David Sherwood is a British tennis coach and retired tennis player. In his only live Davis Cup match, Sherwood played doubles with

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray ...

beating the Israeli World No 4 doubles team of

Jonathan Erlich Jonathan Dario "Yoni" Erlich ( he, יונתן דאריו "יוני" ארליך, born 5 April 1977) is an Israeli former professional tennis player. During his career, he was mainly a doubles specialist, having won the men's doubles title at the ...

and

Andy Ram Andreas "Andy" Ram ( he, אנדי רם; born April 10, 1980) is a retired Israeli professional tennis player. He was primarily a doubles player, and competed in three Olympics. He is the first Israeli tennis player to win a senior Grand Slam ...

Early and personal life

Sherwood is the son of Sheila Sherwood who won a silver medal in the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a ...

at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport ev ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

and John Sherwood, who won a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles, and at the same Olympics.

Career

In 1997 he won the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Ope ...

boys' doubles title with fellow Brit James Trotman. They defeated South African pairing Jaco van der Westhuizen and Wesley Whitehouse 7-6, 6-3 in the final. Sherwood, won futures tournaments in Wrexham and Edinburgh, and also reached the semi-final in Mulhouse and the final in Plaisir, France. By 2003, Sherwood had acquired a reputation for a lackadaisical attitude, a party loving life style and negatively influencing younger players. While at a Jamaica Futures event in November 2003, Sherwood delivered an on-court barrage at his Lawn Tennis Association coach. Back in the UK, he missed a training session claiming he was ill, despite living five minutes away from the LTA's headquarters with an on-site doctor. Next day, the LTA's team manager

Mark Petchey Mark Rodney James Petchey (born 1 August 1970) is a former tennis player from England, who turned professional in 1988. He now works as a tennis commentator and analyst for Amazon Prime, ITV, the BBC, the Tennis Channel and others. Personal ...

expelled him from the LTA. With the support of his parents, Sherwood put his tennis career back on track. By November 2004, Mark Petchey was funding his coaching throughout the winter. In March 2005 Sherwood played doubles with

in their joint Davis Cup debuts for the Europe/Africa Zone Group I match against Israel. Surprisingly, Sherwood/Murray beat the World No 4 doubles team of

and

, to help Great Britain win 3-2. He entered the singles at Wimbledon in 2005, and defeated

Ricardo Mello Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delra ...

in the first round before losing to Feliciano López. In September 2005, at the World Group Play-off against Switzerland, Sherwood was beaten in the first singles dead rubber, with Great Britain losing 5-0. Since retiring from playing in 2008, Sherwood became a nationally recognised Lawn Tennis Association coach, coaching top performance players in the country.

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 9 (3–6)

Doubles: 31 (16–15)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

References

External links

* * * English male tennis players Sportspeople from Sheffield British male tennis players Living people 1980 births Tennis people from South Yorkshire Australian Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles {{England-tennis-bio-stub