Jeff Salzenstein

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Jeff Salzenstein
Country (sports) United States
ResidenceOrlando, Florida, United States
Born (1973-10-14) 14 October 1973 (age 50)
Peoria, Illinois, United States
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro1996
Retired2007
PlaysLeft-handed (two-handed backhand)
CollegeStanford
Prize money$616,017
Singles
Career record16–41 (28.1%)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 100 (7 June 2004)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open1R (2004)
French Open1R (2004)
Wimbledon1R (1997, 2004)
US Open2R (1997)
Doubles
Career record18–27 (40.0%)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 68 (3 November 1997)
Grand Slam doubles results
French Open3R (1997)
Wimbledon1R (1997)
US Open2R (1997)
Last updated on: 27 December 2022.

Jeff "Salzy" Salzenstein (born October 14, 1973) is an American left-handed former professional tennis player.[1] In 1986 he won the US Boys' 12 National Hard Court Tennis Singles Championship and Doubles Championship. His highest singles ranking was world No. 100 in June 2004, when he became the oldest American to break into the top 100 in men's tennis, at 30 years of age.[2] His career-high in doubles was No. 68 in November 1997.[2]

Early life[edit]

Salzenstein is Jewish, was born in Peoria, Illinois, and lived in Englewood, Colorado.[3][4][5] His father was a tennis coach, and his parents divorced when he was five years old.[6]

Tennis career[edit]

Early career[edit]

As a sixth-grader, in addition to playing tennis the 12-year-old, five-foot tall, 85 pound Salzenstein was an A student, the president of his sixth-grade class, the editor of its newspaper, and a basketball and soccer player.[3] In 1986 he won the US Boys' 12 National Hard Court Tennis Singles Championship (defeating Brian Dunn and Vince Spadea along the way) and Doubles Championship.[7][8][3] He was the 13th double winner in the tournament’s 25-year history, and was also awarded the tournament’s sportsmanship award.[3] That year he also made it to the final, where he lost in a final set tiebreaker, in the 12-and-under National Clay Courts Championship.[9]

In 1990 Salzenstein reached the quarter-finals at the Under-16 Championships, and in 1992 he was ranked second in Under-18 boys in the United States.

He attended Cherry Creek High School (class of 1992) in Greenwood Village, Colorado.[10] As a freshman, Salzenstein played for the No. 1 singles Colorado state title, and as a sophomore he won the title.[11][12] As a junior, he was 5' 7" tall and weighed 120 pounds, was the team's # 1 singles player, and was runner-up in the state singles championship.[10][11] He won the singles state title as a senior, and was captain of the school tennis team.[13][10] In his high school career, his record was 74-6.[10]

College[edit]

Salzenstein attended Stanford University on a half-scholarship, earned an economics degree, played #1 singles his sophomore, junior, and senior years for the Stanford Cardinal, and was named an All-American in tennis two years in a row.[6][14] He reached the semifinals at the NCAA singles championships in 1995.[15] He won back-to-back team national titles with the team when he was its captain in 1995 and 1996.[13] He was PAC-10 All-Academic in 1994 (second team), and 1995 and 1996 (first team).[16] He was named the Senior Athlete of the Year at Stanford in 1996.[17]

Pro career[edit]

His first USTA win was in 1996, winning doubles titles with partner Justin Gimelstob. In 1996, Salzenstein won 23 matches in a row.[17]

At the 1997 US Open, he beat Mikael Tillström in the first round in four sets. At the Roland Garros doubles event, Salzenstein and partner Petr Korda made the round of 16.[15] That year he earned Rookie of the Year honors from Tennis Week.[17]

Salzenstein was injured for much of 1998 and 1999, and had surgeries before he was 24 years old on his knee and ankle.[6][18] He finished his degree at Stanford at this time.[15]

