Mike Estep
American tennis player
title: "Mike Estep" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-male-tennis-players", "tennis-players-from-dallas", "people-from-hurst,-texas", "rice-owls-men's-tennis-players", "1949-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-sportsmen"] description: "American tennis player" topic_path: "sports" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Estep" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American tennis player ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox tennis biography"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| image | Mike Estep wrc02855.jpg |
| name | Mike Estep |
| country | United States |
| residence | Hurst, Texas, USA |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Dallas, Texas, USA |
| height | |
| turnedpro | 1969 (amateur from 1966) |
| retired | 1983 |
| plays | Right-handed |
| singlesrecord | 117–179 |
| singlestitles | 2 |
| highestsinglesranking | No. 59 (August 23, 1973) |
| AustralianOpenresult | 3R (1982) |
| FrenchOpenresult | 2R (1973, 1975) |
| Wimbledonresult | 4R (1975) |
| USOpenresult | 2R (1975) |
| doublesrecord | 182–168 (Open era) |
| doublestitles | 7 (Open era) |
| AustralianOpenDoublesresult | QF (1980, 1982) |
| :: |
|image= Mike Estep wrc02855.jpg |name= Mike Estep |fullname= |country=United States |residence= Hurst, Texas, USA |birth_date= |birth_place= Dallas, Texas, USA |height= |turnedpro= 1969 (amateur from 1966) |retired= 1983 |plays= Right-handed |careerprizemoney= |singlesrecord= 117–179 |singlestitles= 2 |highestsinglesranking= No. 59 (August 23, 1973) |AustralianOpenresult= 3R (1982) |FrenchOpenresult= 2R (1973, 1975) |Wimbledonresult= 4R (1975) |USOpenresult= 2R (1975) |doublesrecord= 182–168 (Open era) |doublestitles= 7 (Open era) |highestdoublesranking= |AustralianOpenDoublesresult = QF (1980, 1982) |FrenchOpenDoublesresult = |WimbledonDoublesresult = |USOpenDoublesresult = |Mixed = |FrenchOpenMixedresult =
Mike Estep (born July 19, 1949) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
During his career Estep won 2 singles titles and 7 doubles titles. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 59 in August 1973.
In 1983 until 1986 he coached Martina Navratilova. Later he worked with Carling Bassett, Hana Mandlíková, Jana Novotná and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.
He was a board member of the Association of Tennis Professionals from 1982 to 1989, holding the position of chairman of the ATP ranking Committee at the same time. He also worked with the U.S. Tennis Association, creating a method for ranking juniors in 1999 that is now used nationwide, and serving on the junior development council for Texas from 1993 to 1995.
Estep resides in Hurst, Texas.
Early life
Estep grew up in Dallas, where he graduated from the St. Mark's School of Texas. As a junior tennis player, Estep held a No 1 national ranking for five straight years (from 1963 to 1967). Estep was named the Texas High School Player of the Year, and led the U.S. to the Sunshine Cup Title and played on the U.S. Junior Davis Cup Team. When Estep and George Taylor won the USTA national junior doubles tournament, they became the first team of Texans to win a national tennis championship.
College tennis
At Rice University, Estep was an All American tennis player for three years. As a senior in 1970, he won the Southwest Conference titles in both singles and doubles. At the NCAA Division 1 annual tournament, Estep was an NCAA doubles semifinalist (1968), a singles finalist (1969), and a singles semifinalist (1970). He graduated from Rice with a degree in political science.
