Kevin Curren

Kevin Curren

Country (sports)	South Africa  United States
Residence	Austin, TX, USA
Born	2 March 1958 Durban, South Africa
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	1979
Retired	1993
Plays	Right-handed (1-handed backhand)
Prize money	$3,055,510
Singles
Career record	338–235 (Grand Prix, WCT, ATP & Grand Slam-level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 5 (22 July 1985)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	F (1984)
French Open	2R (1992)
Wimbledon	F (1985)
US Open	4R (1981, 1990)
Other tournaments
WCT Finals	SF (1984)
Doubles
Career record	430–249 (Grand Prix, WCT, ATP & Grand Slam-level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles	26
Highest ranking	No. 3 (3 January 1983)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	SF (1981)
French Open	QF (1984)
Wimbledon	SF (1982, 1983)
US Open	W (1982)
Mixed doubles
Career titles	3
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Wimbledon	W (1982)
US Open	W (1981, 1982)

Kevin Melvyn Curren (born 2 March 1958) is a former professional tennis player. He played in two Grand Slam singles finals and won four Grand Slam doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 5.

Personal life

Curren became a naturalized American citizen in April 1985.^[1]

Tennis career

Curren played both tennis and cricket at Glenwood High School in Durban. He also quickly rose among the ranks as a junior at Montclair Lawn Tennis Club in Montclair, Durban. At college he played tennis for the University of Texas at Austin in the United States and won the NCAA singles title in 1979. He turned professional later that year, and won his first top-level singles title in 1981 in Johannesburg.

In 1983, Curren reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon, beating defending champion, Jimmy Connors, 6–3, 6–7, 6–3, 7–6, in the fourth round, snapping Connors' streak of 27 consecutive major quarterfinals appearances. It would go on to be his only 4th round loss in 35 Grand Slam tournaments appearances. Curren lost to unseeded New Zealander Chris Lewis in a dramatic five-set semifinal match, 7–6, 4–6, 6–7, 7–6, 6–8, which allowed Lewis to become only the seventh unseeded player to reach the Wimbledon final. In 1984, Curren powered his way through the draw and played Mats Wilander in the final of the Australian Open, after making a comeback from two sets down to defeat Ben Testerman in the semifinals. Wilander won the match, played on the grass courts at Kooyong, in four sets, 6–7, 6–4, 7–6, 6–2.

In 1985, Curren became an American citizen, and reached the final at Wimbledon with the help of coaching from Tony Roche. After defeating Larry Stefanki, Mike De Palmer, David Mustard and then future champion Stefan Edberg in the fourth round in straight sets, 7–6, 6–3, 7–6, he comprehensively eliminated the then-World No. 1 John McEnroe in the quarterfinals, 6–2, 6–2, 6–4, and World No. 3 Jimmy Connors in the semifinals, 6–2, 6–2, 6–1. Curren was the first player to beat both legends in the same Grand Slam event. McEnroe commented that he felt overpowered^[2] and later that he had difficulty in dealing with Curren's highly individualistic and very fast serving, which, in its low toss, was hard to read and tended to produce low balls that skipped on the grass courts of the time. In the final, he lost in four sets to Boris Becker, 3–6, 7–6, 6–7, 4–6, in a match best remembered for making the 17-year-old Becker the youngest male Grand Slam champion (a record which was later eclipsed by Michael Chang in 1989 at the French Open). The final was very heated and intense, and Becker sent several hostile glares to Curren before and after points. On one of the final change-overs, Becker even bumped Curren's shoulder as they passed one another. After his defeat, Curren was noted as saying that he thought the game would see an increase in the number of successful young players and predicted that they would have more intense, but shorter, careers.^[3] Curren would be the last American man to reach the final at Wimbledon until Andre Agassi did so seven years later in 1992.

Though he never won a Grand Slam singles title, Curren did win four Grand Slam doubles titles. In 1981, he won the US Open mixed doubles, and in 1982 he won the Wimbledon mixed doubles and both men's doubles and mixed doubles at the US Open. During his career, Curren won five top-level singles titles and 26 doubles titles. His career-high rankings were World No. 5 in singles and World No. 3 in doubles. His career prize-money earnings totaled $3,055,510. His final career singles title came in 1989 at Frankfurt, and his last doubles title was won in 1992 in Seoul. Curren retired from the professional tour in 1993.

