Zeeshan Ali
| Country (sports) |
 India |
|---|---|
| Residence | Bangalore,Karnataka,India |
| Born |
1 January 1970 Calcutta, India |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Turned pro | 1988 |
| Retired | 1995 |
| Plays | Right-handed |
| Prize money | US$45,664 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 4–13 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | No. 126 (12 Dec 1988) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Wimbledon | 1R (1988) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 3–7 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | No. 149 (14 Nov 1988) |
Zeeshan Ali (Born 1 January 1970) is a former Indian Davis Cup player who also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul
.
The right-hander reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 12 December 1988, when he became the number 126 of the world when he was still 3 weeks short of his 19th birthday.
He remained in the top 130 (with the exception of a couple of weeks) through August 1989. His singles highlights in 1988 included Winning the Indian Satellite Circuit, making R2 of the ATP tour event in Schenectady (losing to Kriek in R2) and at th Seoul Olympics (where he lost to Hlasek in R2), making the finals of a Challenger in New Haven (losing to Vijay Amritraj) and the semifinal of a Challenger in Indonesia. This decent set of performances had taken Zeeshan to 178 in the singles rankings in November 1988, but he then dominated a Satellite circuit in Japan to finish the year as 126 in Singles.
At the end of 1988, Zeeshan's doubles ranking at 154.
In 1989, Zeeshan made the quater finals of a Challenger in Nigeria early in the year, and then qualified into tour events in Key Biscayne, Tokyo (where he beat Leif Shiras before losing to Stefan Edberg in R2), Singapore and London (Queen's Club). In 1989 he played his only Grand Slam match in singles, losing in straight sets to Wally Masur at Wimbledon.
In 1989, he made third round in doubles at Wimbledon with Jonathan Canter (losing to the seeded pair of Curren/Pate in four sets), and won two Challenger doubles titles (in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing). In 1988, he had also made the second round of the Wimbledon doubles (with Mark Ferreira), two Challenger doubles finals (one with Mark) and four Challenger semi-finals (one of them with 37-year-old Anand Amritraj). Even in 1990, he won a Challenger doubles title (in Winnetka, IL) and made another Challenger doubles final (in Kenya), although playing a much lighter schedule. But after 1991, Zeeshan was mainly playing Challengers and Satellites in India and Asia. He won the Gold in the Asian Games in 1994 and Bronze in 1990.
Zeeshan was also ranked #2 in the world and #1in Asia in the Juniors in 1986. Zeeshan won a total of 14 ITF junior tournaments that year and reached the semi finals of singles at Junior Wimbledon. Later in the same year Zeeshan also reached the Juniors doubles finals at the US Open.
Zeeshan stopped playing on the professional circuit in 1995 due to a back injury.
Zeeshan has won a total of 7 Indian Men's Singles and 4 Doubles National Championship. He is the youngest Mens National champion having won the first National championship at the age of 16.
Zeeshan is the current Davis Cup Coach of India and the Captain of the Indian Fed Cup team.
Zeeshan played Davis Cup for India from 1987 to 1994. He was the member of the Indian Davis Cup team that reached the Davis Cup Finals in 1987 and semi finals in 1992.
In 2014 Zeeshan was awarded the prestigious Dhyan Chand from the President of India for his contribution to tennis in India.
Before returning to India in 2012, Zeeshan was running his tennis academy in Dubai and was the Davis Cup Coach of the UAE.
He is currently married with two kids and has his tennis academy in Bangalore .
References
- Zeeshan Ali at the Association of Tennis Professionals
- Zeeshan Ali at the International Tennis Federation
- Zeeshan Ali at the Davis Cup
- Zeeshan Ali at Sports Reference
- Zeeshan Ali Tennis Academy website