Martin Blackman (born March 5, 1970) 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. He later represented

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

Early life

Blackman was born in New York City, before moving to Barbados when he was 2 years old. He spent much of his childhood in Barbados, where his father Courtney Blackman served as Governor of the

Central Bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

and he attended the Harrison College School. For two summers, Blackman's family lived on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

in New York and he trained at the

Port Washington Tennis Academy The Port Washington Tennis Academy, located on Long Island, New York. It was founded in 1966 as a non-profit tennis facility. John McEnroe (under coaches Tony Palafox and Stanley Matthews) and Vitas Gerulaitis Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis (J ...

. In 1983 he returned to the United States and attended the

Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy IMG Academy is a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. IMG Academy is set across over 600 acres and features programs consisting of sport camps for youth athletes, adult camps, a board ...

on a tennis scholarship.

Junior career

Blackman beat future

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

winners

Michael Chang Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...

and

Petr Korda Petr Korda (born 23 January 1968) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He won the 1998 Australian Open and was runner-up at the 1992 French Open, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in February 1998. Korda tested positive for dopin ...

en route to the semi-finals of the 1986 US Open Juniors and was also a semi-finalist at the same event a year later, with MaliVai Washington in the doubles.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> The biggest junior title that he won was the 1986

USTA The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

National Championships (16s), in both the singles and doubles, partnering Chang. He was also a member of two NCAA Division I Championship winning teams while at Stanford.

Professional career

Blackman started on 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 ...

in 1987 when, at the age of just 16, he appeared at Indianapolis and achieved a win over world number 74

Luiz Mattar Luiz Mattar (born August 18, 1963) is a former professional tennis player from Brazil. He played on the professional tour from 1985–1995, during which time he won seven top-level singles titles and five tour doubles titles. Mattar's career-hig ...

. The right-handed Blackman made his first Grand Slam appearance in the 1990 US Open, where he lost a three set match to Martín Jaite in the first round. In 1994 he played in his two further Grand Slams, at the French Open and US Open. At Roland Garros he was unable to better his previous effort and again exited in the opening round, this time to countryman

Bryan Shelton Bryan Shelton (born December 22, 1965) is an American college tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Shelton played collegiately for Georgia Tech from 1985 to 1988, and then played professionally from 1989 to 1997. He subsequently ...

in four sets. At his home event he only entered the main draw of the doubles, with Ivan Baron. The pair lost their only match to Canadians Daniel Nestor and

Greg Rusedski Gregory Rusedski (born 6 September 1973) is a British and Canadian former tennis player. He was the British No. 1 in 1997, 1999 and 2006, and reached the ATP ranking of world No. 4 for periods from 6 October 1997 to 12 October 1997 and from 25 ...

. Also in 1994, Blackman and partner

Renzo Furlan Renzo Furlan (born 17 May 1970) is a former tennis player from Italy. Having turned professional in 1988, Furlan represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was defeated in the quarter finals by Indi ...

reached the semi-finals of the

Romanian Open The Romanian Open (also known as the BRD Năstase Țiriac Trophy) was a professional men's tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour. It was held annually in Bucharest, Romania ...

. He appeared in 10 rubbers for the Barbados Davis Cup team during his career, winning his first five matches and losing his final five. Blackman achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 158 and No. 142 in men's doubles, and eventually retired from the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...

in 1995.

Coaching career

Blackman was head men’s tennis coach at The American University from 1998 to 2004, when he became Director of the Junior Tennis Champions Center at College Park, Md. He was Senior Director of Talent Identification and Development for the

United States Tennis Association The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, ...

(USTA) from 2009 to 2011, serving on the Board of Directors from 2003–04 and 2005–06. He founded the Blackman Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida in 2011. In 2015, Blackman re-joined the USTA, succeeding

Patrick McEnroe Patrick William McEnroe (born July 1, 1966) is an American former professional tennis player, broadcaster, and former captain of the United States Davis Cup team. Born in Manhasset, New York, he is John McEnroe's youngest brother. He won one ...

as General Manager of Player Development.

Personal life

Blackman holds an Economics Degree from

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

. He lives in Boca Raton with his wife and their four children.

Challenger titles

Singles

Doubles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackman, Martin 1970 births Living people Barbadian male tennis players American male tennis players American people of Barbadian descent Stanford Cardinal men's tennis players Tennis people from New York (state)