Country (sports) Australia Career titles 0 Turned pro 1994 Career record 4–14 Height 1.78 m | Prize money $388,461 Role Tennis player Plays Right-handed Name Ben Ellwood Handed Right-handed | |
Born 12 March 1976 (age 48)
Canberra, Australia ( 1976-03-12 ) Highest ranking No. 140 (28 October 1996) Residence South Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia | ||
Ben Ellwood opens for Doug Stanhope
Ben Ellwood (born 12 March 1976) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.
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Career
An outstanding junior, Ellwood won the boys' singles at the 1994 Australian Open, defeating Andrew Ilie in the final. He was the boys' doubles champion as well (with Mark Philippoussis) and also went on to win the boys' doubles at the 1994 Wimbledon Championships and 1994 US Open (with Philippousssis and Nicolás Lapentti, respectively). This made Ellwood the first ever player to win the boys' doubles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon Championships and US Open in the same year.
Ellwood made his Grand Slam debut in the 1995 Australian Open and came close to upsetting world number 46 Fabrice Santoro in the opening round. He lost the encounter in five sets, but had a chance to win the match in a fourth set tiebreak, which the Frenchman won 9–7. His only Grand Slam singles win came in Australia a year later, when he beat Olivier Delaître. As a doubles player he had much more success, with his best result being a quarter-finals berth at the 1999 US Open, with Michael Tebbutt as his partner. The pair defeated 10th seeds Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Daniel Vacek along the way. He also competed in the mixed doubles and made the second round of two Grand Slams in 2002, at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, both times with Evie Dominikovic. These would be the only two occasions he won a Grand Slam mixed doubles match but he only twice played with his younger sister, Annabel Ellwood, in the 1998 Australian Open and 1999 Wimbledon Championships.
On the ATP Tour, Ellwood made his only final when he and David Adams were doubles runners-up in the 2002 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships. Previously he had been a doubles quarter-finalist in Queen's with Michael Hill and made doubles semi-finals at Hong Kong in 1999 and Bucharest in 2001.