Todd Witsken (November 4, 1963 – May 25, 1998) was an American

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 ...

. He specialized in playing doubles and began his professional career in 1985. He was a three-time all-American at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. His career-high rankings were world No. 43 in singles and No. 4 in doubles. Witsken retired just before the 1993 US Open and died from

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

on May 25, 1998, at the age of 34. His biggest singles win was at the 1986 US Open, where he beat five-time US Open champion,

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...

, 6–2, 6–4, 7–5, in their third-round match. It was the first time since 1973 that Connors had failed to reach the US Open semifinals. In 1989, Witsken lost to Greg Holmes 7–5, 4–6, 6–7⁽⁵⁾, 6–4, 12–14, in the second round at Wimbledon, a match that was the longest men's singles match at Wimbledon, timed at 5 hours 28 minutes, until the record-breaking Isner-Mahut match in 2010. He was one of eight children born to Marilyn and Henry Witsken. His hometown was

Carmel, Indiana Carmel is a suburban city in Indiana immediately north of Indianapolis. With a population of 100,777, the city spans across Clay Township in Hamilton County, Indiana, and is bordered by the White River to the east; the Hamilton-Boone county ...

, where he left behind four children. His nephew is Ben Shelton.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 21 (12 wins, 9 losses)

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

References

External links

* * 1963 births 1998 deaths American male tennis players Carmel High School (Indiana) alumni Deaths from brain cancer in the United States People from Zionsville, Indiana Tennis players from Indianapolis USC Trojans men's tennis players People from Carmel, Indiana {{US-tennis-bio-stub