Jamie Baker | |
Country: | Great Britain |
Birth Date: | 1986 8, df=yes |
Birth Place: | Glasgow, Scotland |
Residence: | Glasgow, Scotland |
Height: | [1] |
Turnedpro: | 2004 |
Retired: | 2013 |
Plays: | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Coach: | Keith Reynolds (2004–2013) |
Careerprizemoney: | $401,380 |
Singlesrecord: | 7–20 |
Singlestitles: | 0 |
Highestsinglesranking: | No. 186 (25 June 2012) |
Australianopenresult: | 1R (2008, 2013) |
Frenchopenresult: | Q2 (2012) |
Wimbledonresult: | 1R (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012) |
Usopenresult: | Q3 (2007) |
Doublesrecord: | 1–3 |
Doublestitles: | 0 |
Highestdoublesranking: | No. 306 (1 November 2010) |
Wimbledondoublesresult: | 1R (2007, 2013) |
Team: | yes |
Daviscupresult: | 1R (2008) |
Updated: | 2 July 2021 |
Jamie Baker (born 5 August 1986) is a retired British professional male tennis player, who was British No. 2 in 2008.[2]
He won the first match of Leon Smith's tenure as Davis Cup captain, in the tie against Turkey, helping Great Britain to a first Davis Cup win in three years.
Baker has twelve Futures single titles; in doubles, he has 1 Challenger and four Futures titles.
After retiring from tennis, Baker moved into Corporate Finance for a bank,[3] whilst also being a part-time television pundit for Eurosport and the BBC.[2]
Baker's parents are Gordon and Lynn, and he has an older brother Steven. Baker first picked up a tennis racket at four, and holidayed at Center Parcs where he and Steven would win adult competitions.
Baker went to junior tournaments all over the UK, and met the Murray brothers. Their mother Judy Murray counselled the Bakers that the best way to progress, would be for Jamie to leave home and move to the LTA Tennis Academy in Loughborough. Lynne and Gordon met host families who might look after their son, but decided they couldn't let Jamie go by himself. Gordon relocated to his company's office in Loughborough, while Lynn stayed in Glasgow. At Loughborough, Baker realised that he was in the second tier of junior players, but he was the only one in his group dedicated enough to compete on the senior tour.[2]
His brother Steven is an international squash player.
He had a fairly successful junior career, peaking as high as 6 in the junior ITF rankings. He reached the quarter-finals of junior Wimbledon in 2004, and in the same year won the 18 and under national championships. He won a grade 1 junior event in Venezuela, before turning professional at the age of 18.
In 2005 Jamie began playing on the futures and challengers tours. His most successful challenger result was a quarter-final at the Burnie Challenger in February 2006. He made his ATP Tour debut by virtue of wild cards at the 2006 Artois Championship and played at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships.
Baker made his debut for the Great Britain Davis Cup team in September 2006 in the crucial relegation play-off against the Ukraine. Great Britain won the tie 3–2, although Jamie lost his match, the fifth rubber, 6–3 7–6 against Sergei Bubka.
Baker continued in Challenger tournaments, reaching the final in Waikoloa and making semi finals at places like Lexington and Knowville. He also achieved his first ATP Tour victory, against Alexander Peya, at the 2007 Artois Championships.
He made a second Davis Cup appearance in the World Group Play-off against Croatia on No. 1 Court, Wimbledon in September. With Great Britain leading 4–0, Baker played the dead rubber, losing 6–4 6–4 against Marin Čilić. Britain won the tie 4–1 and qualified for the 2008 World Group. He finished the season ranked as Britain's number 3 player.
In November, he was invited to practise with Pete Sampras at his home.
Baker made a positive start to 2008 by qualifying for the Australian Open. He disposed of 9th seed (Q) Yuri Shukin 6–2 6–0 and then battling past Alexander Peya 6–4 7–6 to reach the final round where he defeated Daniel Köllerer 6–46–4. Though he was defeated in the first round by Ivo Karlović, his result of 6–4 6–4 6–7 6–4 was described as highly creditable[4]
Baker later played in his first 'live' Davis Cup rubber in the World Group first round match against Argentina. Though he lost the opener to David Nalbandian (#9), and with Argentina winning 4–0, he gained his first Davis Cup win by beating clay court specialist Agustín Calleri (#41) 7–6, 6–4 in the final tie of the match. When the match finished, the Argentine fans who had been jeering throughout, rose as one to give him a standing ovation. Argentina had won their last ten home encounters 5–0, so Baker prevented the 2006 finalists taking their 11th successive 5–0 victory.[2]
Following the Davis Cup, Jamie won 2 consecutive titles in $15,000 Futures Tournaments in Brownsville, Texas and Harlingen, Texas, becoming 211 in the world and British No 2.[2]
Baker contracted Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) in April,[5] and had to spend three days in intensive care in Florida. Fellow Scot Jamie Murray noted that he was lucky to be alive. Baker had been likely to miss Wimbledon as a result,[6] but was granted a wildcard for the tournament. He lost in the first round 4–6 2–6 3–6 to the Italian Stefano Galvani.[7] ITP was debilitating; unable to train at his previous intensity for more than a year, and with the problem exacerbated by further injuries, Baker's ranking plummeted to 427 by the year's end.[2]
Rather than begin the year in Australia trying to qualify for the Australian Open, Baker chose to play in Futures events in the United Kingdom.[10] He reached the final of the first one, losing to Chris Eaton in Glasgow.[5]
In May, Baker won his only Challenger title, playing doubles with James Ward at the Savannah Challenger.[11]
In July, James Ward beat Baker in the final of the Great Britain F8 Futures in Manchester.[12]
The new Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith selected Baker to take part in Great Britain's vital Davis Cup tie vs Turkey, at Eastbourne, in July alongside James Ward, Ken Skupski, Colin Fleming and Alex Ward(non player). Defeat would have meant Great Britain's relegation to Europe Zone Group III. Baker played his part in the victory by winning both his singles matches, Britain eventually triumphing 5–0, and giving Great Britain a first Davis Cup win in three years.[13]
In March, Leon Smith announced his team for the Euro/Africa Zone Group II tie against Tunisia, but he sprang a surprise, omitting Alex Bogdanovic, having recalled the 26-year-old to the squad after a three-year absence. Instead, Smith's singles players were Ward (No 214) who lost at the first hurdle in six of his seven tournaments this year. and Baker (No 406), who had lost first time out in his last two events. Although Bogdanovic (No 374) had lost all six of his live Davis Cup rubbers, he had at least won a Futures tournament in the United States this year.[14] Baker lost his opening singles match, but won his dead rubber, contributing to Great Britain's 4–1 victory.
In December, Baker spent nearly a month with his close friend Andy Murray at his luxurious winter training base in Miami,[2] along with James Ward, Ross Hutchins and Oliver Golding.[15] [16]
Baker qualified for the main draw of the 2013 Australian Open, beating Donald Young in three sets in the final qualifier.[17] He was defeated by Lukáš Rosol of the Czech Republic in the first round.
In May, Baker decided to retire, but wanted to have one more go by playing on his best surface, grass.There was success in the preliminaries in Nottingham and at Queens, and then for his last match, defeat in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying, against Igor Kunitsyn, a Russian baseliner who had once been in the top 50.[2]
On 29 June Baker announced his retirement from tennis.[18] [19]
Tournament | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | SR | W–L | Win % | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Open | A | Q1 | 1R | A | A | A | A | 1R | 0 / 2 | 0–2 | ||
French Open | A | A | A | A | A | A | Q2 | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | ||
Wimbledon | 1R | 1R | 1R | A | 1R | Q2 | 1R | Q2 | 0 / 5 | 0–5 | ||
US Open | A | Q3 | A | A | Q2 | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | ||
style=text-align:left | Win–loss | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0 / 7 | 0–7 | |
National representation | ||||||||||||
Davis Cup | Z1 | PO | 1R | A | Z2 | Z2 | A | A | 0 / 5 | 4–4 | ||
ATP Tour Masters 1000 | ||||||||||||
bgcolor=efefef align=left | Indian Wells Masters | A | A | Q1 | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 0 | 0–0 | |
Win–loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 / 0 | 0–0 |
|
|
Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Win | 1–0 | Mexico F4, Celaya | Futures | Hard | Marcelo Melo | 6–3, 5–7, 6–3 | ||
Loss | 1–1 | USA F19, Godfrey | Futures | Hard | Sam Warburg | 6–7(6–8), 3–6 | ||
Loss | 1–2 | Great Britain F13, Edinburgh | Futures | Hard | Mark Hilton | 3–6, 3–6 | ||
Win | 2–2 | Great Britain F14, Bolton | Futures | Hard | Ladislav Chramosta | 6–3, 6–2 | ||
Loss | 2–3 | Australia F2, Wollongong | Futures | Hard | Satoshi Iwabuchi | 2–6, 6–7(4–7) | ||
Loss | 2–4 | New Zealand F2, Hamilton | Futures | Hard | Konstantinos Economidis | 4–6, 0–6 | ||
Win | 3–4 | Greece F3, Kalamata | Futures | Hard | Josh Goodall | 6–3, 6–3 | ||
Win | 4–4 | Great Britain F14, Nottingham | Futures | Hard | Jonathan Marray | 6–1, 6–1 | ||
Loss | 4–5 | Waikoloa, United States | Challenger | Hard | Michael Russell | 1–6, 5–7 | ||
Win | 5–5 | Great Britain F6, Sunderland | Futures | Hard | Gary Lugassy | 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 7–5 | ||
Loss | 5–6 | Great Britain F18, Nottingham | Futures | Hard | Josh Goodall | 3–6, 4–6 | ||
Win | 6–6 | USA F4, Brownsville | Futures | Hard | Kevin Anderson | 7–6(7–1), 6–4 | ||
Win | 7–6 | USA F5, Harlingen | Futures | Hard | Jurek Stasiak | 6–2, 7–6(7–5) | ||
Win | 8–6 | Thailand F3, Nonthaburi | Futures | Hard | Daniel King-Turner | 6–4, 6–4 | ||
Loss | 8–7 | Australia F5, Darwin | Futures | Hard | Dayne Kelly | 4–6, 4–6 | ||
Win | 9–7 | Australia F6, Darwin | Futures | Hard | John Millman | 6–4, 2–6, 6–3 | ||
Win | 10–7 | Australia F7, Happy Valley | Futures | Hard | Robert Smeets | 6–1, 6–3 | ||
Loss | 10–8 | Australia F8, Port Pirie | Futures | Hard | Matthew Ebden | 2–6, 4–6 | ||
Loss | 10–9 | Great Britain F1, Glasgow | Futures | Hard | Chris Eaton | 4–6, 4–6 | ||
Loss | 10–10 | Great Britain F8, Manchester | Futures | Grass | James Ward | 2–6, 6–7(1–7) | ||
Win | 11–10 | Great Britain F12, London | Futures | Hard | Edward Corrie | 6–1, 4–6, 6–1 | ||
Win | 12–10 | Mexico F3, Córdoba | Futures | Hard | Adam El Mihdawy | 6–3, 6–2 |
|
|
Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Win | 1–0 | Spain F30, Orense | Futures | Hard | Adrian Cruciat | Guillem Burniol Israel Matos Gil | 6–4, 6–4 | ||
Win | 2–0 | Great Britain F5, Jersey | Futures | Hard | Aisam Qureshi | Ross Hutchins Josh Goodall | 6–2, 7–6(7–2) | ||
Win | 3–0 | Great Britain F6, Sunderland | Futures | Hard | Aisam Qureshi | Sam Groth Andrew Coelho | 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 | ||
Loss | 3–1 | Knoxville, United States | Challenger | Hard | Brendan Evans | Sam Warburg Harel Levy | 6–3, 2–6, [6–10] | ||
Win | 4–1 | Great Britain F1, Glasgow | Futures | Hard | Chris Eaton | Romain Jouan Pierrick Ysern | 7–5, 6–0 | ||
Loss | 4–2 | Great Britain F11, Ottershaw | Futures | Hard | Chris Eaton | Tim Bradshaw Dominic Inglot | 6–4, 6–7(2–7), [3–10] | ||
Loss | 4–3 | Australia F5, Darwin | Futures | Hard | Dane Propoggia | Matthew Ebden Sadik Kadir | 4–6, 5–7 | ||
Win | 5–3 | Savannah, United States | Challenger | Clay | James Ward | Bobby Reynolds Fritz Wolmarans | 6–3, 6–4 | ||
Loss | 5–4 | Busan, South Korea | Challenger | Hard | Vasek Pospisil | Danai Udomchoke Im Kyu-Tae | 4–6, 4–6 |