Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American

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 also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times. Dibbs holds the record number of ATP Tour career match wins for a player who never reached a Grand Slam final. He did reach two semifinals, both at Roland Garros, losing to Guillermo Vilas in 1975 and to

Adriano Panatta Adriano Panatta (born 9 July 1950) is an Italian former professional tennis player. He won the French Open in 1976 French Open – Men's singles, 1976, becoming the first Italian man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major ...

in 1976. His most significant victory was defeating

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...

, 1–6, 6–1, 7–5 in London on carpet. In 1976, only one other American player, Connors, had a better record than Dibbs. In 1977, Dibbs was the 2nd highest ranked American in the tour. In the 1978 season, he ended the year as the leading money winner on the professional tennis tour. Dibbs was consistently ranked in the top 10 tour rankings for five years from 1975 to 1979. He is also the American tennis player with most singles victories in clay ever in the Open Era and ranks 7th all-time in overall singles victories on clay. Dibbs is credited with coining the tennis term "bagel" to describe a 6–0 set. Dibbs played doubles with Harold Solomon. They were nicknamed "The Bagel Twins" by Bud Collins. In 1976, they were ranked No. 4 worldwide, and they were among the top ten also in 1974, 1975 and 1976. A 2011 ranking system created at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

based on quality of performances and number of victories ranked Dibbs in the top 20 greatest players of all time.

Biography

Dibbs was born in Brooklyn, New York to Lebanese parents. His family moved to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

when he was a youngster where he started playing at a young age. He was a two-time state singles champion for Miami Beach High School and attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

for three years before turning professional. At the University of Miami he compiled a 93% winning record and was an NCAA All-American twice. He was inducted in the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Career finals

Singles: 42 (22 wins, 20 losses)

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dibbs, Eddie American male tennis players Tennis players from Brooklyn 1951 births American people of Lebanese descent Living people People from North Miami Beach, Florida Sportspeople from Miami-Dade County, Florida Sportspeople of Lebanese descent Miami Hurricanes men's tennis players 20th-century American sportsmen