Brian Battistone (born August 10, 1979) is an American professional tennis player. He was born in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

and currently resides in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. Throughout his career, Battistone has reach a career high ranking of 853 in singles and 88 in doubles. Battistone is one of only three people (the others being his brother Dann Battistone and Tennyson Whiting) to use a two-handled tennis racket.

Personal life

Battistone was born on August 10, 1979, in Santa Barbara, California, United States. His father, Mark, serves as Battistone's current head coach along with Lionel Burt. Besides his mother tongue English he also speaks

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

after his years as a missionary for the

LDS church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. His brother, Dann Battistone, also plays tennis and has played doubles many times with Brian. Sometime during his childhood, Battistone moved from Santa Barbara to

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been ...

Career

It is unknown when exactly Battistone took up tennis. It is known that he and his brother played for a championship tennis team at

Palm Desert High School Palm Desert High School is a secondary school located in Palm Desert, California. The school is a part of the Desert Sands Unified School District. Academics Palm Desert offers numerous Advanced Placement and Honors courses, amongst CP class ...

in 1995. Battistone did not have a junior career as he decided to instead play higher level men's tournaments as a teenager. He played his first match in 1997 and took various breaks between 1997 and 2006 before officially turning pro in 2007 at the age of 27.

Singles

Battistone played his first singles match in 1997 and got his first ATP ranking of 1346 in 2001. He turned pro in 2007. His ranking started to improve. He achieved a singles high ranking of 853 on November 16, 2009. He received a wildcard into the qualifying draw of the Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells in 2010, which remains his only ATP qualifying draw appearance. He took the first set against 24th seed Jesse Witten, but lost the next two sets to lose the match. His success started to die down. He lost his singles rankings, and he began to play ITF qualifying matches by the time 2012 came.

Doubles

Battistone played his first doubles match in 1998, and he got his first ATP ranking of 1366 in 1999. His career took a big leap after turning pro in 2007. Battistone won 4 ATP Challenger titles and 2 ITF Futures titles, between 2007 and 2015. He won his first Futures tournament in 2007 with his brother. He won his first Challenger title in 2009, also with his brother. He made his ATP main draw debut at the 2008 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, with his brother Dann. His doubles success earned him a wildcard spot into the 2010 US Open, with

Ryler DeHeart Ryler DeHeart (born March 1, 1984 in Kauai, Hawaii) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached his singles career high ranking of 174 on May 3, 2010. He was coached by Brad Dancer. DeHeart resides in Champaign, Illinois. Profes ...

. He won his first ATP Men's Doubles match, in October of 2010, with Andreas Siljeström as his partner, in the

2010 Stockholm Open 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

. This victory helped to push him to his highest doubles ranking of 88 on November 1, 2010. He returned to the US Open in 2012 in the mixed doubles category, with

Nicole Melichar Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; cz, Nicole Melicharová, ) is an American tennis player who specializes in doubles. She has won twelve doubles titles on the WTA Tour and one WTA 125 doubles title as well as two singles and seven double ...

, as his partner. He won his first doubles title in five years, in 2015, at an ITF event, with

Boris Nicola Bakalov Boris Nicola Bakalov ( bg, Борис Никола Бакалов, born 23 November 1980) is a former professional Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeas ...

. Battistone has been most notable for having the following partners: his brother Dann, Ryler Deheart, Andreas Silijeström,

Nicholas Monroe Benjamin Nicholas Monroe (born April 12, 1982) is an American professional tennis player. He has won 4 ATP World Tour doubles titles and 13 ATP Challenger Tour titles in his career. College career Monroe had a highly successful college caree ...

, and Treat Huey.

Playing style

Battistone is known for having an unorthodox style of play. He uses a volleyball-style jump serve. He jumps into the court, he switches the racket hand in mid-air, and he hits the ball before landing on the tennis court. He is a serve-and-volley player, which means that he volleys the ball as soon as it is returned to him after his serve. Battistone has a tendency to switch his backhand shot from a two-handed grip to a left-handed forehand grip.

Two-handled racket

Brian and his brother Dann are famous for using a two-handled racquet, that was designed by his coach Lionel Burt, of the Natural Tennis racquet factory. Brian and Dann have tried to advertise Burt's racket design. They have tried to make it more widespread, but the design did not attract much attention.

Titles and finals

Doubles: 17 (6–11)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Battistone, Brian 1979 births American male tennis players Living people People from the Las Vegas Valley Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California Tennis people from California Tennis people from Nevada