Tim Wilkison (born November 23, 1959) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

Tennis career

Wilkison was the No. 1 ranked junior in the United States and played on the tour for over 25 years. He prepped at McCallie School in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

before turning pro immediately after high school. The left-hander won six singles titles, ten doubles championships, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 23 in September 1986. Wilkison is perhaps best known for his diving volleys at

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 ...

that earned him the nickname "Dr. Dirt". In his playing career, Wilkison had victories over

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, Grand Slam titles in singles and two in doubles. Ashe was the first Black player selected ...

, Stan Smith,

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Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Vilas (; born 17 August 1952) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He was the world No. 1 of the Grand Prix tennis circuit, Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977. He won 62 singles titles and 16 doubles titles during ...

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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 ...

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John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) 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 101 ...

, and

Pete Sampras Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...

. His best Grand Slam singles result came at the 1986 US Open, where he reached the quarterfinals by defeating

Horst Skoff Horst Skoff (22 August 1968 – 7 June 2008) was a professional tennis player from Austria, who won four tournaments at the top-level. Biography Skoff was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, and started playing tennis at age 6. In 1984 he won the sing ...

, Paul McNamee, Yannick Noah and

Andrei Chesnokov Andrei Eduardovich Chesnokov (; born 2 February 1966) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. Career Chesnokov's highest singles ranking was World No. 9 in 1991. The biggest tournament victories of his career came at the Monte Car ...

, before losing to

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in straight sets. Wilkison has stated that his preferred surface is

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

. His eldest son, MacLane, played college tennis at UNC.

Career finals

Singles: 15 (6 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Doubles: 24 (10 titles, 14 runner-ups)

External links

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkison, Tim 1959 births Living people American male tennis players Sportspeople from Shelby, North Carolina Tennis players from North Carolina 20th-century American sportsmen