Van Winitsky (born March 12, 1959) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He achieved a career-high rankings of World No. 7 in doubles in October 1983 and world No. 35 in singles in February 1984.

Early and personal life Winitsky was born in Miami, Florida, lived in Lauderhill, Florida, and is Jewish. His father Manny Winitsky was the best player of his age in Florida for 15 years, beginning at age 45. He lives in Delray Beach, Florida. Van attended North Miami Beach Senior High School and won the Florida state high school singles tennis championships as a freshman in 1974.

Tennis career Winitsky won Junior Wimbledon, Junior U.S. Open and Junior Nat'l at Kalamazoo, Mich. in singles and doubles in 1977 and won 3 Junior Orange Bowl singles titles. He played college tennis for UCLA for one and a half years, and was an All American. He played on the 1978 U.S. Davis Cup team in with John McEnroe, Brian Gottfried, and Harold Solomon.

Winitsky enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won 9 ATP Tour doubles titles and finished runner-up an additional 11 times. Partnering Fritz Buehning in doubles, Winitsky finished runner-up at the 1983 US Open. Winitsky also was a quarter finalist in mixed doubles partnering with Rayni Fox Borinsky at the 1980 US Open. He won 3 ATP Tour singles titles and finished runner-up 1 additional time. His titles included 1981 Hong Kong Seiko Open over Mark Edmondson of Australia, 1982 Hollywood Bowl Classic in Guaruja, Brazil over Carlos Kirmayr of Brazil, and 1982 Hilton Head Shipyard WCT over Chris Lewis of New Zealand in the finals. His runner-up finish was the 1978 Cleveland Grand Prix against Peter Feigl of Austria.

At just before 21st birthday, he had surgery that resulted in a 16-inch scar and atrophied muscles. In 1985, he retired from ATP Tour after winning the WTT conference championships for the Miami Beach Breakers.

Career finals

Singles (3 titles, 1 runner-up) ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 0–1 Aug 1978 Cleveland, U.S. Hard Peter Feigl 6–4, 3–6, 3–6Win 1–1 Nov 1981 Hong Kong Hard Mark Edmondson 6–4, 6–7(7–9), 6–4Win 2–1 Jan 1982 Guarujá, Brazil Clay Carlos Kirmayr 6–3, 6–3Win 3–1 Apr 1982 Hilton Head, U.S. Clay Chris Lewis 6–4, 6–4

Doubles (9 titles, 11 runner-ups) ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 Apr 1978 Tulsa, U.S. Hard (i) Russell Simpson Carlos Kirmayr Ricardo Ycaza 4–6, 7–6, 6–2Win 2–0 Aug 1978 North Conway, U.S. Clay Robin Drysdale Mike Fishbach Bernard Mitton 4–6, 7–6, 6–3Loss 2–1 Aug 1978 Boston, U.S. Clay Heinz Günthardt Víctor Pecci Balázs Taróczy 3–6, 6–3, 1–6Loss 2–2 Sep 1978 Hartford WCT, U.S. Carpet Mark Edmondson John McEnroe Bill Maze 3–6, 6–3, 5–7Win 3–2 Nov 1978 Buenos Aires, Argentina Clay Chris Lewis José Luis Clerc Belus Prajoux 6–4, 3–6, 6–0Loss 3–3 Apr 1980 Tulsa, U.S. Hard (i) Francisco González Robert Lutz Dick Stockton 6–2, 6–7, 2–6Loss 3–4 Aug 1980 South Orange, U.S. Clay Fritz Buehning Bill Maze John McEnroe 6–7, 4–6Win 4–4 Jul 1981 Washington, D.C., U.S. Clay Raúl Ramírez Pavel Složil Ferdi Taygan 5–7, 7–6, 7–6Loss 4–5 Aug 1981 Indianapolis, U.S. Clay Raúl Ramírez Kevin Curren Steve Denton 3–6, 7–5, 5–7Win 5–5 Aug 1981 Cleveland, U.S. Hard Erik van Dillen Syd Ball Ross Case 6–4, 5–7, 7–5Win 6–5 Oct 1981 Tel Aviv, Israel Hard Steve Meister John Feaver Steve Krulevitz 3–6, 6–3, 6–3Loss 6–6 Nov 1981 Bangkok, Thailand Carpet Lloyd Bourne John Austin Mike Cahill 3–6, 6–7Loss 6–7 Apr 1982 Las Vegas, U.S. Hard Carlos Kirmayr Sherwood Stewart Ferdi Taygan 6–7, 4–6Loss 6–8 Apr 1982Hilton Head WCT, U.S. Clay Alan Waldman Mark Edmondson Rod Frawley 1–6, 5–7Win 7–8 Jul 1982 Washington, D.C., U.S. Clay Raúl Ramírez Hans Gildemeister Andrés Gómez 7–5, 7–6Win 8–8 Aug 1982 South Orange, U.S. Clay Raúl Ramírez Jai DiLouie Blaine Willenborg 3–6, 6–4, 6–1Loss 8–9 Nov 1982 Hong Kong Hard Kim Warwick Charles Strode Morris Strode 4–6, 6–3, 2–6Loss 8–10 Jan 1983 Guarujá, Brazil Hard Shlomo Glickstein Tim Gullikson Tomáš Šmíd 7–5, 6–7, 3–6Loss 8–11 Sep 1983U.S. Open Hard Fritz Buehning Peter Fleming John McEnroe 3–6, 4–6, 2–6Win 9–11 Sep 1983 Dallas, U.S. Hard Nduka Odizor Steve Denton Sherwood Stewart 6–3, 7–5

See also

List of select Jewish tennis players

References

External links