Tim Wilkison (born November 23, 1959) is a former

professional tennis player 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 cove ...

from the United States.

Tennis career

Wilkison was the No. 1 ranked junior in the United States and played on the tour for over 25 years. The left-hander won six singles titles, ten doubles championships, and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 23 in September 1986. Wilkison is perhaps best known for his diving volleys at

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 * ...

that earned him the nickname "Dr. Dirt". In his playing career, Wilkison had victories over

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, Jim Courier,

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

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, and

Pete Sampras Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...

. His best Grand Slam singles result came at the 1986 US Open, where he reached the quarterfinals by defeating Horst Skoff, Paul McNamee, Yannick Noah and

Andrei Chesnokov Andrei Eduardovich Chesnokov (russian: Андрей Эдуардович Чесноков, links=no; born 2 February 1966) is a former professional tennis player from Russia. Career Chesnokov's highest singles ranking was World No. 9 in 1991. ...

, before losing to

Stefan Edberg Stefan Bengt Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. A major proponent of the serve-and-volley style of tennis, he won six Grand Slam singles titles and three Grand Slam men's doubles titles between 1985 ...

in straight sets. Wilkison has stated that his preferred surface is

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. His eldest son, MacLane, now plays at

UNC UNC is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to: Education * University of Northern California (disambiguation), which may refer to: ** University of Northern California (Santa Rosa), in Petaluma, California, United States ** University of Nor ...

Career finals

Singles: 15 (6 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Doubles: 24 (10 titles, 14 runner-ups)

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkison, Tim 1959 births Living people American male tennis players Sportspeople from Shelby, North Carolina Tennis people from North Carolina