In May 2000, Salzenstein won the Tallahassee Challenger, beating Kevin Kim 6–3, 6–2. In November, he won the Urbana, Illinois Challenger, defeating Antony Dupuis 7–6 (4), 6–4 in the final. In 2001, he won the $50,000 Seascape Challenger at Aptos, California.[19][4] He won at Aptos in 2003 and at León, Mexico in 2004.[15]

Salzenstein played at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon in 2004, and at the International Series Tournament at Delray Beach, where he made it to the semifinals.[15] In November 2004, he upset world No. 24 Jiří Novák) in straight sets in Luxembourg. In 2004 he became the oldest American to break into the top 100 in men's tennis, when Salzenstein did it at 30 years of age.[20]

At 33 years of age, Salzenstein stopped competing in tennis, and moved into coaching.[6]

Honors[edit]

In 2001, Salzenstein was inducted into the Colorado Tennis Hall Of Fame.[17]

Post-playing career[edit]

Salzenstein is a certified nutritional therapist.[21] He is also the founder of JS Performance Tennis School in Denver, Colorado, the CEO of Tennis Evolution, and runs a YouTube tennis coaching channel that goes by the same name.[22][21] Among others, he has coached Vasilisa Bardina.[13][21][20]

ATP career finals[edit]

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)[edit]

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (0–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (0–1)
Indoors (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Apr 1997 Orlando, United States World Series Clay United States Alex O'Brien The Bahamas Mark Merklein
United States Vince Spadea 		4–6, 6–4, 4–6

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals[edit]

Singles: 8 (5–3)[edit]

Legend
ATP Challenger (5–3)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (5–2)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–1)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Nov 1996 Neumünster, Germany Challenger Carpet Germany Arne Thoms 4–6, 4–6
Win 1–1 Jun 2000 Tallahassee, United States Challenger Hard United States Kevin Kim 6–3, 6–2
Win 2–1 Dec 2000 Urbana, United States Challenger Hard France Antony Dupuis 7–6(7–4), 6–4
Win 3–1 Jul 2001 Aptos, United States Challenger Hard United States Jeff Morrison 7–6(7–3), 6–4
Loss 3–2 Jun 2003 Atlantic City, United States Challenger Hard Sweden Bjorn Rehnquist 4–6, 4–6
Win 4–2 Jul 2003 Aptos, United States Challenger Hard Russia Dmitry Tursunov 5–7, 7–5, 6–4
Loss 4–3 Aug 2003 Denver, United States Challenger Hard United Kingdom Arvind Parmar 4–6, 4–6
Win 5–3 Apr 2004 León, Mexico Challenger Hard South Africa Wesley Moodie 6–3, 3–6, 7–5

Doubles: 9 (6–3)[edit]

Legend
ATP Challenger (6–3)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (5–3)
Clay (1–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Aug 1996 Binghamton, United States Challenger Hard United States Justin Gimelstob United States David DiLucia
United States Kenny Thorne 		6–2, 6–4
Loss 1–1 Dec 1996 Amarillo, United States Challenger Hard United States Justin Gimelstob Belarus Max Mirnyi
Zimbabwe Kevin Ullyett 		3–6, 4–6
Win 2–1 Dec 1996 Daytona Beach, United States Challenger Hard United States Justin Gimelstob United States Chad Clark
The Bahamas Mark Merklein 		7–6, 3–6, 7–5
Win 3–1 May 1997 Dresden, Germany Challenger Clay The Bahamas Mark Merklein Philippines Cecil Mamiit
Venezuela Jimy Szymanski 		7–6, 6–1
Win 4–1 Aug 1997 Binghamton, United States Challenger Hard United States Brian MacPhie Portugal Emanuel Couto
Egypt Tamer El Sawy 		7–5, 6–7, 6–3
Win 5–1 Oct 1997 San Antonio, United States Challenger Hard United States Doug Flach United States Chad Clark
United States Brandon Hawk 		4–6, 6–2, 6–1
Loss 5–2 Nov 1999 Puebla, Mexico Challenger Hard United States Jim Thomas Mexico Oscar Ortiz
Mexico Marco Osorio 		1–6, 3–6
Win 6–2 Mar 2002 Salinas, Ecuador Challenger Hard United States Brandon Coupe Argentina Diego Veronelli
Argentina Martín Rodríguez 		6–7(3–7), 6–4, 7–6(7–3)
Loss 6–3 Sep 2003 Seoul, South Korea Challenger Hard United States Alex Bogomolov Jr. United States Alex Kim
South Korea Lee Hyung-taik 		6–1, 1–6, 4–6

