Eric Taino (born March 18, 1975) is a retired
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
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, who later represented the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
in international competition.
Before turning pro, he was the #1 player and captain of the then #2 nationally ranked
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
tennis team and achieved All-American honors. His teammates included fellow pros
Justin Gimelstob
Justin Jeremy Gimelstob (born January 26, 1977) is a retired American tennis player. Gimelstob has been a resident of Morristown, New Jersey, and as of 2009 lived in Santa Monica, California.
He was the top-ranked boy in his age group at the ag ...
and
Kevin Kim
Kevin Kim (born July 26, 1978) is an American former tennis player.
Career
He entered the top 100 in 2004, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 63 in March 2005.
In 1993, Kim won the USTA
The United States Tennis Associatio ...
.
As a junior player, he won the 1992 US Open – Boys' Doubles with
Jimmy Jackson by defeating the
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
ans future
World no. 1 singles player
Marcelo Ríos
Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the first Latin American to reach the t ...
and
Gabriel Silberstein. He started a professional career in 1997 and achieved the highest ranking of world No. 122 as a singles player on the
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...
in November 2003. He was also ranked as high as 52nd in the world in April 2000 as a doubles player. He won a doubles title in
1999 Singapore Open with
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
ian partner and future
world No. 1 doubles player
Max Mirnyi
Maksim Mikalaevich "Max" Mirnyi (born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player.
Mirnyi became a doubles specialist following his singles career, in which he reached a career-high of World No. 18 (August 2003) and finished ...
beating
The Woodies
The Woodies was the nickname given to the tennis doubles pairing of Australians Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, one of the most successful pairings in tennis history.
The Woodies combined Woodforde's left-handed baseline play with Wood ...
in the final.
In 2006, Taino won the bronze medal in the men's doubles tournament at the
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...
held in
Doha
Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...
,
Qatar
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...
together with his fellow
Filipino-American partner
Cecil Mamiit, losing to Indian pair and top doubles players
Mahesh Bhupathi
Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a major tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles, he ...
and
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...
.
He played for the
Philippines Davis Cup team until 2008. Since his retirement, Taino returned to UCLA to finish his degree and remains active in tennis, coaching and playing in Los Angeles, where he resides with his family.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 1 (1 title)
ATP Career Finals
Doubles: 7 (1 title, 6 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 7 (3–4)
Doubles: 21 (10–11)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Taino, Eric
1975 births
Living people
American male tennis players
American sportspeople of Filipino descent
Filipino male tennis players
Filipino people of American descent
Sportspeople from Jersey City, New Jersey
Tennis players from California
Tennis players from New Jersey
UCLA Bruins men's tennis players
Asian Games medalists in tennis
US Open (tennis) junior champions
Tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games
Asian Games bronze medalists for the Philippines
Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games
SEA Games gold medalists for the Philippines
SEA Games silver medalists for the Philippines
SEA Games bronze medalists for the Philippines
SEA Games medalists in tennis
Competitors at the 2005 SEA Games
Competitors at the 2007 SEA Games
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles
20th-century American sportsmen