Brian Baker | Bio | ATP Tour

Personal
Career

Started playing tennis at age 2 with his dad in his backyard
Mother, Jackie, is a music teacher; father, Steve, is a lawyer
Has two older siblings, who both played college tennis: sister, Kathryn and brother, Art
Graduated 1st in his class from Hillwood High School in Nashville, Tenn.
MVP on high school tennis team and recruited by Stanford, Florida, Georgia, Duke and Virginia
Featured as Sports Illustrated Amateur Athlete of the Month
During injury absence, studied and coached tennis for 4 years at Belmont University
Graduated from Belmont with business administration degree in May 2015
If he wasn't playing tennis, would work in the industry as a coach or on the finance side
Favourite surface is clay, shot is down-the-line backhand andtournament is Nice
Goal is to stay healthy and break into Top 50
Favourite tennis memory is reaching 2nd week of Wimbledon in 2012
Favourite tennis players as a kid were Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl
Enjoys playing golf and supporting Vanderbilt athletics
Favourite pro sports teams are Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators
Wife, Alathea Thompson

(UPDATED AUGUST 28, 2016)

The American was unranked to start 2016 and rose to No. 332on Aug. 8following run to Lexington, USA Challenger SF (l. to Tiafoe). Ended 2011 at No. 458 before reaching career-high No. 52 on Oct. 29, 2012. Broke into Top 100 on July 9, 2012 following run to Wimbledon 4R. Earned 1st ranking point at age 16 on Feb. 11, 2002 after falling to T. Blake in Joplin, USA Challenger 1R as WC. Peaked at No. 2 in junior rankings on June 9, 2003
Reached 1st ATP World Tour QF, SF and final at 2012 Nice as 216th-ranked Q, beating Stakhovsky, Monfils, Kukushkin and Davydenko before falling to Almagro. Won Challenger singles titles at 2004 Denver, USA (d. Hippensteel) and 2012 Savannah, USA as Q (d. Gensse). Captured 1st pro title of latest comeback in doubles w/Harrison at 2016 Savannah, USA Challenger as WC (d. Raja/Sharan). Orange Bowl junior champion in 2002 (d. Mergea, Baghdatis and Montcourt)
Advanced to Grand Slam 4R for 1st time at 2012 Wimbledon as Q, defeating Machado, Nieminen and Paire before losing to Kohlschreiber. Earned biggest win of career by ranking over No. 9 Gaudio in 2005 US Open 1R as WC (l. to Malisse in 2R). Reached 3 Grand Slam junior finals: 2003 Roland Garros singles (d. Baghdatis and Tsonga, l. to Wawrinka); 2002 Wimbledon doubles w/Ram (l. to Mergea/Tecau) and2002 US Open doubles w/Guccione (l. to Koning/van der Valk)
Earned both of his ATP Masters 1000 wins at Cincinnati as WC, beating Kohlschreiber in 2012 (l. to Tomic in 2R) and Istomin in 2013 (l. to Dimitrov in 2R). Qualified at 2012 Shanghai (l. to Gasquet in 1R)
Secured 11 of 20 tour-level wins in 2012. Qualified and beat Krajicek at 2016 Newport for 1st win since 2013 Cincinnati. Made ATP debut at 2002 Indianapolis as WC (l. to Ferreira) and earned 1st win at 2004 Memphis as WC (d. Dupuis, l. to Gambill in 2R). Owns records of 62-43 at Challengers and 61-17 at Futures. Went 91-31 on ITF Juniors Circuit with wins over Baghdatis, Berdych, Isner, Monfils, Tsonga and Wawrinka
Missed about 9 years and 3 months due to injuries, including entire 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2015 seasons. Underwent 11 surgeries: left knee in Feb. 1999, left hip in Nov. 2005, sports hernia in July 2006, right elbow in Feb. 2008 (Tommy John), left hip in Apr. 2008, right hip in June 2008, right knee in Jan. 2013, right knee in Sep. 2013, back in Jan. 2014, right knee in Jan. 2014 and right knee in Dec. 2014 (DeNovo NT)