Ben Ellwood (born 12 March 1976) is a former professional

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 c ...

player from Australia.

Career

An outstanding junior, Ellwood won the boys' singles at the

1994 Australian Open The 1994 Australian Open (also known as the 1994 Ford Australian Open for sponsorship purposes) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 82nd edition of the Australi ...

, defeating Andrew Ilie in the final. He was the boys' doubles champion as well (with Mark Philippoussis) and also went on to win the boys' doubles at the

1994 Wimbledon Championships The 1994 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 108th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

and 1994 US Open (with Philippousssis and Nicolás Lapentti, respectively). This made Ellwood the first ever player to win the boys' doubles at the Australian Open,

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London, since 1877 and is pl ...

and US Open in the same year. Ellwood made his Grand Slam debut in the

1995 Australian Open The 1995 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 83rd edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 through 29 January 1995. Seniors Men's ...

and came close to upsetting world number 46 Fabrice Santoro in the opening round. He lost the encounter in five sets, but had a chance to win the match in a fourth set tiebreak, which the Frenchman won 9–7. His only Grand Slam singles win came in Australia a year later, when he beat

Olivier Delaître Olivier Delaître (born 1 June 1967) is a former professional tennis player from France. He was semifinalist at the Wimbledon Championships in 1999 in doubles (partnering Fabrice Santoro), and reached the fourth round of the 1994 French Open ...

. As a doubles player he had much more success, with his best result being a quarter-finals berth at the 1999 US Open, with Michael Tebbutt as his partner. The pair defeated 10th seeds

Yevgeny Kafelnikov Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis ...

and Daniel Vacek along the way. He also competed in the mixed doubles and made the second round of two Grand Slams in 2002, 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 Open. ...

and Wimbledon, both times with Evie Dominikovic. These would be the only two occasions he won a Grand Slam mixed doubles match but he only twice played with his younger sister, Annabel Ellwood, in the 1998 Australian Open and 1999 Wimbledon Championships. On the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organisa ...

, Ellwood made his only final when he and David Adams were doubles runners-up in the

2002 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships The 2002 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the Delray Beach Tennis Center in Delray Beach, Florida in the United States and was part of the International Series of t ...

. Previously he had been a doubles quarter-finalist in Queen's with Michael Hill and made doubles semi-finals at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 1999 and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

in 2001.ATP World Tour Profile
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Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

ATP career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 7 (5–2)

Doubles: 21 (12–9)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellwood, Ben 1976 births Living people Australian male tennis players Tennis people from the Australian Capital Territory Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Wimbledon junior champions US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Sportspeople from Canberra