Mark Basham (born April 24, 1962) 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

Basham, a left-handed player, 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 Coas ...

. He is the grandson of Arnold Jones, who represented the United States at the

1928 International Lawn Tennis Challenge The 1928 International Lawn Tennis Challenge was the 23rd edition of what is now known as the Davis Cup. 27 teams would enter the Europe Zone, while six would enter the America Zone. Chile, Finland, and Norway made their first appearances in the c ...

, now known as the Davis Cup. A graduate of Santa Barbara High School, Basham played collegiate tennis at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

in the early 1980s. He won the United States Amateur Championships in 1981, with a win over

Rick Leach Rick Leach (born December 28, 1964) is a former professional tennis player and a coach from the United States. A doubles specialist, he won five Grand Slam doubles titles (three at the Australian Open, one at Wimbledon, and one at the US Open) ...

in the final. In both 1982 and 1984 he was a member of UCLA's NCAA Championships winning teams. He was a singles and doubles All-American in the 1984 season. In 1986 he graduated with a degree in sociology. From 1986 to 1988 he competed on the professional circuit, mostly as a doubles specialist. His singles main draw appearances on the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

tour all came in 1988, at Key Biscayne, Schenectady and Indianapolis. As a doubles player he made all of his Grand Prix appearances partnering Charles Beckman, with their best performance coming at the 1988 OTB Open in Schenectady, where they made the semi-finals. He made it to 103 in the world in doubles, with appearances at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

and US Open, as well as two

Challenger Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to: Entertainment Comics and manga * Challenger (character), comic book character * ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga Film and TV * ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...

titles. He has been the Director of the Santa Barbara Tennis Club since 1996.

Challenger titles

Doubles: (2)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Basham, Mark 1962 births Living people American male tennis players UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Sportspeople from Santa Barbara, California Tennis players from California