Reneberg, Richie

Richie Reneberg was born in Phoenix (Arizona) in 1965 . From 1984 to 1987, he studied at Southern Methodist University ( Dallas , Texas).

From 1987 to 2000, Reneberg played in professional tennis tournaments. After graduating from an active career in 2000, he lives near Washington and works in New York-based investment firm Taconic Capital Advisors in the marketing and customer service department. Married since 1991 , has two children ^[2] . His colleague at work was his former partner on the court, Jim Grubb ^[3] .

Career start

In 1985 - 1987, Ritchie Reneberg, who studied at the Southern Methodist University and trained with Dennis Ralston , joined the symbolic amateur tennis team of North America three times in a row, and in 1986 became a finalist in the US and Canadian student championships. Already during his studies, he participated in separate professional tournaments for which he received a wild card, and managed to take on one set in matches against Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander ^[3] . In 1987, he began a regular professional career, reaching the third round of the Wimbledon tournament in June (where he lost to the first racket of the world to Ivan Lendlu ) and advanced in the ATP rating from 337th to 70th place in a year. At the end of the season, he was recognized as a newcomer of the year ^[4] .

The following year, Reneberg won his first victory over his opponent from the top twenty rankings ( David Peit , at the time the 19th racket of the world), and in 1989 won his first Grand Prix tournament. It happened in November in Johannesburg , where Reneberg won in a pair with Luke Jensen . In less than two months in Wellington (New Zealand), he reached his first final of the ATP tour in singles, defeating the 19th racket of the world, Anrey Chesnokov , on the way. In the final, he lost to Emilio Sanchez - at that time, the 17th in the world. In February, in San Francisco, he reached his second final in pairs, already in the first round, winning Glen Leyendecker with one of the strongest pairs in the world - Jim Grubb and Patrick McEnroe . Two weeks later, in Philadelphia, Reneberg for the first time took over the tennis player from the top ten in the ranking - the fourth racket of the world, John Macinroy . Later in Indianapolis on the way to the semifinals, he defeated the ninth racket of the world, Aaron Crickstein, and by the end of October rose to the 22nd place in the rankings. In pairs during the season, he climbed to the 29th place after being defeated in the second round in Indianapolis by another lead pair, Jacob Hlasek and Guy Forge , along with another Frenchman, Yannick Noah .

Peak career

In March 1991, Reneberg reached the semifinal of the super tournament in Miami , and in early May in Tampa for the first time won the championship in singles, rising in the ranking to a record 20th place for himself. In the spring, he reached the finals twice and in pairs, and in early October he achieved victories twice in a row - first in Sydney and then in Tokyo - paired with Jim Grubb, with whom he began playing in July. In the finals in Tokyo, Grubb and Reneberg defeated the second pair of the world - David Pate and Scott Davis . Also in October in Stockholm, Reneberg managed to beat in a single tournament two tennis players from the top ten of the rating - Sergi Bruger and Karel Novachek - but his further promotion was stopped by the leader of the rating and the owner of the court, Stefan Edberg.

In February 1992, Grubb and Reneberg won their third joint title, and in May reached the quarterfinals of the French Open . In June, they won the grass tournament in Rosmalene , beating John Macinroy and German Michael Stich in the final. They met the same pair two weeks later in the final of the Wimbledon tournament after defeating the Australians Woodbridge and Woodford , sown under number two. This time, however, Makinra and Shtikh took revenge, winning in five sets, and in the fifth, the game score reached 19-17. After Wimbledon, Reneberg first entered the top ten tennis players in the world in doubles. By the end of the summer, he and Grubbbey reached the peak of their uniform and reached the finals four times in a row, winning the first two, including the US Open . In October, Reneberg ranked third in the rankings, but he failed to build on the success of the ATP World Championship - the final tournament of the year: after losing two out of three matches in the group, he and Grubb could not make it even to the semi-finals.

