Craig A. Miller (18 October 1962 – August 2021) was a 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 Australia.

Junior years

Miller was the boys' singles champion at the

1980 Australian Open The 1980 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, Australia. It was the 69th edition of the Australian Open. The women’s tournament was held 24-30th of November 1980 a ...

, beating

Wally Masur Wally Masur (; born 13 May 1963) is a tennis coach, television commentator, and former professional tennis player from Sydney, Australia. He reached the semifinals of the 1987 Australian Open – Men's singles, 1987 Australian Open and the 1993 ...

in the final. The Australian had been runner-up the previous year, to

Greg Whitecross Greg Whitecross (born 15 March 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Australia. Junior career Whitecross was the boys' singles champion at the 1979 Australian Open, defeating Craig Miller in the final. He won the doubles title as ...

. He was also a semi-finalist at the 1980 US Open and with

Pat Cash Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upon winning ...

won the doubles title at 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 ...

Professional career

In 1982, Miller was a quarter-finalist at the Sydney Outdoor tournament and lost in the doubles final of the

New South Wales Open The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...

, partnering

Cliff Letcher Cliff Letcher (born 9 February 1952) was a former professional tennis player from Australia. He played Davis Cup for Austria. Letcher enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won two doubles titles and f ...

. The following year he made the semi-finals of the Melbourne Outdoor event. Also in 1983, Miller had a win over John Lloyd in the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...

and won two doubles titles, at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, both times in an unseeded pairing. Miller and partner

Laurie Warder Laurie Warder (born 23 October 1962) is a former professional male tennis player from Australia who specialized in the doubles event. In 1987 he lost the doubles title at the Australian Open partnering compatriot Peter Doohan, but won the event ...

were semi-finalists at the

1985 Australian Open The 1985 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne in Victoria (state), Victoria in Australia. It was the 74th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 25 November through 8 ...

. In 1986, he started the season well by reaching the singles quarter-finals at

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

but wouldn't appear on tour again until September, as a result of a benign tumour that he had to have removed from his vocal cords. During this time he wasn't able to travel overseas due to restrictions on his medication and he instead spent his time coaching at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

. He played for another year and a half, before retiring after the 1988 Australian Open.

Coaching

Miller was the head development coach of

Tennis Australia Tennis Australia Limited is the governing body for Tennis in Australia. It is owned by Australian states and territories. The association organises national and international Tennis tournaments including the Australian Open, the Australian Open ...

for seven years and later ran his own tennis program, IQ Tennis.

Grand Prix career finals

Doubles: 3 (2–1)

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

Death

Miller died in August 2021 after suffering from

throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Craig A. 1962 births 2021 deaths Australian male tennis players Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Australian tennis coaches Tennis players from New South Wales People from Young, New South Wales Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles Sportsmen from New South Wales