James Arias (born August 16, 1964) is a retired

tennis 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 cov ...

touring professional player from the United States.

Biography

Arias was born in Grand Island, near Buffalo, New York. A baseliner, Arias turned pro at age 16 in 1980. His peak year was 1983, when as a 19-year-old he finished the year ranked World No. 6, having reached the U.S. Open semi-finals by defeating

Jonathan Canter Jonathan Canter (born June 4, 1965) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Early years Canter was born in Los Angeles, where his father, Stanley S. Canter, worked as a film producer. His father, who was also manager ...

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Joakim Nyström Joakim "Jocke" Nyström (born 20 February 1963) is a former top ten ranked tennis player from Sweden who won 13 singles titles during his professional career. The right-hander reached his highest singles ranking on the ATP Tour on 31 March 1986, ...

and

Yannick Noah Yannick Noah (; born 18 May 1960) is a French former professional tennis player and singer. Noah won the French Open in 1983, and is currently the captain of both France's Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams. During his nearly two-decade ...

, and then lost to

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. ...

. He also won the

Italian Open Italian Open may refer to: *Italian Open (tennis), a Masters 1000 level tennis tournament played in Rome each year. *Italian Open (golf) The DS Automobiles Italian Open ( it, Open d'Italia) is the men's national open golf championship of Italy. I ...

and three other tour

grand prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

events. He reached his career high ranking of World No. 5 in April 1984. He retired from the tour in 1994, having amassed a 286–223 singles playing record and over $1,800,000 in prize money. With former World No. 2 tennis player, Andrea Jaeger, he won the 1981 French Open Mixed Doubles Championship.

Broadcast work

Arias serves as a commentator for

ESPN International ESPN International is a family of sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1989, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Operating regions Latin America Spanish-speaking countries * ES ...

and

Tennis Channel Tennis Channel is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It is devoted to events and other programming related to the game o ...

. Arias served as an analyst for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its ...

coverage of Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics.Ray Frager (July 16, 2008
Medium Well: Your NBC Olympics lineup
''Baltimore Sun''. In Canada, he has worked as an analyst for

Rogers Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was r ...

and the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

on the broadcasts of the

Rogers Cup The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...

Grand Slam finals

Mixed doubles (1 title)

Career finals

Singles (5 titles, 11 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * *
Induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arias, Jimmy 1964 births Living people American color commentators American male tennis players American television sports announcers French Open champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Olympic tennis players of the United States People from Grand Island, New York Sportspeople from Buffalo, New York Tennis commentators Tennis people from New York (state) Tennis players at the 1984 Summer Olympics