Thomas Ho (born June 17, 1973, in Winter Haven, Florida) is an American former professional tennis player.
Tennis career
Juniors Ho first came to the tennis world's attention as an exceptionally successful junior player. He won several junior tennis events in the 1980s, and set a number of 'youngest-ever' records.
Pro tour In August 1988, Ho became the youngest male player in the open era to play in the main draw of the US Open singles at the age of 15 years and 2 months. He lost the first round match to Johan Kriek 6–4, 7–6, 7–6. That same month, Ho became the second youngest male player to win a main draw match at a top-level tour event when he beat Matt Anger in the first round at Rye Brook 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, just after Argentina's Franco Davín.
Ho's early successes drew many comparisons with Michael Chang, another Asian American tennis player who achieved great success as a junior. However Ho did not manage to make the same kind of impact on the professional circuit as Chang (who went on to win the French Open and reach the World No. 2 singles ranking). Ho enjoyed some success in satellite tournaments, but did not win any top-level singles events on the tour. He did, however, win four tour doubles titles (Beijing in 1994, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Indian Wells in 1995).
Ho's professional career was hampered by injuries. In 1995, Ho and Brett Steven became the fastest-ever losers of a match at Wimbledon. In the very first point of their men's doubles match, Steven served and Ho tried to intercept the return at the net, only to injure his back. The pair thus had had to forfeit the match after just one rally, which had lasted all of five seconds. The back injury was to recur again in future years, and eventually led to Ho's retirement from the tour in 1997.
During his professional career, Ho reached career-high rankings of World No. 85 in singles and World No. 13 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled $793,819.
Post-retirement
Since retiring from the tour, Ho has completed a degree at Rice University in Houston and worked as a tennis journalist.
In 2011, Ho was inducted into the USTA Florida Hall of Fame.
After working as a partner at global recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, he was the Chief Talent Officer at Quantum Energy Partners.
ATP career finals
Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups) LegendGrand Slam Tournaments (0–0)ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)ATP Masters Series (1–0)ATP Championship Series (0–1)ATP World Series (3–2)Finals by surfaceHard (2–2)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (2–1)Finals by settingOutdoors (2–1)Indoors (2–2)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin1–0Beijing, ChinaWorld SeriesCarpet Kent Kinnear David Adams Andrei Olhovskiy7–6, 6–3Loss1–1Memphis, United StatesChampionship SeriesHard Brett Steven Jared Palmer Richey Reneberg6–4, 6–7, 1–6Win2–1Indian Wells, United StatesMasters SeriesHard Brett Steven Gary Muller Pieter Norval6–4, 7–6Win3–1Hong Kong, Hong KongWorld SeriesHard Mark Philippoussis John Fitzgerald Anders Järryd6–1, 6–7(2–7), 7–6(7–3)Win4–1Beijing, ChinaWorld SeriesCarpet Sébastien Lareau Dick Norman Fernon Wibier7–6, 7–6Loss4–2Moscow, RussiaWorld SeriesCarpet Brett Steven Byron Black Jared Palmer4–6, 6–3, 3–6Loss4–3Adelaide, AustraliaWorld SeriesHard Jonas Björkman Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde5–7, 6–7
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures Finals
Singles: 8 (4–4) LegendATP Challenger (4–4)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (4–4)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScoreWin1–0Ponte Vedra, United StatesChallengerHard Chris Pridham7–6, 6–4Loss1–1Bloomfield Hills, United StatesChallengerHard Chris Pridham3–6, 4–6Win2–1Hong KongChallengerHard Greg Rusedski4–6, 6–4, 7–6Loss2–2Wellington, New ZealandChallengerHard Byron Black4–6, 6–4, 1–6Loss2–3Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaChallengerHard Alexander Mronz1–6, 0–6Win3–3Singapore, SingaporeChallengerHard Chris Wilkinson6–3, 6–4Win4–3Indian Wells, United StatesChallengerHard Oliver Gross6–7, 7–6, 6–2Loss4–4Flushing Meadows, United StatesChallengerHard Gianluca Pozzi1–6, 4–6
Doubles: 6 (4–2) LegendATP Challenger (4–2)ITF Futures (0–0)Finals by surfaceHard (2–2)Clay (2–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)
ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss0–1Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaChallengerHard Patrick Rafter Jamie Morgan Sandon Stolle4–6, 6–7Win1–1Taipei, TaiwanChallengerHard Patrick Rafter Kent Kinnear Kenny Thorne6–4, 7–6Win2–1Hong Kong, Hong KongChallengerHard Shuzo Matsuoka Dirk Dier Alexander Mronz2–3 ret.Win3–1Weiden, GermanyChallengerClay Nuno Marques Eyal Ran Gabriel Silberstein6–3, 6–1Win4–1Košice, SlovakiaChallengerClay Mikael Tillström Emanuel Couto Bernardo Mota7–6, 6–1Loss4–2Wellington, New ZealandChallengerHard Kenny Thorne Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor6–1, 4–6, 6–7
Performance timelines
Singles Tournament19881989199019911992199319941995199619971998SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAAQ1A1R1R2RQ2AA0 / 21–2French OpenAAAAAAQ11RAAA0 / 10–1WimbledonAAAAA1RA2RAAQ10 / 21–2US Open1RA2RA3R1R1RAA1RA0 / 63–6Win–loss0–10–01–10–02–10–30–22–30–00–10–00 / 125–12ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAAAAAAQ22RAAA0 / 11–1MiamiAAAAAAQ23RAAA0 / 12–1CanadaA1RAAA1RAAAAA0 / 20–2CincinnatiAAAAQ1Q1Q31RAAA0 / 10–1ParisAAAAAAAQ3AAA0 / 00–0Win–loss0–00–10–00–00–00–10–03–30–00–00–00 / 53–5
Doubles Tournament1991199219931994199519961997SRW–LWin %Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenAAAA2R3RA0 / 23–2French OpenAAAASFAA0 / 14–1WimbledonAAQ3A2RAA0 / 11–1US Open2R2R1RQ1AAQ10 / 32–3Win–loss1–11–10–10–06–32–10–00 / 710–7Year-end ChampionshipsATP FinalsDid not qualifyRRDNQ0 / 11–2ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAAAAWA1R1 / 25–1MiamiAAAA3RA1R0 / 21–2CanadaAAQ2AAAA0 / 00–0CincinnatiA2RAA2RAA0 / 22–2ParisAAAA2RAA0 / 12–1Win–loss0–01–10–00–08–30–00–21 / 79–6
References
External links