Tim Mayotte

Timothy Mayotte (born August 3, 1960) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Mayotte won twelve singles titles during his career.

Professional career

A tall serve-and-volleyer, Mayotte learned to play the game on the public courts of Forest Park in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. He played tennis for Stanford University in the early-1980s and won the NCAA singles title in 1981.

Mayotte won his first top-level professional singles title in 1985 at the inaugural Lipton International Players Championships (now known as the Miami Masters). Other career highlights included winning the Queen's Club Championships in London in 1986, capturing the Paris Indoor title in 1987, and winning the men's singles silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Mayotte beat almost every great player of his era including Agassi, Sampras, Edberg, Becker, Noah, Connors, Michael Chang etc.

His best performances in Grand Slam tournaments came in reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1982 and the Australian Open in 1983. He also reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in 1989. Mayotte brought home a Silver Medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. It was the only competition his mother Mary watched in person.

During his career, Mayotte won 12 singles titles and one doubles title. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 7. His final singles title was won in 1989 at Washington DC. Mayotte retired from the professional tour in 1992.

He was hired by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to serve as a national coach in July 2009. "Tennis Magazine" voted him one of Tennis' Heros in 2018 because of his stand on improving the standards of coaching in the United States.

Mayotte was the youngest of a great tennis family that sprung out of Springfield. Mayotte's older brother Chris also played on the international tennis tour for a few seasons reaching as high as 80 ATP. Their older brother John was the number one junior player in New England and later one of the top players in the New England Tennis Stars (NETS), a tour started by Ted Hoehn in the late 1970s and 1980s.[citation needed]. Mary Mayotte was a great junior player in New England but sadly played before Title 9 forced colleges to offer scholarships to women.

Tim Mayotte's agent was his brother in law Tom Ford along with his brother John. John went to work as a tennis agent working for Donald Dell's ProServ. There, he managed top-ten and All-American players on the ATP and WTA Tours. His clients included Amanda Coetzer and Greg Rusedski, who became semifinalist and finalists at the French Open and US Open consecutively.

Coach with USTA Player Development Program

After working as a coach for USTA Player Development under General Manager Patrick McEnroe, Mayotte spoke publicly about his experiences:

"One big issue and an expression of the pervading arrogance is that the bosses there at the USTA PD have no willingness or ability to deeply discuss ideas and methods. They want to produce great, strong independent players who can be flexible and adjust and yet they (the bosses) do not display any of these qualities. We have cultural dissonance of the highest and most destructive order going on there. Jose, and to a tragic level, Patrick feel somehow by virtue of their celebrity that their "magic" will rub off on people they control. What they are too lost to see is the word "development" in PD. As you know so well, building healthy individuals means walking thru [sic.] the trenches with them and helping them analyze the moral, mental, and emotional choices they (and the parents) have to make and develop a healthy strong person in the process. Hard to do when you are dictating from a broadcast booth and a board room."

Career finals

Singles 23 (12 titles, 11 runner-ups)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

External links

• at theAssociation of Tennis Professionals
• atWorld Tennis
• at theDavis Cup(archived)