Brandon Hawk (born September 3, 1979) 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 the United States.

Biography

Tennis career

Hawk is originally from

Abilene, Texas Abilene ( ) is a city in Taylor and Jones Counties in Texas, United States. Its population was 125,182 at the 2020 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas. It is the principal city of the Abilene metropolitan stati ...

. While still at Clyde High School in 1997 he played in the main draw of the US Open, in the doubles with

Nathan Overholser Nathan Overholser (born June 23, 1979) is an American former professional tennis player. A left-hander from Okemos, Michigan, Overholser was Class A state high school singles champion in 1994 and played collegiate tennis for the University of Flo ...

. The pair won through to the second round by beating Marius Barnard and

Tom Nijssen Tom Nijssen (born 1 October 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands. He went pro in 1984 and played at the ATP World Tour for 15 years. Nijssen's highest ATP singles ranking was No. 87 on 17 April 1989. He reached his be ...

, then were eliminated by the 11th seeds, Swedes

Jonas Björkman Jonas Lars Björkman (; born 23 March 1972) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He is a former world No. 1 in doubles, and also a former world No. 4 in singles. Björkman retired from professional tennis after competing at the 2008 T ...

and

Nicklas Kulti Nicklas Kulti (born 22 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Sweden. He was born in Stockholm. Tennis career Juniors Kulti was ranked No. 1 in the junior world singles rankings in 1989 after winning the Australian Open and ...

. He excelled in basketball while at Clyde High and received inquiries from universities over scholarship opportunities, but ended up playing tennis for the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. In 1999, his freshman year, Hawk earned All-American honours. Coached on tour by Rick Meyers, Hawk was most successful in the doubles format. He made the quarter-finals of the doubles at Newport's

Hall of Fame Tennis Championships The Infosys Hall of Fame Open is an international tennis tournament that has been held every year in July since 1976 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, the original location of the U.S. National Championships. The ...

, an ATP Tour tournament, in 2000. As a singles player he managed to defeat

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

at a Futures tournament in Jamaica and also registered a win over James Blake at the Amarillo Challenger. He won a total of three

Challenger Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to: Entertainment Comics and manga * Challenger (character), comic book character * ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga Film and TV * ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...

titles, the singles at the

Puebla Challenger Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

in 2000 and two doubles tournaments in 2001. At the

2001 Wimbledon Championships The 2001 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, held from 25 June to 9 July 2001. It was the 115th edition of the Wimbled ...

he and partner

Grant Silcock Grant Silcock (born 21 May 1975) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Silcock is currently Anglican Church Grammar School head tennis coach. Career Silcock was a doubles specialist and won the Hong Kong Open in 1999, partner ...

played a marathon first round double match against

Marat Safin Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; tt-Cyrl, Марат Мөбин улы Сафин; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian retired world No. 1 tennis player an ...

and

Marc Rosset Marc Rosset (born 7 November 1970) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He is best known for winning the men's singles gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also won a major doubles title, at the French Open in 1992 partnering com ...

. The match went to tiebreaks in the first two sets and was eventually won by Safin and Rosset 10–8 in the fifth. He appeared in the doubles at the US Open for a second time in 2001.

Personal life

Hawk married his wife Ginny in 2002. A former pastor, he now works as a motivational speaker.

Challenger titles

Singles: (1)

Doubles: (2)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawk, Brandon 1979 births Living people American male tennis players Texas Longhorns men's tennis players Sportspeople from Abilene, Texas Tennis players from Texas