Performance timeline[edit]

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# P# DNQ A Z# PO G S B NMS NTI P NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles[edit]

Tournament 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A Q1 A A A Q2 Q1 Q3 1R Q2 Q2 A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
French Open A A Q1 A A A A Q3 Q2 1R Q1 A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Wimbledon A A 1R A A Q1 Q3 Q1 Q2 1R A A A 0 / 2 0–2 0%
US Open Q2 Q3 2R A A Q1 Q1 Q1 1R Q2 A A A 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 1–2 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–3 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 6 1–6 14%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A A Q2 A A A A A 1R 1R 1R Q1 0 / 3 0–3 0%
Miami Q3 Q2 2R 1R Q2 A Q1 Q1 A 1R Q2 A A 0 /3 1–3 25%
Canada A A A A A A Q1 Q1 A Q1 A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Cincinnati A A A A A Q2 Q1 A Q2 Q2 A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 1–1 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–2 0–1 0–1 0–0 0 / 6 1–6 14%


See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "10sBalls Shares A Report From The Tennis Congress By Craig Cignarelli". October 21, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Jeff Salzenstein | Overview | Tennis". ATP Tour.
  3. ^ a b c d "USTA Boys' 12 Tournament : Salzenstein Wins Singles and Doubles". Los Angeles Times. August 11, 1986.
  4. ^ a b Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by day in Jewish sports history
  5. ^ "Jeff Salzenstein | Bio | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour.
  6. ^ a b c d Botts, Jason (June 1, 2017). "Retired Pro Tennis Player Jeff Salzenstein".
  7. ^ Vince Spadea, Dan Markowitz (2006). Break Point; THE SECRET DIARY OF A PRO TENNIS PLAYER
  8. ^ "USTA National Junior Championships - Boys". usta.com.
  9. ^ ROBERT LOHRER. "NEW NATIONAL CHAMPION DOESN'T HAVE FEET OF CLAY". Sun-Sentinel.
  10. ^ a b c d "49 Years of Excellence; Boys Tennis Team; Cherry Creek High School; THE RED TRAIN EXPRESS" (PDF).
  11. ^ a b Gegner, John. "A Dynasty in Denver". Sports Illustrated Vault.
  12. ^ "Denver CO Preps Sports". The Denver Post.
  13. ^ a b c Sarah Kuta (July 1, 2011). "Former tennis pro Salzenstein assumes instructing role".
  14. ^ Richtel, Matt (October 16, 2003). "A Coach's Digital Tools Take Center Court" – via NYTimes.com.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Salzenstein, Jeff". Jews In Sports. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  16. ^ "All-Academic Honors". Stanford University Athletics.
  17. ^ a b c d "Inductees | Colorado District". www.colorado.usta.com.
  18. ^ Peters, Keith (25 July 2001). "Salzenstein enjoying his current elevator ride in pro tennis". Palo Alto Weekly. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  19. ^ Stanford, Volume 30, 2002.
  20. ^ a b Becker, Ricky (February 14, 2013). "Mythbusters: Do College Results Mean Anything to Professional Tennis Players?". Long Island Tennis Magazine.
  21. ^ a b c "Starwood Hotels renews sponsorship deal with US Open through 2014: This Week in Tennis Business with Justin Cohen".
  22. ^ TENNIS SERVE: POWERFUL & EASY Serve in 3-Steps, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2019-08-20

External links[edit]

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