Jeff Tarango

Jeff Tarango

Full name	Jeffrey Gail Tarango
Country	United States
Residence	Manhattan Beach, California
Born	November 20, 1968 (1968-11-20) Manhattan Beach, California
Turned pro	1989
Plays	Left handed
Singles
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	42 (1992)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3R (1997, 1999)
French Open	3R (1993, 1996)
Wimbledon	3R (1995)
US Open	3R (1989, 1996, 1997)
Doubles
Career titles	14
Highest ranking	10 (1999)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	3R (1996, 2001, 2002)
French Open	F (1999)
Wimbledon	3R (1997, 2001)
US Open	3R (1996, 1997, 2000)

Jeffrey Gail ("Jeff") Tarango (born 20 November 1968, Manhattan Beach, California) is a retired American professional tennis player. He was a top ten doubles player and a French Open doubles runner up, but is mostly remembered for defaulting a match at Wimbledon and his wife assaulting the umpire once Tarango had left the court.

Career summary

Tarango turned professional in 1989, after completing his junior year at Stanford University where he won two NCAA team titles. During his career, he won 2 top-level professional singles titles and 14 doubles titles. His career-high world rankings were World No. 42 in singles and No. 10 in doubles. He was runner-up in the men's doubles at the 1999 French Open (partnering Goran Ivanišević).

The most famous incident involving Tarango came at Wimbledon in 1995. During a third round match in which he was trailing against Alexander Mronz, Tarango became infuriated with umpire Bruno Rebeuh, who had ruled against Tarango several times, and refused to continue. During the match, when preparing to serve, the crowd heckled Tarango and he responded "shut up". Rebeuh immediately gave a code violation to Tarango for this claiming "shut up" was an audible obscenity. Tarango protested this and called for the tournament referee calling for Rebeuh to be removed. No relief was given to Tarango and he was instructed to continue to play. He then accused Rebeuh of being "One of the most corrupt officials in the game" - to this Rebeuh gave Tarango another code violation, this time for unsportsmanlike conduct. Tarango took umbrage, packed up his rackets and stormed off the court. To add to the controversy, Tarango's wife then slapped Rebeuh twice in the face.

Tarango was originally fined US$63,000 for the incident, and banned for the following 2 years. The ITF dropped all fines for Tarango and dropped suspension from 2 years to one event, the 1996 Wimbledon.

As a result of an incident involving Rebeuh in 1989, the former professional player Jimmy Arias signed an affidavit attesting to his opinion that Rebeuh was not always "completely unbiased".

Tarango retired from the main tour in 2003 and now devotes his time to coaching, broadcasting for BBC, ESPN, Tennis Channel, Fox Sports and DirecTV. He also hosts a Charity Event in La Jolla for the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. Tarango is currently the Vice Chair for the AAC on the USOC (Governance Committee). He has been a member of the Davis Cup Committee for 6 years within the USTA. He still makes occasional appearances at professional events, including the 2008 USA F21 Futures event in Milwaukee. He also commentates for BBC Radio and in particular for their extended coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.

In his 2009 autobiography, "Open", Andre Agassi claims that Tarango cheated in a juniors tournament to hand the eight-year-old Agassi his first ever competitive loss.

Record in detail

Doubles titles (14)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	1 May 1995	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Sébastien Lareau	Joshua Eagle Andrew Florent	6–3, 6–2
2.	24 July 1995	Washington D.C., United States	Hard	Olivier Delaître	Petr Korda Cyril Suk	4–6, 6–2, 6–2
3.	18 September 1995	Bucharest, Romania	Clay	Mark Keil	Cyril Suk Daniel Vacek	6–4, 7–6
4.	15 July 1996	Bastad, Sweden	Clay	David Ekerot	Joshua Eagle Peter Nyborg	6–4, 3–6, 6–4
5.	16 September 1996	Bucharest, Romania	Clay	David Ekerot	David Adams Menno Oosting	7–6, 7–6
6.	16 November 1998	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Jared Palmer	Yevgeny Kafelnikov Daniel Vacek	6–4, 6–7, 6–2
7.	18 January 1999	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Daniel Vacek	Jiří Novák David Rikl	7–5, 7–5
8.	15 February 1999	St. Petersburg, Russia	Carpet	Daniel Vacek	Menno Oosting Andrei Pavel	3–6, 6–3, 7–5
9.	19 April 1999	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Daniel Vacek	Wayne Black Brian MacPhie	4–3, RET.
10.	12 July 1999	Bastad, Sweden	Clay	David Adams	Nicklas Kulti Mikael Tillström	7–6(6), 6–4
11.	20 September 1999	Bournemouth, England	Clay	David Adams	Michael Kohlmann Nicklas Kulti	6–3, 6–7(5), 7–6(5)
12.	4 October 1999	Toulouse, France	Hard	Olivier Delaître	David Adams John-Laffnie de Jager	6–3, 7–6(2), 6–4
13.	20 November 2000	Brighton, England	Hard	Michael Hill	Paul Goldstein Jim Thomas	6–3, 7–5
14.	16 April 2001	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Michael Hill	Pablo Albano David Macpherson	7–6(2), 6–3

Doubles finalist (12)

• 1994 - St. Poelten
• 1997 - Hong Kong
• 1998 - Auckland, Los Angeles
• 1999 - French Open
• 2000 - Auckland, Tokyo
• 2001 - Moscow, Madrid, Gstaad, Marseille, Stuttgart