Craig A. Miller (18 October 1962 – August 2021) was a professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from Australia.

Junior years

Miller was the boys' singles champion at the

1980 Australian Open The 1980 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 69th edition of the Australian Open. The women's tournament was held 24–30 November 1980 and ...

, beating

Wally Masur Wally Masur (; born 13 May 1963) is a tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional tennis player from Sydney, Australia. He reached the semifinals of the 1987 Australian Open and the 1993 US Open, achieving a career-high sing ...

in the final. The Australian had been runner-up the previous year, to Greg Whitecross. He was also a semi-finalist at the 1980 US Open and with

Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upo ...

won the doubles title at the

1982 Australian Open The 1982 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 71st edition of the Australian Open and was held from Monday 29 November through Monday 13 ...

Professional career

In 1982, Miller was a quarter-finalist at the Sydney Outdoor tournament and lost in the doubles final of the

New South Wales Open The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, was a professional tennis tournament ...

, partnering

Cliff Letcher Cliff Letcher (9 February 1952 – 31 December 2004) was a professional tennis player from Australia. He played Davis Cup for Austria Davis Cup team, Austria. Letcher enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, ...

. The following year he made the semi-finals of the

Melbourne Outdoor The Melbourne Outdoor (also called the ''Victorian Open'') was a short-lived men's tennis tournament played in Melbourne, Australia that was re-established from an earlier tournament, held three times from 1983 to 1985. It was part of the Grand Pr ...

event. Also in 1983, Miller had a win over John Lloyd in the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

and won two doubles titles, at

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, both times in an unseeded pairing. Miller and partner

Laurie Warder Laurie Warder (born 23 October 1962) is a former professional male tennis player from Australia who specialized in the doubles event. In 1987 he lost the doubles title at the Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tenni ...

were semi-finalists at the

1985 Australian Open The 1985 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 74th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 25 November through 8 December 1985; ...

. In 1986, he started the season well by reaching the singles quarter-finals at

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

but wouldn't appear on tour again until September, as a result of a benign tumour that he had to have removed from his vocal cords. During this time he wasn't able to travel overseas due to restrictions on his medication and he instead spent his time coaching at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

. He played for another year and a half, before retiring after the

1988 Australian Open The 1988 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 76th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 11 through 24 January 1988 and was the first ...

Coaching

Miller was the head development coach of

Tennis Australia Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organizes national and international tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, Australian Open Se ...

for seven years and later ran his own tennis program, IQ Tennis.

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 3 (2–1)

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

Death

Miller died in August 2021 after suffering from

throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Craig A. 1962 births 2021 deaths Australian male tennis players Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Australian tennis coaches Tennis players from New South Wales Sportspeople from Young, New South Wales Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen