Bobby Blair (born October 24, 1964) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from the United States. Blair was one of the top junior tennis players of his country. He was an All-American at the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

and participated in the

1986 Goodwill Games The 1986 Goodwill Games was the inaugural edition of the international multi-sport event created by Ted Turner, which was held from 5 – 20 July 1986. The main stadium was the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. The Game ...

. His highlight in the

Grand Prix tennis circuit The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with t ...

was a second round appearance at the 1985 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships in doubles, partnering with

Jay Berger Jay Berger (born November 26, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player. He won three singles and one doubles title on the ATP Tour and reached his career-high singles ranking of World No. 7 in April 1990. Early and personal life ...

Personal life

Blair is

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. In 2014, he authored a memoir titled ''Hiding Inside the Baseline'', about his personal journey as a gay athlete who did not

come out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

until his late forties.

References

External links

* * 1964 births Living people American male tennis players Sportspeople from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Tennis people from Florida Arkansas Razorbacks men's tennis players Competitors at the 1986 Goodwill Games Gay sportsmen American LGBT sportspeople LGBT tennis players 21st-century LGBT people {{US-tennisbio-stub