Robert Bruce Kleege (born November 1, 1954), known as Bruce Kleege, 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.

Biography

Early years and college

Kleege grew up in La Jolla, California, but was born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, West Germany. He is of

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

n descent through his father Robert, who worked at the time for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. After attending Clairemont High School, Kleege went to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

from 1972 to 1977. He had a noted varsity tennis career, which culminated in winning the No. 1 singles conference championship in 1977, a year he went undefeated and ranked sixth nationally. For his efforts he was awarded

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n honors, in both singles and doubles. Graduating in 1977 with a business management degree, Kleege made the decision to turn professional and made his first appearance on the Grand Prix circuit at a doubles tournament in Basel in October 1977.

Professional career

Most of his singles matches in 1978 came in

ATP Challenger The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

events, but he made the main draw of the end of year

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, in which he lost in the first round to

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Unite ...

, who was making his last appearance at the tournament. He started 1979 by winning the doubles title at the Lagos Open, a Grand Prix tournament, with Joel Bailey. A few weeks later he was a singles quarter-finalist in San Jose, Costa Rica. The following year his best performance was when he made the third round of the

1982 Australian Open The 1982 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 71st edition of the Australian Open and was held from Monday 29 November through Monday 13 D ...

. He suffered the disappointment of losing a five-and-a-half-hour match in the final round of qualifying for the

1983 Wimbledon Championships The 1983 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 97th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from ...

, to

Tian Viljoen Christian "Tian" Viljoen (born 10 April 1961) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he finished runner-up in doubles at three events. He achieved ...

, 11–13 in the fifth set. However he got to enter the main draw when sixth seed Gene Mayer had to withdraw. Later in the year he had an upset win over world number 14 and top seed

Steve Denton Steve Denton (born September 5, 1956) is a former professional tennis player for the ATP Tour. He is currently the head men's tennis coach at Texas A&M University. After becoming an all-American at the University of Texas in 1978, Denton spent ...

at the 1983 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport.

Later life

After leaving tennis he has been involved in real estate investment. He is married and in 2007 his wife gave birth to twin boys.

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kleege, Bruce 1954 births Living people American male tennis players BYU Cougars men's tennis players Tennis players from San Diego Sportspeople from La Jolla, San Diego Tennis players from Frankfurt American expatriates in West Germany American people of Latvian descent