Zack Fleishman - Biography

Zachary Rodin "Zack" Fleishman (born March 17, 1980) is a right-handed professional tennis player from the United States.

Tennis career

Fleishman began playing tennis at the age of 8.

In 1998, he became the highest ranked American junior in the world (at # 18 in the world rankings). He was the top-ranked player in Southern California in boys 10, 12, 14, and 18s, and was listed No. 5 nationally in boys 14 and unders at age 13. He competed in numerous Junior Grand Slam events, including Wimbledon, the French Open, and the US Open where he reached the quarterfinals.

Fleishman played one year of high school tennis at Crossroads School in ninth grade for coach Martin Hershey. He went undefeated for that season, and won the Delphic League Championship.

At the age of 18, he played one season (1998–99) of collegiate tennis at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). That year Fleishman helped UCLA to the number 1 ranking in the country, and to the final of the National Collegiate Athletics Association championships. After one year of competing on the collegiate level, Fleishman opted to turn professional in 2000.

He has won seven professional singles titles (and numerous doubles titles) in his career, starting with back to back satellite wins in El Salvador on hard court, followed by a win in Honduras on red clay. Fleishman then won back-to-back titles again, this time in his native California, winning two futures events in Redding and Chico (he also won the doubles title). Later, he was able to establish himself on the challenger circuit, winning a US$25,000 event in Ecuador on red clay and then a US$50,000 event in Vietnam on hard court. This propelled his ranking to 11th in the United States and World # 127. In 2008, Zack added another professional tournament victory to his resume winning the Costa Mesa Tennis Futures.

2006

In 2006, Fleishman qualified for his first Grand Slam event: the Australian Open. He won three qualifying matches and then drew World No. 85 Dick Norman of Belgium. Fleishman rallied from two sets down to force a fifth set. However, Fleishman was unable to capitalize on his momentum, and lost the fifth set and the match.

2007

In 2007, Fleishman again qualified for the Australian Open. This time, he defeated World # 26 Agustín Calleri of Argentina in the first round, before falling to Australian Wayne Arthurs in the second round. Fleishman had his hair dyed bright red, white, and blue for the occasion, to symbolise American national pride.

The same year, Fleishman won three matches and qualified at Wimbledon, where he faced World No. 10 Tommy Haas. On July 17, 2007, Fleishman achieved his first victory over a top-ten player, defeating World # 6 Fernando González 7–6 (5), 6–4, in the first round of the Los Angeles Tennis Center's Countrywide Classic. He proceeded to beat fellow American Robert Kendrick 7–6 (4), 6–3, in the second round, compiling his first ever back-to-back wins in an Association of Tennis Professionals event. In the quarterfinals, however, Fleishman fell to the eventual tournament champion Radek Štěpánek, 6–4, 6–2.

2008

In September 2008, Fleishman won the USA F23 in California, beating Michael McClune in the finals, 4–6, 6–4, 7–6 (5). He and McClune partnered to win the doubles in the tournament, dropping only one set along the way.

Career ATP Tour match wins

Fernando González, David Nalbandian, Vince Spadea, Agustín Calleri, Mardy Fish, Robby Ginepri, Daniel Nestor, Tomáš Berdych, Joachim Johansson are all victims of Fleishman.

ATP Tour match losses

Nikolay Davydenko, James Blake, Michael Chang, Radek Štěpánek, Richard Gasquet, Tommy Haas, Dominik Hrbatý, Sam Querrey

Interviews

Podcast Interview: http://tenniszonepodcast.com/Episodes/Entries/2008/3/7_Zack_Fleishman.html

Sponsor Interview: http://new.eletewater.com/uploads/athletes/ZackFleishman.pdf http://new.eletewater.com/uploads/documents/brochure2.pdf [1]

Fleishman # 13 with picture of the 20 Most Memorable moments in Australian Open History http://www.theage.com.au/advertisers/sport/tennisloversguide/20moments.html; The article does not include his 138 mph serve which was the 4th-fastest serve at the Australian Open in 2007

USPTA Certified Professional Level 1

http://zackfleishman.usptapro.com/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

External links

• Fleishman Recent Match Results
• Fleishman World Ranking History
• UCLA bio
• NAB Taste of Tennis Australia