Brian Teacher

Brian Teacher

Country (sports)	United States
Residence	San Diego, California
Height	6'3 (190 cm)
Turned pro	-
Plays	Right-handed
Prize money	US$1,426,514
Singles
Career record	335–235
Career titles	8
Highest ranking	7 (October 19, 1981)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	W (1980)
French Open	3R (1978)
Wimbledon	QF (1982)
US Open	4R (1978, 1980)
Doubles
Career record	220–172
Career titles	16
Highest ranking	28 (January 2, 1984)
Last updated on: January 22, 2007.

Brian David Teacher (born December 23, 1954) is a former professional American male tennis player. He reached World No. 7 in 1981.

Tennis career

Teacher learned both tennis and swimming at the age of five, but concentrated solely on tennis after ear and throat troubles caused him to give up swimming.

In 1972, he won the boys' 18 singles and doubles titles.

The following year, Teacher enrolled at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) where he was an All-American from 1973-1976, won the Pacific 8 singles and doubles championship in 1974, and was a member of UCLA's NCAA championship teams in 1975-76.

In 1976, just shy of graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics, Teacher turned professional.

In 1977, he won his first singles title and reached the finals in both the South Australian and New South Wales Opens.

In 1978 at the Seiko World Super Tennis Tournament in Tokyo, Teacher upset UCLA graduates Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe before losing in the final to Bjorn Borg 6–3, 6–4.

Teacher is best remembered for his singles championship at the Australian Open in 1980. He won the final over Kim Warwick of Australia, becoming the first Jewish male to win a singles title in a Grand Slam event since the 1950s.

He won eight career singles titles and 16 in doubles.

Style of play

He was a terrific player on faster surfaces, where he could use a serve-and-volley attack.

Intercollegiate hall of fame

Teacher was inducted in 2001 into the ITA Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.[1]

Grand Slam singles final

Win (1)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1980	Australian Open	Kim Warwick	7–5, 7–6, 6–2

Singles finals (23)

Wins (8)

Legend Grand Slam tournaments (1) Tennis Masters Cup (0) Grand Prix (7)

Titles by Surface Hard (2) Grass (2) Clay (0) Carpet (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1977	Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.	Carpet	Bill Scanlon	6–3, 6–3
2.	1978	Taipei, Taiwan	Carpet	Tom Gorman	6–3, 6–3, 6–3
3.	1979	Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.	Grass	Stan Smith	1–6, 6–3, 6–4
4.	1980	Australian Open, Melbourne	Grass	Kim Warwick	7–5, 7–6, 6–2
5.	1981	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	John Austin	6–3, 6–2
6.	1982	Dortmund WCT, Germany	Carpet	Wojtek Fibak	6–7, 6–4, 6–4, 2–6, 6–4
7.	1983	Munich WCT, Germany	Carpet	Mark Dickson	1–6, 6–4, 6–2, 6–3
8.	1983	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Bill Scanlon	7–6, 6–4

Runner-ups (15)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1976	Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.	Grass	Vijay Amritraj	6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 6–1
2.	1977	Adelaide, Australia	Grass	Victor Amaya	6–1, 6–4
3.	1977	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Roscoe Tanner	6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 6–7, 6–4
4.	1978	Tokyo Indoor, Japan	Carpet	Björn Borg	6–3, 6–4
5.	1980	Los Angeles	Hard	Gene Mayer	6–3, 6–2
6.	1980	Hong Kong	Hard	Ivan Lendl	5–7, 7–6, 6–3
7.	1980	Taipei, Taiwan	Carpet	Ivan Lendl	6–7, 6–3, 6–3, 7–6
8.	1980	Bangkok, Thailand	Carpet	Vijay Amritraj	6–3, 7–5
9.	1980	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Fritz Buehning	6–3, 6–7, 7–6
10.	1981	San Francisco	Carpet	Eliot Teltscher	6–3, 7–6
11.	1982	Maui, Hawaii, U.S.	Hard	John Fitzgerald	6–2, 6–3
12.	1983	Dallas, Texas, U.S.	Hard	Andrés Gómez	6–7, 6–1, 6–1
13.	1984	Bristol, United Kingdom	Grass	Johan Kriek	6–7, 7–6, 6–4
14.	1984	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Joakim Nyström	6–4, 6–2
15.	1985	Livingston, U.S.	Hard	Brad Gilbert	7–6, 6–4