In January 1993, in Kuala Lumpur, Reneberg won his second in a career ATP tournament in singles. At the Australian Open, it was enough for him to reach the quarter-finals in a pair with Grubb to take the 1st place in the ranking of players in the doubles on February 1. He maintained this position almost until the beginning of the Wimbledon tournament (with a break in March-April, when he lost to Grabby), remaining a total of 13 weeks of the world top 13 weeks ^[5] . On the way to Wimbledon, having already parted with Grubb, he won with the US team the World Cup team in Düsseldorf , beating his opponents from Switzerland, Russia, Spain and Germany together with Patrick Macinro. The loss in the second round at Wimbledon, where his partner was David Wheaton , rejected Reneberg to fifth place in the rating and forced him to change his partner again, making a permanent pair with Patrick Macinroy. In the future, they showed together some good results, but at the US Open they lost in the third round, and Reneberg was already outside the top ten in the ranking. In general, over the year, he won three tournaments with different partners, but finished it only at 12th place in pairs (and at 30th place in singles) ^[6] .

In 1994, Reneberg played with various partners, including Grubb, with whom he reached the finals in Indianapolis. In total for the year, he played in four finals, of which he won two, but missed almost completely the autumn season and rolled back to the top-50 border in the doubles ranking. In singles, he only once, at the very beginning of the season, reached the final, but despite this, he also managed to finish the year among the 50 strongest players in the world. This was facilitated by two victories over Goran Ivanishevich , at that time the second racket of the world, and a victory over Boris Becker , who occupied the seventh place in the rating. Becker Reneberg won the first round of the US Open and eventually made it to the fourth round, showing his best result in Grand Slam singles tournaments.

Having formed a pair with Jared Palmer early next season, Reneberg managed to win his second title in Grand Slam tournaments in late January, winning the Australian Open. In the semifinals, they and Palmer defeated the first ones sown by Paula Harhoeuss and Yakko Elting . This success and the victory that followed soon in Memphis allowed Reneberg to return to the top 20 players in doubles. There was no further success, however, and he could not hold onto the top twenty by the end of the year, ending the year in 28th place. In singles, he did not reach beyond the semifinals in Stockholm, but managed to keep his place in the first hundred rankings. In addition to winning in Australia, his main success in the season was winning with the USA team the Davis Cup : although he did not take part in the final, his performances paired with Palmer brought the team two points in matches with the French and Italians .

Retirement

In 1996, Reneberg played twice in the finals of the ATP tournaments in singles (having lost in Tokyo and won in 's-Hertogenbosch ) and four times in doubles (one victory with Grubb and Palmer). This was enough to finish the season among the 50 strongest in doubles and singles. Over the course of the year, Reneberg again managed to take precedence over rivals from the top ten; among the losers were Thomas Enquist , Jim Courier , Wayne Ferreira, and fourth-ranked Michael Chang . He took part in the Olympic tournament in Atlanta , but in the first round he lost to Leander Paez - another doubles master, who sensationally won the bronze in singles.

In March 1997 in Scottsdale, Reneberg reached the final in the careers finals of the ATP tournament in singles, and in June made his way to the fourth round at Wimbledon after defeating the 11th world number one Carlos Moya . After Wimbledon, however, he managed only once to win more than one match in a row and ended the year outside the Top-50. In pairs, he also played only once in the final (having won in Stockholm with German Göllner ) and, at the end of the season, he was not even able to stay in the top 100 ^[6] . The following year, he did not win a single title, but three times participated in the finals, including the ATP highest category tournament in Indian Wells , which allowed him to return to the top players in doubles, rising to 26th place in the rating . Toward the end of the year in Paris, he, speaking with Jonathan Stark , managed to defeat Woodbridge and Woodford, still remaining one of the best couples in the world, but in the semifinals he lost to the same strong pair - Paes and Maheshu Bhupati .

Reneberg continued to play until April 2000 , winning two more doubles tournaments. However, the transferred tears of the meniscus and plantar fascia affected his speed on the court, which was his main weapon, and eventually he decided to complete the performances at the age of 34, abandoning the idea of ​​continuing his career in veteran competitions ^[3] .

In 2006, the name Richie Reneberg was included in the lists of the Hall of Fame of the US Tennis Association ^[7] .

Victory (2)

Defeat (1)

Singles (7)

Victory (3)

Defeats (4)

Doubles (35)

Victory (19)

Defeats (16)

Victory (1)

• Profile on ATP website (eng.)

• Profile on the Davis Cup website (eng.)