Brian David Teacher (born December 23, 1954) is a former American professional male tennis player. He reached a career-high ranking World No. 7 in 1981. Teacher is best remembered for his singles championship at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

in 1980. His career-high world singles ranking was No. 7 and his world doubles ranking was No. 5, both in 1981. He won 8 career singles titles, and 16 doubles titles. Following his playing career, he became an ATP & WTA touring coach. He currently runs the Brian Teacher Tennis Academy in South Pasadena, California.

Early and personal life

Teacher was born in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

, California.Robert Slater (2000)
''Great Jews in Sports''
/ref> He attended Crawford High School in San Diego, graduating in 1972. He later lived in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, California. In 1979 he married fellow Californian player Kathy May, also a Top 10 tennis player, and the great-granddaughter of David May, founder of

The May Department Stores Company The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many ...

(now

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

). They subsequently divorced. He later studied for his MBA at the

USC Marshall School of Business The USC Marshall School of Business is the business school of the University of Southern California. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. In 1997 the school was renamed following a $35 million donation fr ...

Tennis career

Junior, high school, and college

Teacher won a CIF singles title in 1972 while at Crawford High School. In 1972, he won the boys' 18 singles and doubles titles. At the University of California-Los Angeles, where he studied economics, he won the

Pacific-8 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divis ...

singles and doubles championship in 1974, was an All-American from 1973–76, and was a member of the UCLA teams that won the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

championship in 1975 and 1976.

Professional career

He reached the finals in the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

n and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Opens in 1977. In 1978, at the

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...

World Super Tennis Tournament in Tokyo, Teacher upset UCLA graduates

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...

and

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...

before losing in the final to

Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg (; born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles with six at the French Open and five consecutively at ...

6–3, 6–4. In 1980, he won the

, becoming the second Jewish player to win a men's Grand Slam Singles event (after

Dick Savitt Richard Savitt (March 4, 1927 – January 6, 2023) was an American tennis player. In 1951, at the age of 24, he won both the Australian and Wimbledon men's singles championships. Savitt was mostly ranked world No. 2 the same year behind fellow ...

). He won the final over

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970–1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top ten ...

of Australia in straight sets. With his Grand Slam victory, Teacher is one of only five American male players in the Open era to have won a single Grand Slam event (along with Michael Chang,

Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player, known as Vitas Gerulaitis. In 1975, he won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon, partnering with Sandy Mayer. He won the men's singles ...

Andy Roddick Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals ( Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Ope ...

, and Roscoe Tanner). Seven more Americans have more than one Slam (

Stan Smith Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. Smith is best known to non-tennis players as the namesake of a popular brand of tennis shoes. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles cha ...

Jim Courier James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals of ...

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion and an Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympic ...

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beh ...

, and

Pete Sampras Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...

). His career-high world singles ranking was No. 7 and his world doubles ranking was No. 5, both in 1981. He won 8 career singles titles, and 16 doubles titles.

Halls of fame

Teacher was inducted in 2001 into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Hall of Fame, in 2008 into the San Diego Tennis Hall of Fame, and he is also a member of the

Tennis Hall of Fame and the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themsel ...

. In 2014 he was inducted into the

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame ( he, יד לאיש הספורט היהודי, translit=Yad Le'ish HaSport HaYehudi) was opened July 7, 1981 in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around ...

. In 2015, Teacher was inducted into the Southern California Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

Coach

Following his playing career, he became an ATP & WTA touring coach working with, among others,

and

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...

. Under his tutelage, Rusedski made a run from #85 in the world to the top ten and the U.S. Open finals. Teacher also coached world #1 doubles players

Jim Grabb Jim Grabb (born April 14, 1964) is an American former professional tennis player. In doubles, he won the 1989 French Open and the 1992 US Open. He was ranked the world No. 1 doubles player in both 1989 and 1993. His best singles ranking of world ...

Richey Reneberg Richey Reneberg (born October 5, 1965) is an American former professional tennis player. He attended Southern Methodist University, where he was a three-time All-American and reached the 1986 National Collegiate Athletics Association finals. ...

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal a ...

, and

Max Mirnyi Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi ( be, Максім Мікалаевіч Мірны, ; russian: Максим Николаевич Мирный, ; born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles spec ...

. On the women's side, he coached WTA tour player Marissa Irvin. He currently runs the Brian Teacher Tennis Academy in South Pasadena, California.

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 win)

Career finals

Singles (8 titles, 15 runners-up)

Doubles (16 titles, 8 runners-up)

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

* The 1972 US Open had a preliminary round before the 128 player draw began.

Miscellaneous

*After he retired he completed his undergraduate economics degree and studied business at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

. *As a coach, he worked with

Mark Knowles Mark Knowles (born 4 September 1971) is a Bahamian professional tennis coach and former professional tennis player, becoming the former number 1 in world as a specialist in doubles tennis. He won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in ...

, and

. *He is married and has two children.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Brian Teacher Tennis Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teacher, Brian 1954 births Living people American male tennis players Australian Open (tennis) champions Jewish American sportspeople Jewish tennis players Sportspeople from Omaha, Nebraska Tennis players from San Diego UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Marshall School of Business alumni Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's singles 21st-century American Jews

Early and personal life

Tennis career

Junior, high school, and college

Professional career

Halls of fame

Coach

Grand Slam finals

Singles (1 win)

Career finals

Singles (8 titles, 15 runners-up)

Doubles (16 titles, 8 runners-up)

Grand Slam tournament performance timeline

Miscellaneous

See also

Notes

References

External links