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Revision as of 20:17, 3 March 2007 by Mauberly80 (talk | contribs) (→Early Life)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Robert Kendrick (born November 15, 1979 in Fresno, California) is an American tennis player. He turned professional in 1999.
Early Life
Robert Kendrick was born in Fresno on November 15, 1979 to Tom and Doris Kendrick and began playing tennis at the age of 5. Tom Kendrick is a real estate appraiser and Doris is a housewife. Robert has three older siblings: Kerry, Tommy, and Scott. He graduated from Bullard High School where he helped his high school team win a state title on his junior year in 1997 and had an 80-1 record. He also enjoys basketball, American football, golf, and surfing in his free time.
As a young man growing up in Fresno, Robert Kendrick was something of an enigma. He could be charismatic and ingratiating, but he could also be infuriatingly arrogant and childish. When he was 16 years old, he got suspended from the Northern California Tennis Association for 1 year for shouting a litany of profanities at a tournament director at Sierra Sport and Racquet Club in Fresno. Kendrick's tirade appeared to be provoked by an unexpected loss to a local rival named Kit Fleming. The tournament director became the object of Kendrick's wrath after asking Kendrick to calm down and stop throwing his raquet.
By the time he was 12 years old, Kendrick made it clear to his friends and family that he had big dreams for his tennis career. He used to tell other junior tennis players that they would be begging him for money in a few years when he would be making millions of dollars on the professional tennis circuit. This dream of making millions of dollars playing professional tennis has thus far eluded Kendrick. Since Kendrick's debut as a professional tennis player in 2000, his modest prize winnings are far below a million dollars.
Kendrick's dreams of being a top ranked professional tennis player were enouraged by his father, Tom Kendrick. Tom Kendrick felt so confident in his son's abilities that he used to ask wealthy friends to provide money to finance his son's training in exchange for a handsome return on their investment when his son started making millions on the pro tennis tour. Tom Kendrick was such an admirer of his son that he never could fully appreciate his son's deficiencies as a tennis player. Tom Kendrick saw his son's booming serve and forehand, but never realized that his son's poor footwork and weak backhand would keep Robert outside the top ranks of professional tennis.
College and Junior Tennis Career
His tennis playing style is an aggressive serve-and-volley game and he is known to have a powerful serve. Throughout high school he competed in Junior Tennis. In 1996 he was the runner-up in singles at the 1996 USTA Boys’ 18s National Indoor Championships. Then in 1997 he reached the final in doubles of the Easter Bowl and reached the singles finals and took the doubles title at the USTA International Grass Court Championships. In 1998 he attended the University of Washington earning All-American in singles and doubles as a sophomore with a record of 31-9 and got as high as No. 3 in the collegiate rankings that year. He then transferred to Pepperdine University for his junior year and again attained All-American with an 18-10 record. He managed to reach the Round of 16 at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship where he lost to Jeff Morrison.
2006
2006 ATP Delray Beach International Tennis Championships
Kendrick got to the second round, playing fellow countrymen in both of his matches. He defeated Kevin Kim 6-4 7-5 in the first round, but lost to the eighth seed Vincent Spadea 6-4 6-1 in his second round match.
2006 Wimbledon Championships
Kendrick went into the Gentlemen's Singles tournament ranked 237th in the world. His first match was on the second day of the Championships; Tuesday June 27. It was on Court 9, and he beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 7-6 6-3 6-0.
The fourth day of the Championships (Thursday June 29) was one of the highlights of Kendrick's career. In the second round, he lost to the second seed, Rafael Nadal on Centre Court. The Spaniard had to come back for only the second time in his career from two sets down to beat Kendrick in five sets (6-7 3-6 7-6 7-5 6-4). This performance at SW19 commanded much respect. Kendrick played a serve and volley style of play, winning over several pundits and viewers alike. Many consider him to be unfortunate not to have won because at 5 games to 4 and 30-15 up in the 3rd set with Nadal serving, a dubious line call went against him which would have meant 40-15 and two match points. As it was, Nadal went on to win the set in a tie-break and then the match. Kendrick's serving impressed many, as he served twenty-eight aces, compared to Nadal's seven. After the match, a commentator for BBC Sport exclaimed that it was "the match of the tournament so far". Kendrick was the only player in the tournament to take sets off Nadal on the Spaniard's route to the final, where he lost to the number one seed; Switzerland's Roger Federer, who beat Nadal 6-0 7-6 6-7 6-3 in the final.
2006 Campbell's Hall of Fame Tenis Championships
Shortly after his experience at the Grand Slam, Kendrick was back in action in his home country, to take part in the Campbell's Hall of Fame Tenis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island. He made it to the quarter-final on Friday July 14, but was beaten convincingly by British sensation Andrew Murray 6-0 6-0.
He made amends for the defeat by winning the doubles title on Sunday July 16, with his Austrian playing partner Jürgen Melzer. In the final, the duo beat South African Jeff Coetzee and the unfortunate American Justin Gimelstob, who also lost the singles final on the same day.
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