Kenneth Eliot Flach (May 24, 1963 – March 12, 2018) was an American doubles world No. 1

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. He won four Grand Slam men's doubles titles (two

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and two US Open), and two mixed doubles titles (Wimbledon and the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

). He also won the men's doubles gold medal at the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

, partnering Robert Seguso. Flach reached the world No. 1 doubles ranking in 1985.

Early life

Kenneth Eliot Flach was born on May 24, 1963, in St. Louis and grew up in nearby Kirkwood, Missouri. Before turning professional, Flach played tennis for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where he won the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division II singles championships in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and teamed with Seguso to reach the 1983 Division I doubles final. Flach married his first wife, model Sandra Freeman, in September 1986 and had four children together, Dylan, Madison, Noah and Hannah.

Career

Flach played doubles on the US

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

team from 1985 to 1991, compiling an 11–2 record. He was also a member of the US team which won the

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tourname ...

in 1985. During his career, Flach won 36 doubles titles (34 men's doubles and 2 mixed doubles). His final career title was won in 1994 at Scottsdale, Arizona. At the US Open 1987 (second round) he won the longest fifth set tie-break to this day, 17-15 over

Darren Cahill Darren Cahill (born 2 October 1965) is an Australian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. In addition, Cahill is a tennis analyst for the Grand Slam events on the US sports network ESPN and a coach with the Adidas Player Developm ...

. Following his retirement from the professional tour in 1996, Flach devoted himself to coaching. He guided

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

to its first NCAA tournament berth in 1999. In 2003, he led the team to Vanderbilt's first NCAA championship finals appearance in any sport. He had also played in seniors events, and won the Wimbledon 35-and-over men's doubles title in 1999 and 2000. In 2010, after moving to California, he married makeup entrepreneur Christina Friedman, and became the director of tennis at Novato's Rolling Hills Club.

Death

In early March 2018, Flach became ill with bronchitis and died from sepsis after playing 36 holes of golf. He died shortly after falling ill with his sister, brothers and four children by his side. Kaiser Permanente settled a malpractice case for nearly $2.9 million with the family of Ken Flach in 2021.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 6 (4 titles, 2 runner-ups)

Mixed doubles: 2 (2 titles)

Olympic men's doubles final

Career finals

Doubles (34 wins, 24 losses)

Doubles performance timeline

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flach, Ken 1963 births 2018 deaths American male tennis players American tennis coaches French Open champions Olympic gold medalists for the United States in tennis SIU Edwardsville Cougars men's tennis players Tennis players from St. Louis Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) champions Wimbledon champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in men's doubles Sportspeople from Alpharetta, Georgia Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Tennis players from Georgia (U.S. state) Vanderbilt Commodores men's tennis coaches ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players 20th-century American sportsmen