Mike De Palmer (October 17, 1961 – August 7, 2021) was a professional tennis player from the United States. De Palmer enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won six tour doubles titles and finished runner-up an additional six times. He achieved a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 20 in 1986. DePalmer had a career high singles ranking of 35, with wins over

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 ...

Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis (July 26, 1954 – September 17, 1994) was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's si ...

Mel Purcell Mel Purcell (born July 18, 1959) is a former professional tennis player and coach from the U.S. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 21, achieved in November 1980. Purcell's finest moment was when he reached the quarterfinals of Wimbl ...

, Peter Fleming,

Peter Lundgren Hans Peter Lundgren (; 29 January 1965 – 22 August 2024) was a Swedish professional tennis player and tennis coach. He preferred playing indoors, hardcourt and on grass to clay. Playing career Lundgren was one of the second generation of Sw ...

Paul McNamee Paul McNamee (born 12 November 1954) is an Australian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player and prominent sports administrator. Junior career In his hometown, McNamee won the boys' singles tournament at the 1973 Australian Open. Professi ...

Jakob Hlasek Jakob Hlasek (; born 12 November 1964) is a Swiss former professional tennis player of Czech origin. He won a major doubles title at the 1992 French Open, partnering Marc Rosset. Career The major highlights of Hlasek's career came in 1992. He w ...

, and

Tim Gullikson Timothy Ernest Gullikson (September 8, 1951 – May 3, 1996) was a tennis player and coach who was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin and grew up in Onalaska, Wisconsin in the United States. Gullikson was Pete Sampras' coach from 1992 to 1995. Tennis ...

. He reached the singles final in Ancona, Italy, in 1982, losing to Anders Järryd 6-3, 6-2. De Palmer coached

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...

from August 1995 to June 1999, as well as coaching other professional tennis players. De Palmer died in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

, on August 7, 2021, at the age of 59 because of complications from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

. His father coached the tennis team at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

from 1981 to 1994.

Grand Prix and WCT finals

Doubles: 12 (6 titles, 6 runner-ups)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Palmer, Mike 1961 births 2021 deaths American male tennis players Tennessee Volunteers men's tennis players Tennis players from Tampa, Florida Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Tennessee 20th-century American sportsmen