Men's doubles finals (23)

Wins (16)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1976	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	William Brown	Fred McNair Sherwood Stewart	6–3, 6–4
2.	1978	Manila, Philippines	Clay	Sherwood Stewart	Ross Case Chris Kachel	6–3, 7–6
3.	1980	Washington-2, Washington, D.C.	Carpet	Ferdi Taygan	Kevin Curren Steve Denton	4–6, 6–3, 7–6
4.	1980	Los Angeles	Hard	Butch Walts	Anand Amritraj John Austin	6–2, 6–4
5.	1980	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Bruce Manson	Heinz Günthardt Sandy Mayer	6–3, 3–6, 6–4
6.	1980	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Bruce Manson	Wojtek Fibak Ivan Lendl	6–7, 7–5, 6–4
7.	1980	Taipei, Taiwan	Carpet	Bruce Manson	John Austin Ferdi Taygan	6–4, 6–0
8.	1980	Bangkok, Thailand	Carpet	Ferdi Taygan	Tom Okker Dick Stockton	7–6, 7–6
9.	1981	La Quinta, California, U.S.	Hard	Bruce Manson	Terry Moor Eliot Teltscher	7–6, 6–2
10.	1981	Frankfurt, Germany	Carpet	Butch Walts	Vitas Gerulaitis John McEnroe	7–5, 6–7, 7–5
11.	1981	Queen's Club Championships, London	Grass	Pat Du Pré	Kevin Curren Steve Denton	3–6, 7–6, 11–9
12.	1981	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Bruce Manson	Anand Amritraj Vijay Amritraj	6–1, 6–1
13.	1982	Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany	Clay	Mark Edmondson	Andreas Maurer Wolfgang Popp	6–3, 6–1
14.	1982	San Francisco	Carpet	Fritz Buehning	Marty Davis Chris Dunk	6–7, 6–2, 7–5
15.	1983	Columbus, Ohio, U.S.	Hard	Scott Davis	Anand Amritraj John Fitzgerald	6–1, 4–6, 7–6
16.	1983	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	Steve Meister	Andrés Gómez Sherwood Stewart	6–7, 7–6, 6–2

Runner-ups (7)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1978	Miami, Florida, U.S.	Clay	Bob Carmichael	Tom Gullikson Gene Mayer	7–6, 6–3
2.	1979	Washington Indoor, U.S.	Carpet	Bob Carmichael	Robert Lutz Stan Smith	6–4, 7–5, 3–6, 7–6
3.	1979	Stuttgart Indoor, Germany	Hard (i)	Bob Carmichael	Wojtek Fibak Tom Okker	6–3, 5–7, 7–6
4.	1980	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Carpet	Bill Scanlon	Vijay Amritraj Stan Smith	6–4, 6–3
5.	1980	Hong Kong	Hard	Bruce Manson	Peter Fleming Ferdi Taygan	7–5, 6–2
6.	1982	Los Angeles	Hard	Bruce Manson	Sherwood Stewart Ferdi Taygan	6–1, 6–7, 6–3
7.	1983	Richmond, Virginia, U.S.	Carpet	Fritz Buehning	Pavel Slozil Tomáš Šmíd	6–2, 6–4

Miscellaneous

• After he retired he completed his undergraduate work, and went on to business school at the University of Southern California.

• He has two daughters with wife Lori: Noel and Kelly.

• The book Superlearning 2000 (update on the 1979 original version) attributes the rise in Teacher's career during 1980 to his experiments with suggestive accelerated learning methods, which were introduced to him by Powell Blankenship, a tennis teacher in San Diego.

Links

• Official ATP Profile
• Jews in Sports bio