Since retiring from the tour, Curren has served as captain of South Africa's Davis Cup team.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 2 finals (2 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1984	Australian Open	Grass	Mats Wilander	7–6^(7–5), 4–6, 6–7^(3–7), 2–6
Runner-up	1985	Wimbledon	Grass	Boris Becker	3–6, 7–6^(7–4), 6–7^(3–7), 4–6

Doubles (1 title)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1982	US Open	Hard	Steve Denton	Victor Amaya Hank Pfister	6–2, 6–7^(4–7), 5–7, 6–2, 6–4

Mixed doubles (3 titles)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1981	US Open	Hard	Anne Smith	JoAnne Russell Steve Denton	6–4, 7–6
Winner	1982	Wimbledon Championships	Grass	Anne Smith	Wendy Turnbull John Lloyd	2–6, 6–3, 7–5
Winner	1982	US Open	Hard	Anne Smith	Barbara Potter Ferdi Taygan	6–7, 7–6^(7–4), 7–6^(7–5)

Singles finals 13 (5-8)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Winner	1.	1981	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Bernard Mitton	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	1982	Los Angeles, U.S.	Carpet	Ivan Lendl	6–7^(5–7), 5–7, 1–6
Runner-up	2.	1982	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Wojtek Fibak	5–7, 6–3, 4–6, 3–6
Winner	2.	1982	Cologne, Germany	Hard (i)	Shlomo Glickstein	2–6, 6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	1983	Milan, Italy	Carpet	Ivan Lendl	7–5, 3–6, 6–7
Runner-up	4.	1984	Australian Open	Grass	Mats Wilander	7–6^(7–5), 4–6, 6–7^(3–7), 2–6
Winner	3.	1985	Toronto, Canada	Carpet	Anders Järryd	7–6^(8–6), 6–3
Runner-up	5.	1985	Houston, U.S.	Carpet	John McEnroe	5–7, 1–6, 6–7^(4–7)
Runner-up	6.	1985	Wimbledon	Grass	Boris Becker	3–6, 7–6^(7–4), 6–7^(3–7), 4–6
Winner	4.	1986	Atlanta, U.S.	Carpet	Tim Wilkison	7–6^(7–5), 7–6^(7–2)
Runner-up	7.	1986	Scottsdale, U.S.	Hard	John McEnroe	3–6, 6–3, 2–6
Runner-up	8.	1988	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Ivan Lendl	6–7^(10–12), 2–6
Winner	5.	1989	Frankfurt, Germany	Carpet	Petr Korda	6–2, 7–5