Grand Prix and WCT finals
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
::data[format=table]
| Result | W/L | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1–0 | Aug 1973 | Merion, U.S. | Grass | USA Gene Scott | 7–5, 3–6, 7–6, 3–6, 7–5 |
| Win | 2–0 | Feb 1976 | Khartoum, Sudan | Hard | BRA Thomaz Koch | 6–4, 6–7, 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 2–1 | 1982 | Tampa, U.S. | Hard | USA Brian Gottfried | 7–6, 2–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 2–2 | 1982 | Newport, U.S. | Grass | USA Hank Pfister | 1–6, 5–7 |
| :: |
Doubles: 16 (7 titles, 9 runner-ups)
::data[format=table]
| Result | No. | Year | Tournament | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | 1. | 1973 | Omaha, U.S. | Hard (i) | USA William Brown | USA Jimmy Connors | |
| ESP Juan Gisbert Sr. | default | ||||||
| Win | 2. | 1973 | Salt Lake City, U.S. | Hard (i) | MEX Raúl Ramírez | TCH Jiří Hřebec | |
| TCH Jan Kukal | 6–4, 7–6 | ||||||
| Win | 3. | 1973 | Calgary, Canada | Indoor | ROU Ilie Năstase | HUN Szabolcs Baranyi | |
| HUN Péter Szőke | 6–7, 7–5, 6–3 | ||||||
| Win | 4. | 1973 | Valencia, Spain | Clay | ROU Ion Țiriac | BEL Patrick Hombergen | |
| BEL Bernard Mignot | 6–4, 1–6, 10–8 | ||||||
| Loss | 1. | 1973 | Barcelona, Spain | Clay | ROU Ion Țiriac | ESP Juan Gisbert Sr. | |
| ESP Manuel Orantes | 4–6, 6–7 | ||||||
| Win | 5. | 1973 | Djakarta, Indonesia | Hard | AUS Ian Fletcher | AUS John Newcombe | |
| AUS Allan Stone | 7–5, 6–4 | ||||||
| Win | 6. | 1974 | Philadelphia WCT, U.S. | Carpet | RSA Pat Cramer | FRA Jean-Baptiste Chanfreau | |
| FRA Georges Goven | 6–1, 6–1 | ||||||
| Loss | 2. | 1974 | Hampton, U.S. | Carpet | RSA Pat Cramer | YUG Željko Franulović | |
| YUG Nikola Pilić | 6–4, 5–7, 1–6 | ||||||
| Loss | 3. | 1974 | Melbourne, Australia | Clay | AUS Paul Kronk | USA Grover Raz Reid | |
| AUS Allan Stone | 6–7, 4–6 | ||||||
| Loss | 4. | 1974 | Manila, Philippines | Clay | MEX Marcello Lara | AUS Syd Ball | |
| AUS Ross Case | 3–6, 6–7, 7–9 | ||||||
| Win | 7. | 1975 | Washington Indoor WCT, U.S. | Carpet | NZL Jeff Simpson | IND Anand Amritraj | |
| IND Vijay Amritraj | 7–6, 6–3 | ||||||
| Loss | 5. | 1975 | Houston, U.S. | Clay | NZL Jeff Simpson | USA Robert Lutz | |
| USA Stan Smith | 5–7, 6–7 | ||||||
| Loss | 6. | 1975 | Boston, U.S. | Clay | USA John Andrews | USA Brian Gottfried | |
| MEX Raúl Ramírez | 6–4, 3–6, 6–7 | ||||||
| Loss | 7. | 1976 | Cologne, Germany | Carpet | Rhodesia Colin Dowdeswell | RSA Bob Hewitt | |
| RSA Frew McMillan | 1–6, 6–3, 6–7 | ||||||
| Loss | 8. | 1981 | Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany | Clay | AUS Mark Edmondson | AUS Peter McNamara | |
| AUS Paul McNamee | 6–2, 4–6, 6–7 | ||||||
| Loss | 9. | 1981 | Brisbane, Australia | Grass | AUS Mark Edmondson | AUS Rod Frawley | |
| NZL Chris Lewis | 5–7, 6–4, 6–7 | ||||||
| :: |
Coaching
Estep entered coaching after retiring from competitive tennis in 1983.
He is best known for coaching Martina Navratilova during her rise to dominance.
References
References
- [http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/rice/genrel/auto_pdf/champ_book_07_mtennis.pdf Rice University Champions Book]
- "Estep".
- "St. Mark’s School of Texas {{!}} Alumni Athletes".
- "Estep".
- "Estep".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::