Timothy "Gentleman Tim" Mayotte (born August 3, 1960) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Professional career
A tall serve-and-volleyer, Mayotte learned to play the game on the public courts of Forest Park in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. He played tennis for Stanford University in the early-1980s and won the NCAA singles title in 1981.
Mayotte won his first top-level professional singles title in 1985 at the inaugural Lipton International Players Championships (now known as the Miami Masters). Other career highlights included winning the Queen's Club Championships in London in 1986, capturing the Paris Indoor title in 1987, and winning the men's singles Silver Medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
His best performances in Grand Slam tournaments came in reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1982 and the Australian Open in 1983. He also reached the quarter-finals of the US Open in 1989.
During his career, Mayotte won 12 singles titles and 1 doubles title. His career-high singles ranking was World No. 7. His career prize-money earnings totalled $2,663,672. His final career singles title was won in 1989 at Washington DC. Mayotte retired from the professional tour in 1992.
Mayotte was hired by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to serve as a national coach in July 2009.
Mayotte's older brother Chris also played on the international tennis tour a few seasons.
Their older brother John was the number one junior player in New England and latter one of the top players in the New England Tennis Stars (NETS), a tour started by Ted Hoehn in the late 70s and 80s. John started the Mayotte Family string of successes at the very same forest Park mentioned above.
He then went to work as a tennis agent working for Donald Dell's ProServ. There he managed top ten and All American players on the ATP and WTA Tours. His clients included Amanda Coetzer and Greg Rusedski, who became semi-finalist and finalists at the French Open and U.S. Open consecutively.
Coach with USTA Player Development Program
After working as a coach for USTA Player Development under General Manager Patrick McEnroe, Mayotte spoke publicly about his experiences:
“One big issue and an expression of the pervading arrogance is that the bosses there at the USTA PD have no willingness or ability to deeply discuss ideas and methods. They want to produce great, strong independent players who can be flexible and adjust and yet they (the bosses) do not display any of these qualities. We have cultural dissonance of the highest and most destructive order going on there. Jose, and to a tragic level, Patrick feel somehow by virtue of their celebrity that their “magic” will rub off on people they control. What they are too lost to see is the word “development” in PD. As you know so well, building healthy individuals means walking thru the trenches with them and helping them analyze the moral, mental, and emotional choices they (and the parents) have to make and develop a healthy strong person in the process. Hard to do when you are dictating from a broadcast booth and a board room.”
Career finals
Singles 23 (12 titles, 11 runners-up)
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Outcome | No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
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Runner-up | 1. | October 5, 1981 | Maui, U.S. | Hard | Hank Pfister | 4-6, 4-6 |
Runner-up | 2. | March 22, 1982 | Strasbourg WCT, France | Carpet | Ivan Lendl | 0-6, 5-7, 1-6 |
Runner-up | 3. | June 21, 1982 | Bristol, England | Grass | John Alexander | 3-6, 4-6 |
Runner-up | 4. | July 16, 1984 | Newport, U.S. | Grass | Vijay Amritraj | 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 |
Winner | 1. | February 18, 1985 | Delray Beach, U.S. | Hard | Scott Davis | 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 |
Runner-up | 5. | April 15, 1985 | Dallas, U.S. - WCT Finals | Carpet | Ivan Lendl | 6-7(4-7), 4-6, 1-6 |
Runner-up | 6. | February 3, 1986 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet | Ivan Lendl | w/o |
Winner | 2. | June 16, 1986 | London/Queen's Club, England | Grass | Jimmy Connors | 6-4, 2-1, ret. |
Winner | 3. | February 9, 1987 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet | John McEnroe | 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 |
Winner | 4. | April 6, 1987 | Chicago, U.S. | Carpet | David Pate | 6-4, 6-2 |
Winner | 5. | October 19, 1987 | Toulouse, France | Hard (i) | Ricki Osterthun | 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 |
Winner | 6. | November 9, 1987 | Paris Indoor, France | Carpet | Brad Gilbert | 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5-7), 6-3 |
Winner | 7. | November 16, 1987 | Frankfurt, Germany | Carpet | Andrés Gómez | 7-6(8-6), 6-4 |
Winner | 8. | February 29, 1988 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet | John Fitzgerald | 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 |
Winner | 9. | July 25, 1988 | Schenectady, U.S. | Hard | Johan Kriek | 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 |
Runner-up | 7. | September 26, 1988 | Seoul Olympics, South Korea | Hard | Miloslav Mečíř | 6-3, 2-6, 4-6, 2-6 |
Winner | 10. | October 10, 1988 | Brisbane, Australia | Hard (i) | Marty Davis | 6-4, 6-4 |
Winner | 11. | October 24, 1988 | Frankfurt, Germany | Carpet | Leonardo Lavalle | 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 |
Runner-up | 8. | February 29, 1989 | Philadelphia, U.S. | Carpet | Boris Becker | 6-7(4-7), 1-6, 3-6 |
Winner | 12. | July 31, 1989 | Washington D.C., U.S. | Hard | Brad Gilbert | 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 |
Runner-up | 9. | February 12, 1990 | Milan, Italy | Carpet | Ivan Lendl | 3-6, 2-6 |
Runner-up | 10. | February 19, 1990 | Toronto Indoor, Canada | Carpet | Ivan Lendl | 3-6, 0-6 |
Runner-up | 11. | November 12, 1990 | Moscow, Russia | Carpet | Andrei Cherkasov | 2-6, 1-6 |
Singles performance timeline
Tournament | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | Career SR |
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Grand Slams | ||||||||||||||||
Australian Open | A | A | 1R | QF | 3R | SF | 2R | 4R | NH | A | A | A | 1R | A | A | 0 / 6 |
French Open | A | A | A | A | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | A | A | 2R | 2R | A | A | A | 0 / 5 |
Wimbledon | A | A | A | QF | SF | QF | 4R | 4R | QF | 3R | QF | QF | 1R | 4R | A | 0 / 11 |
U.S. Open | A | 1R | 1R | 3R | 2R | 1R | 4R | 4R | 1R | 2R | 3R | QF | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 13 |
Grand Slam SR | 0 / 0 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 35 |
Year End Ranking | 436 | 420 | 171 | ? | 30 | 16 | 44 | 12 | 15 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 37 | 115 | 1097 | N/A |
A = did not attend tournament
NH = tournament not held