Tommy Ho

For other people named Thomas Ho, see Thomas Ho (disambiguation).
Tommy Ho
Full name Thomas Ho
Country (sports)  United States
Residence Houston, Texas, United States
Born (1973-06-17) June 17, 1973
Winter Haven, United States
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Turned pro 1988
Retired 1998
Plays Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money $793,819
Singles
Career record 36–66
Career titles 0
4 Challengers
Highest ranking No. 85 (June 26, 1995)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 2R (1995)
French Open 1R (1995)
Wimbledon 2R (1995)
US Open 3R (1992)
Doubles
Career record 57–40
Career titles 4
Highest ranking No. 13 (January 8, 1996)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open 3R (1996)
French Open SF (1995)
Wimbledon 2R (1995)
US Open 3R (1994)

Thomas "Tommy" Ho (born June 17, 1973, in Winter Haven, Florida) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. His parents are immigrants from Taiwan.[1]

Tennis career

Juniors

Ho first came to the tennis world's attention as an exceptionally successful junior player. He won several junior tennis events in the 1980s, and set a number of 'youngest-ever' records.

Pro tour

In August 1988, Ho became the youngest-ever male player to play in the main draw of the US Open at the age of 15 years and 2 months. He lost the first round match to Johan Kriek 6–4, 7–6, 7–6. That same month, Ho became the second youngest male player to win a main draw match at a top-level tour event when he beat Matt Anger in the first round at Rye Brook 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, just after Argentina's Franco Davín.

Ho's early successes drew many comparisons with Michael Chang, another Asian American tennis player who achieved great success as a junior. However Ho did not manage to make the same kind of impact on the professional circuit as Chang (who went on to win the French Open and reach the World No. 2 singles ranking). Ho enjoyed some success in satellite tournaments, but did not win any top-level singles events on the tour. He did, however, win four tour doubles titles (Beijing in 1994, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Indian Wells in 1995).

Ho's professional career was hampered by injuries. In 1995, Ho and Brett Steven became the fastest-ever losers of a match at Wimbledon. In the very first point of their Men's Doubles match, Steven served and Ho tried to intercept the return at the net, only to injure his back. The pair thus had had to forfeit the match after just one rally, which had lasted all of five seconds. The back injury was to recur again in future years, and eventually led to Ho's retirement from the tour in 1997.

During his professional career, Ho reached career-high rankings of World No. 85 in singles and World No. 13 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled $793,819.

Post-retirement

Since retiring from the tour, Ho has completed a degree at Rice University in Houston and worked as a tennis journalist.

In 2011, Ho was inducted into the USTA Florida Hall of Fame.

Doubles titles

Legend (Doubles)
Grand Slam tournaments (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (1)
ATP International Series Gold (0)
ATP International Series (3)
No. Date Tournament Surface Partner in Final Opponent in Final Score in Final
1. 1994 Beijing, China Carpet United States Kent Kinnear South Africa David Adams
Russia Andrei Olhovskiy
7–6, 6–3
2. 1995 Indian Wells, U.S. Hard New Zealand Brett Steven South Africa Gary Muller
South Africa Piet Norval
6–4, 7–6
3. 1995 Hong Kong Hard Australia Mark Philippoussis Australia John Fitzgerald
Sweden Anders Järryd
6–1, 6–7, 7–6
4. 1995 Beijing, China Carpet Canada Sébastien Lareau Belgium Dick Norman
Netherlands Fernon Wibier
7–6, 7–6

Runners-up (3)

No. Date Tournament Surface Partner in Final Opponent in Final Score in Final
1. 1995 Memphis, U.S. Hard (i) New Zealand Brett Steven United States Jared Palmer
United States Richey Reneberg
6–4, 6–7, 1–6
2. 1995 Moscow, Russia Carpet New Zealand Brett Steven Zimbabwe Byron Black
United States Jared Palmer
4–6, 6–3, 3–6
3. 1996 Adelaide, Australia Hard Sweden Jonas Björkman Australia Todd Woodbridge
Australia Mark Woodforde
5–7, 6–7

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.