John Letts (born May 11, 1964), is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won seven ATP tour doubles titles and reached four ATP tour doubles finals. He also reached the quarterfinals of the 1985 Australian Open in doubles knocking out the 3rd seeded team of Tomáš Šmíd and John Fitzgerald in the second round.
Born in Houston, Texas, Letts grew up in Southern California.
The 1982 U.S. National Champion for boys 18 & under, Letts received a full scholarship to Stanford University, where he was a two-time All-American and member of two NCAA championship teams. At Stanford, he partnered with three doubles players who later reached the top five in the world: Scott Davis, Jim Grabb, and Patrick McEnroe.
He reached a high of No. 244 in the world in singles achieving most of his success on the ATP Challenger Tour including the semifinals of Manchester (1989) and San Luis Potosí (1988) and the quarterfinals of Nagoya (1988) and Dublin (1989). In Grand Slam singles, he reached the second round of the 1987 Australian Open before losing to eventual champion Stefan Edberg in four sets. He played the opening match on the grandstand court at the new Australian Open facility in 1988 at Melbourne Park, losing to Australian Todd Woodbridge in 3 sets. A torn rotator cuff suffered in 1989 eventually ended Letts' playing career.
Letts attended law school and graduated cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1994. He practiced intellectual property law for Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione in Chicago from 1994 to 1998.
In 1999, Letts founded iTennis, Inc., a tennis coaching and management company in Southern California.
His older sister, Elizabeth, is a #1 New York Times Best-Selling author.
ATP career finals
Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)ATP 500 Series (0–0)ATP 250 Series (1–3)Finals by surfaceHard (1–3)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)Finals by settingOutdoors (1–3)Indoors (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0Tel Aviv, IsraelGrand PrixHard Peter Lundgren Christo Steyn Danie Visser6–3, 3–6, 6–3Loss1–1Auckland, New ZealandGrand PrixHard Bruce Man-Son-Hing Steve Guy Shuzo Matsuoka6–7, 6–7Loss1–2Seoul Open, South KoreaGrand PrixHard Bruce Man-Son-Hing Scott Davis Paul Wekesa2–6, 4–6Loss1–3Wellington, New ZealandWorld SeriesHard Jaime Oncins Luiz Mattar Nicolás Pereira6–4, 6–7, 2–6
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Doubles: 3 (2–1) LegendATP Challenger (2–1)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (2–0)Clay (0–1)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0Nagoya, JapanChallengerHard Bruce Man-Son-Hing Ramesh Krishnan Jonathan Canter7–5, 4–6, 6–0Win2–0Singapore, SingaporeChallengerHard Steve Guy Mark Keil Kent Kinnear6–1, 7–5Loss2–1São Paulo, BrazilChallengerClay Tom Mercer Henrik Holm Nils Holm7–5, 4–6, 4–6
Performance timeline
Doubles Tournament19851986198719881989199019911992SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenQFA2R1R2RAAA0 / 45–4French OpenAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1WimbledonAA1RQ22RAAA0 / 21–2US OpenA1R2RA1RAAA0 / 31–3Win–loss3–10–12–30–12–40–00–00–00 / 107–10ATP Masters SeriesMiamiAA1R1R2RAAA0 / 31–3RomeAAAA1RAAA0 / 10–1CanadaA1R1RA1RAAQ20 / 30–3CincinnatiAAAAA1RAQ10 / 10–1Win–loss0–00–10–20–11–30–10–00–00 / 81–8
External links
Stanford Tennis All Americans iTennis