Taylor Dent

Infobox Tennis player
playername=Taylor Dent


country= USA
residence= Bradenton, Florida
datebirth= birth date and age|1981|4|24
placebirth= Newport Beach, California
height= height|m=1.87
weight= convert|91|kg|lb st|abbr=on|lk=on
turnedpro= 1998
retired= "active"
plays= Right-handed; one-handed backhand
careerprizemoney= $2,067,634
singlesrecord= 127–104
singlestitles= 4
highestsinglesranking= No. 21 (August 8, 2005)
AustralianOpenresult= 3rd (2005)
FrenchOpenresult= 1st (2004)??
Wimbledonresult= 4th (2005)
USOpenresult= 4th (2003)
doublesrecord= 14–35
doublestitles= 0
highestdoublesranking= 170 (August 20, 2001)
updated= November 16, 2006

Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24 1981) is a tennis player from the United States.

Career

He has won 4 ATP singles titles during his career: Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour. However, he may be best known (at least in the US) as the opponent of a young boy playing the role of Jaden Agassi, the son of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, in a television commercial for insurer Genworth Financial.

Dent's most memorable performance of his career so far came at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semifinals, where he was defeated by eventual gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. Even more memorable was his bronze medal match against Fernando Gonzalez, also of Chile, which he lost 16-14 in the 3rd set.

Unusually for a contemporary tennis player, Dent favors a pure serve-and-volley style of play. His career high rank is World No. 21, reached on August 8, 2005. In the 2006 season, Dent did not play very many competitive matches, due to the recurring back and groin problem. [http://www.sportsmediainc.net/tennisweek/index.cfm?func=showarticle&newsid=15495&bannerregion=]

According to Atptennis.com, Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007, and hopes to return to the professional circuit by the end of the U.S. summer hard court season.

As of Feb.21 2008 Dent has not returned to professional tennis however it still remains his goal for this year.

On May.26 2008 Dent received a wild card and played at the Carson challenger in USA. It was his first match since Feb. 2006. He lost his 1st 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.

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 US Open doubles final in 1977 (with Renée Richards) and was a former Top 10 player in U.S. His stepbrother, Brett Hansen-Dent (born July 2, 1972), played on ATP circuit briefly after reaching NCAA singles final while playing at University of Southern California. His godfather is former Aussie player John Alexander. First cousin Misty May-Treanor is one of top pro volleyball players in the world and won a gold medal at both the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Dent attended Corona del Mar High School and Monte Vista High School in California. He has a tattoo of American and Australian flags on his right shoulder. On December 8, 2006, he married WTA Tour player Jennifer Hopkins. Wedding guests included Maria Sharapova, Nick Bollettieri, Phil Dent, Jan-Michael Gambill, Tommy Haas and Mashona Washington.

Facts

*Has a 151 mph serve, third only to Andy Roddick and Ivo Karlovic
*Being once over 215 lbs, he is very injury prone. His injury areas include his ankle, wrist, pinched nerve, and back. This has often caused Taylor to have to quit some of his matches before their completion.
*Dent was forced to change his serving movement/style after he returned to tennis from a back injury. Initially, it seemed to work, as Taylor still averaged a high service speed, but his back problems began to occur again in early 2006.
*January 6, 2006 - Won the 2006 Hopman Cup paired with Lisa Raymond, two rubbers to one.
*Taylor played for Corona Del Mar H.S. (Newport Beach, CA).
*Interestingly, Taylor has a somewhat high number of five-set losses in Grand Slam match play (seven overall), including two to Lleyton Hewitt, one at the 2001 Wimbledon tournament, and the other at the 2005 U.S. Open
*Taylor was a color commentator on the The Tennis Channel for the 2006 U.S. Open with announcer Tim Ryan and was invited back to the 2007 U.S. Open to do both commentating and host the popular "Off-Court Spotlight with Taylor Dent" interviews.

Titles (4)

ingles (4)

ingles Finalist (3)

*2004
**Tokyo (lost to Jiří Novák)
*2005
**Adelaide (lost to Joachim Johansson)
**Indianapolis (lost to Robby Ginepri)

ee also

* List of male tennis players

External links

* [http://www.taylordent.com/ Official Site] (Coming soon)
*