Vince Spadea - Tennis Career

Tennis Career

At the 1999 Australian Open, Spadea achieved his best performance in a major by reaching the quarter finals. In the Round of 16 at that tournament, he had a famous 4-set win over the 1995 Australian Open champion, Andre Agassi. Spadea then lost to Tommy Haas in the quarter finals.

On September 13, 1999, Spadea broke into the Top 20 players in the world for the first time. From October 1999 to June 2000, Spadea suffered a record losing run of 21 losses in a row. Spadea's losing streak led the Associated Press to dub him "the Charlie Brown of tennis" (after the comic strip character who kept trying but failing to kick the football). He ended the streak in the first round of 2000 Wimbledon with an opening round 6–3, 6–7(5), 6–3, 6–7(8), 9–7 win over 14th seed Greg Rusedski, in a five set marathon, which lasted for nearly four hours. Spadea's world ranking crashed as low as 237 on October 23, 2000.

Working hard on the challenger circuit after his fall down the rankings, he successfully recovered and eventually won his first career ATP Tour tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he defeated James Blake and Andy Roddick along the way in 2004. He continued his journey back up the world rankings and was back in the top 20 by late 2004, although US Davis Cup captain, Patrick McEnroe, declined to pick Spadea as his second singles player for the 2004 Davis Cup final against Spain, opting instead for the lower ranked Mardy Fish. Spadea achieved his career high world ranking of 18 on February 28, 2005. This is considered one of the greatest comebacks in tennis history in terms of ranking spots improved.

In 2003, Spadea embarked on a Masters series tear, qualifying at the Pacific Life Open and reaching the semi-finals for the first time in his career, losing to World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. He went on to the Monte Carlo Masters a month later and reached his 2nd semi-finals in a Masters series . Being one of only a handful of Americans to ever reach that far in a Masters claycourt event . This helped him reach a career high position of No.10 in the ATP Champions Race in April.

In 2005, Vince turned down numerous TV opportunities including a spot on ABC's hit show "The Bachelor" to focus on his inspiring tennis comeback that saw him rise from the bottom of the ranks to No.18 in Feb. Vince then signed a publishing deal with ECW Press to write a candid memoir on the behind the scenes life of a pro tennis player, violating a long-standing tennis rule that players do not reveal locker room secrets to the world in exchange for money.

In 2006 Spadea published his autobiographical book, Break Point: The Secret Diary Of A Pro Tennis Player. Spadea criticized a number of tennis players including James Blake and Davis Cup Captain Patrick McEnroe. He called out McEnroe for picking Mardy Fish ahead of him for the 2004 Davis Cup final where the Americans lost to Spain. Spadea criticized Blake for questionable character during a match where Blake allegedly "trash-talked" him. Several sports writers were impressed with Spadea's book, including SI.Com and The Washington Post; book sales were a surprising success, selling out of hardcover copies and reaching the top of the ranks in sports and tennis books during its debut month.

Spadea started 2008 with outstanding results at the Australian Open making it to the third round. In the first round Spadea had an epic comeback from two sets down to defeat former world number 8 Radek Štěpánek, he celebrated with numerous dances and raps. 2008 marked Spadea's 13th year as a top 100 ranked player. He closed the season by winning 2 Challenger titles in Waco,TX and Calabasas,CA. This takes him to a personal best 9 career pro singles titles.

Vince had an injury-stricken season in 2009, plagued by an overuse tendonitis arm issue, as well as a lower extremity staph infection. Only winning a few singles ATP level singles matches before the start of the clay season, while he got to the semi-final of the Carson challenger. 2009 marked his 17th season on the ATP tour.

In July 2009, Vince won the Shotgun 21 Championships in Pacific Palisades, CA . A unisex event where participants included celebrities, WTA and ATP pros. A unique tournament where every competitor must start the point with a groundstroke, excluding the serve as an attempt to equalize the players. Along the way he beat Oscar nominated actress Elizabeth Shue and ATP pro Ramon Delgado in the final.

The New York Times summarized his career by calling him "the epitome of a tennis journeyman" and then noted that "he has played in 15 United States Opens and has never reached the quarterfinals."