Alexander "Zan" Guerry III (born February 12, 1949) is a former professional

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 from the United States.

Biography

Guerry, winner of the Under-16s Orange Bowl title in 1964, grew up in

Chattanooga, Tennessee 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 ...

, and won 13 national junior titles in the 1960s. He attended

Baylor School Baylor School, commonly called Baylor, is a private school, private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1893, the school's current campus comprises 690 acres and enrolls students in grad ...

in Chattanooga, at the same time as Roscoe Tanner, a teammate in the school's tennis team.

College

After finishing at Baylor in 1967, Guerry went to

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

for four years and played in a strong varsity side which were runners-up in the NCAA Championships twice, in 1968 and 1970. He was a losing finalist, to Butch Seewagen, at the 1969 United States Amateur Championships and earned multiple All-American selections, before graduating in 1971. Following that he went to Wharton Business School and worked at the Texas Commerce Bank in Houston as a financial planner when not playing tennis.

Professional career

During the 1970s, Guerry competed professionally on the world tennis circuit. He had a win over a young Guillermo Vilas early in his career in 1970. His only Grand Prix title came at Jackson in 1973, when he partnered South African Frew McMillan to win the Mississippi International Indoor Tennis Championship doubles tournament. He made the main draws of the singles at the French Open in 1969 and Wimbledon in 1973, in addition to five appearances at the US Open. At the 1973 Wimbledon Championships he made it to the second round, where he lost a five set match to

Bernard Mitton Bernard Mitton (9 November 1954 – 5 May 2017) was a professional tennis player from South Africa. Mitton reached his highest singles ranking of world No. 51 on 15 December 1975, and his highest doubles ranking of 20 on 25 June 1984. His car ...

. He lost to

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 ...

in the third round of the 1977 US Open, which was the furthest he got in a Grand Slam tournament. In 1977 he managed to defeat Stan Smith in Washington. It wasn't the first time he had beaten him in a match, having caused a greater upset while at Rice University in 1971 when he defeated the then number one ranked Smith in Houston. He was inducted into the ITA Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

Business

In 1978 he joined healthcare company Chattem and served as CEO for 25 years. In 2014 he was announced as Chairman.

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerry, Zan 1949 births Living people American male tennis players Tennis players from Tennessee Sportspeople from Chattanooga, Tennessee Rice Owls men's tennis players Wharton School alumni American chief executives Businesspeople from Tennessee 20th-century American sportsmen