David Wheaton (born June 2, 1969) is an American author, radio host, columnist, and former professional

tennis player Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...

Personal

Born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

as the youngest of four children. In his tennis carrier, he dated tennis star

Mary Joe Fernández Mary Joe Fernández Godsick (born María José Fernández; August 19, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player, who reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in both singles and doubles. In singles, Fernández was the runner-up ...

around 1990-1992. Wheaton married in 2009 and has one son.

Tennis career

Wheaton started tennis at age four, played in his first tournament at eight, won the Minnesota State High School tennis title in 1984 as a freshman, trained at the

Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy IMG Academy is a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. IMG Academy is set across over 600 acres and features programs consisting of sport camps for youth athletes, adult camps, a board ...

for his last two-and-a-half years of high school, played one year at Stanford, and then competed for 13 years on the professional tour.

Juniors

In 1987, Wheaton won the US Open junior title and was the No. 1 ranked junior player in the US. In 1988, he helped Stanford University's tennis team win 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 an ...

team title and received the Block S Award as the most outstanding freshman athlete at Stanford.

Pro tour

Wheaton turned professional on July 4, 1988 and won his first top-level singles title in 1990 at the U.S. Clay Court Championships in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. He was also runner-up in the 1990 US Open men's doubles (with Paul Annacone). The most significant highlights of his career came in 1991. He won the

Grand Slam Cup The Grand Slam Cup was a tennis tournament held annually at the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany from 1990 through 1999. The event was organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which invited the best-performing players in the year's ...

in Munich, beating

Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...

in straight sets in the final 7–5, 6–2, 6–4. He also reached the semifinals of singles at Wimbledon (beating

Petr Korda Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He won the 1998 Australian Open and was runner-up at the 1992 French Open, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in February 1998. Korda tested positive for dopin ...

, Cédric Pioline,

Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl (; born March 7, 1960) is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Lendl was ranked world No. 1 in singles for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. ...

Jan Gunnarsson Jan Gunnarsson (born 30 May 1962) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who won one singles in Vienna in 1985 (beating Libor Pimek in the final) and nine doubles titles on the world tour during his professional career. In 1989 he reached the se ...

and

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ac ...

in the quarterfinals before being knocked-out by Boris Becker), and was a men's doubles runner-up at the Australian Open (partnering with his former Stanford teammate

Patrick McEnroe Patrick William McEnroe (born July 1, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player, broadcaster, and former captain of the United States Davis Cup team. Born in Manhasset, New York, he is John McEnroe's youngest brother. He won one ...

). Wheaton reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in July 1991. During his career, Wheaton won three top-level singles and three doubles titles, representing the US in Davis Cup (v. Australia, 1993) reached the semifinals or better in either singles or doubles of every Grand Slam tournament, and defeated highly ranked players such as Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg,

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 ...

, and Michael Chang. He retired from the professional tour in 2001, following a series of injuries. Since then he has played in some senior tour events, winning the "Wimbledon Over 35 Doubles" championship in 2004 (with T.J. Middleton).

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP career finals

Singles: 7 (3 titles, 4 runner-ups)

Doubles: 15 (3 titles, 12 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 2 (1–1)

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Mixed doubles

Radio and writing career

In 2002, Wheaton embarked a new career in radio, writing, and speaking. He is the producer and host of The Christian Worldview, a live talk radio program that airs on 250 stations in the US. He is a tennis columnist for the ''

Minneapolis Star-Tribune Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

'' and the author of two books, ''University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus'' (

Bethany House Bethany House Publishers is a publisher that publishes Christian fiction and non-fiction books. Bethany House Publishers was bought in 2003 by Baker Publishing Group. Bethany House publishes both historical and contemporary fiction. Historica ...

, 2005) and ''My Boy, Ben—A Story of Love, Loss and Grace'' (Tristan Publishing, 2014).

Service and awards

Wheaton serves on the board of The Overcomer Foundation, a non-profit organization that directs his radio ministry. He also served on the board of directors of the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

(USTA) from 2003-2006. He is a member of the Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame (class of 2012) and the USTA Northern Section Hall of Fame (class of 2005). Wheaton received the Eugene L. Scott Renaissance Award in 2011—an award presented to a national/international tennis champion who demonstrates excellence in promoting and developing the sport of tennis in public parks.

External links and sources

David Wheaton's Radio Show – ''The Christian Worldview''
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheaton, David 1969 births American Christians American male tennis players Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Hopman Cup competitors Living people Sportspeople from Minneapolis Stanford Cardinal men's tennis players Tennis people from Minnesota US Open (tennis) junior champions