Doubles finals 53 (26-27)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	1980	Denver, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Wojtek Fibak Heinz Günthardt	7–5, 6–2
Runner-up	1.	1980	Washington-2, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Ferdi Taygan Brian Teacher	6–4, 3–6, 6–7
Runner-up	2.	1980	North Conway, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Jimmy Connors Brian Gottfried	6–7, 3–6
Winner	2.	1980	Indianapolis, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Wojtek Fibak Ivan Lendl	3–6, 7–6, 6–4
Winner	3.	1980	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Steve Denton	Bob Hewitt Frew McMillan	6–7, 6–4, 6–4
Winner	4.	1981	Monterrey WCT, Mexico	Carpet	Steve Denton	Johan Kriek Russell Simpson	7–6, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	1981	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet	Steve Denton	Sandy Mayer Frew McMillan	6–4, 3–6, 3–6
Runner-up	4.	1981	London/Queen's Club, U.K.	Grass	Steve Denton	Pat Du Pré Brian Teacher	6–3, 6–7, 9–11
Runner-up	5.	1981	Newport, U.S.	Grass	Billy Martin	Brad Drewett Erik Van Dillen	2–6, 4–6
Winner	5.	1981	Indianapolis, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Raúl Ramírez Van Winitsky	6–3, 5–7, 7–5
Winner	6.	1981	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Steve Denton	Sherwood Stewart Ferdi Taygan	6–7, 6–4, 6–0
Runner-up	6.	1982	Masters Doubles WCT, London	Carpet	Steve Denton	Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy	7–6, 3–6, 5–7, 4–6
Winner	7.	1982	Denver, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Phil Dent Kim Warwick	6–4, 6–4
Winner	8.	1982	Memphis, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	7–6, 4–6, 6–2
Runner-up	7.	1982	Munich-2 WCT, Germany	Carpet	Steve Denton	Mark Edmondson Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 5–7, 2–6
Runner-up	8.	1982	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Fritz Buehning	Mark Edmondson Sherwood Stewart	5–7, 2–6
Winner	9.	1982	Houston, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Mark Edmondson Peter McNamara	7–5, 6–4
Winner	10.	1982	U.S. Open, New York	Hard	Steve Denton	Victor Amaya Hank Pfister	6–2, 6–7, 5–7, 6–2, 6–4
Winner	11.	1982	Los Angeles-2 WCT, U.S.	Carpet	Hank Pfister	Andy Andrews Drew Gitlin	4–6, 6–2, 7–5
Runner-up	9.	1982	Amsterdam WCT, Netherlands	Carpet	Buster Mottram	Fritz Buehning Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 3–6, 0–6
Winner	12.	1983	Philadelphia, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	6–4, 7–6
Winner	13.	1983	Munich WCT, Germany	Carpet	Steve Denton	Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy	7–5, 2–6, 6–1
Winner	14.	1983	Houston WCT, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Mark Dickson Tomáš Šmíd	7–6, 6–7, 6–1
Winner	15.	1983	Las Vegas, U.S.	Hard	Steve Denton	Tracy Delatte Johan Kriek	6–3, 7–5
Runner-up	10.	1983	Forest Hills WCT, U.S.	Clay	Steve Denton	Tracy Delatte Johan Kriek	7–6, 5–7, 3–6
Runner-up	11.	1983	London/Queen's Club, U.K.	Grass	Steve Denton	Brian Gottfried Paul McNamee	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	12.	1984	Richmond WCT, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	John McEnroe Patrick McEnroe	6–7, 2–6
Runner-up	13.	1984	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet	Steve Denton	Tim Gullikson Tom Gullikson	4–6, 7–6, 6–7
Winner	16.	1984	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Wojtek Fibak	Fritz Buehning Ferdi Taygan	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	14.	1984	Milan, Italy	Carpet	Steve Denton	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	15.	1985	Memphis, U.S.	Carpet	Steve Denton	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	6–1, 3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	16.	1985	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet	Wojtek Fibak	Stefan Edberg Anders Järryd	3–6, 6–7
Winner	17.	1986	London/Queen's Club, U.K.	Grass	Guy Forget	Darren Cahill Mark Kratzmann	6–2, 7–6
Winner	18.	1987	Tokyo Outdoor, Japan	Hard	Paul Annacone	Andrés Gómez Anders Järryd	6–4, 7–6
Winner	19.	1987	Los Angeles, U.S.	Hard	David Pate	Brad Gilbert Tim Wilkison	6–3, 6–4
Winner	20.	1987	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard (i)	David Pate	Eric Korita Brad Pearce	6–4, 6–4
Winner	21.	1988	Memphis, U.S.	Hard (i)	David Pate	Peter Lundgren Mikael Pernfors	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	17.	1988	Philadelphia, U.S.	Carpet	Danie Visser	Kelly Evernden Johan Kriek	6–7, 3–6
Runner-up	18.	1988	Vienna, Austria	Carpet	Tomáš Šmíd	Alex Antonitsch Balázs Taróczy	6–4, 3–6, 6–7
Winner	22.	1988	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Jim Grabb	Paul Annacone John Fitzgerald	7–5, 7–5
Winner	23.	1988	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard (i)	David Pate	Gary Muller Tim Wilkison	7–6, 6–4
Runner-up	19.	1989	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	David Pate	Boris Becker Jakob Hlasek	6–3, 3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	20.	1989	Tokyo Outdoor, Japan	Hard	David Pate	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	4–6, 4–6
Winner	24.	1989	Tokyo Indoor, Japan	Carpet	David Pate	Andrés Gómez Slobodan Živojinović	4–6, 6–3, 7–6
Runner-up	21.	1989	Frankfurt, Germany	Carpet	Eric Jelen	Pieter Aldrich Danie Visser	6–7, 7–6, 3–6
Runner-up	22.	1989	Wembley, U.K.	Carpet	Jeremy Bates	Jakob Hlasek John McEnroe	1–6, 6–7
Runner-up	23.	1990	Toronto Indoor, Canada	Carpet	Neil Broad	Patrick Galbraith David Macpherson	6–2, 4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	24.	1990	Hong Kong	Hard	Joey Rive	Pat Cash Wally Masur	3–6, 3–6
Winner	25.	1990	London/Queen's Club, U.K.	Grass	Jeremy Bates	Henri Leconte Ivan Lendl	6–2, 7–6
Runner-up	25.	1990	Berlin, Germany	Carpet	Patrick Galbraith	Pieter Aldrich Danie Visser	6–7, 6–7
Runner-up	26.	1991	Lyon, France	Hard (i)	Jeremy Bates	Steve DeVries David Macpherson	6–7, 6–3, 3–6
Runner-up	27.	1992	Memphis, U.S.	Hard (i)	Gary Muller	Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde	5–7, 6–4, 6–7
Winner	26.	1992	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Gary Muller	Kelly Evernden Brad Pearce	7–6, 6–4

References

1. ITF Tennis – Mens Circuit – Player Biography
2. "McEnroe Gets What He Had Coming: a Loss", Los Angeles Times, 4 July 1985.
3. "1985: Boris Becker wins Wimbledon at 17". BBC. 7 July 1985. Retrieved 18 October 2008.

External links

• Kevin Curren at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Kevin Curren at the International Tennis Federation