Taylor Dent in full form at the Atlanta Tennis Championship 2010
Many people may not be familiar with American tennis player Taylor Dent. He might not be at the top of the game but he is part of the top hundred in the world and is ranked at the 94th position. At the peak of his career, he was ranked at the 21st position in ATP rankings which proves that he is no push over. However, his rankings fell drastically when Dent suffered from back problems due to which he had to put his career as a tennis player on the sidelines. Dent went through a surgery on the 17th of March 2007. However, the American fully recovered and made a comeback in 2009 to reach the third round of the U.S. Open that year. This is the furthest that Dent has ever gone in any grand slam tournament. However, he has won many small scale tournaments along with four ATP singles titles.
Taylor Dent is currently participating in the ongoing Atlanta Tennis Championships, where he is seen to have been doing pretty well. The American has made his way to the second round of the tournament by upsetting his fellow American tennis player, James Blake. The match played between Dent and Blake consisted of three sets and lasted for 1 hour and 51 minutes after which Dent came out victorious with a score of 6-3, 3-6 and 6-4.
James Blake is ranked higher than Dent at the moment as the sixth highest ranked American player in the world and has had a career high ranking of world number four in 2006. Thus, beating Blake was quite an achievement for Dent as he progressed further at the Championship. Dent is now scheduled to meet the number 4 seed Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, in order to secure a spot for himself in the quarterfinals of the Atlanta Tennis Championships.
Dent has tennis blood running through his veins as he is the son of former ATP player Phil Dent. Phil Dent was a good player and a finalist at the Australian Open in 1974. Hence, a lot is expected from Dent junior. He was forced to discontinue tennis because of a back injury but now he is back and it is time for him to make it big at the Atlanta Championships.
Along with his struggle to obtain a respectable career in the professional world of tennis, Taylor Dent is known to be a family man. He is married to former American tennis player Jennifer Hopkins. Hopkins has won six International Tennis Federation (ITF) women’s circuit titles during her career, but her career was short lived and she retired when she decided to marry Taylor Dent. The couple got married on the 8th of December in 2006. They have been happily married since then and they recently had a baby boy whom they named Declan Dent.
Jennifer and Declan have been seen in the audiences supporting Dent all the way through his matches. However, the Atlanta Tennis Championships is an important event for Dent as it will decide where his game stands in the professional world. However, Dent is not letting the stress get to him and is set on playing some amazing tennis. The American has a perfect life with his wife and son and now has a chance to make it better by excelling in his tennis career.
Let’s see what this American has in store for tennis fans across the globe. He is not devoid of talent but can he make it big at the international level – stay tuned to the Atlanta Tennis Championship in order to find out.
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