gastein Ladies, losing to Andrea Petkovic, in straight sets. She also has won eleven doubles titles on WTA Tour tournaments.

Beth Herr is an American tennis player from Centerville, Ohio, who won four Junior Grand Slam titles, the NCAA singles and team titles and one professional tennis tournament. In her home state of Ohio, she was a two-time high school singles state champion (1980-1981). Her NCAA singles title came in 1983.

Helen Elizabeth "Betsy" Nagelsen McCormack is an American former professional tennis player.

Gabriela Chmelinová is a Czech former tennis player.

Meredith McGrath is a former professional tennis player.

Pavel Složil is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia.

This is a list of the main career statistics of former Czechoslovak-born American tennis player Martina Navratilova.

Amanda Tobin, now known as Amanda Chaplin, is a former professional tennis player from Australia. She also competed as Amanda Tobin-Evans and Amanda Tobin-Dingwall.

Carolyn Meyer Richardson is an American former professional tennis player.

References

External links

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.

[1] Rice University Champions Book

[2] "Estep".

[3] St. Mark's School of Texas - Alumni Athletes

[4] "Estep".

[5] "Estep".

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]