Andrew Whittington (tennis)

Andrew Whittington

Country (sports)	Australia
Residence	Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
Born	(1993-08-11) 11 August 1993 (age 30) Williamstown, Victoria, Australia
Height	188 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	2010
Retired	2019
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$482,706
Singles
Career record	2–3 (Grand Slam, ATP Tour level, and Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 160 (20 March 2017)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (2017)
French Open	Q1 (2017)
Wimbledon	1R (2017)
US Open	Q1 (2016)
Doubles
Career record	11–9
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 74 (15 January 2018)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	SF (2017)
Wimbledon	1R (2014, 2017)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2019)
Last updated on: 11 August 2022.

Andrew Whittington (born 11 August 1993) is a former Australian professional tennis player.^[1] He made the world's top 200 in August 2016 following a semifinal run at the 2016 Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships. His best performance came by reaching the quarterfinals of the 2014 Australian Open with Alex Bolt. In May 2014, Whittington and Bolt won the China International Challenger, which was both players' first Challenger doubles title. He made his singles grand slam debut at the 2017 Australian Open after being given a wildcard.

Whittington turned to coaching his former doubles partner and current professional Australian tennis player Alex Bolt for the 2022 summer.^[2]

Career

2010–2012: Career beginnings

Whittington made his first singles appearance in April 2010 at the Australian F3 where he lost in round 1 to Brendan Moore. Throughout 2010/11, Whittington played mostly on the ITF circuits across Australia and the USA where he reached two quarter finals in singles. In 2011, Whittington began partnering Luke Saville in doubles. The pair won back-to-back ITF doubles titles in November. The pair were given a wild card into the 2012 Australian Open Men's doubles. They lost in round 1. In March 2012, Whittington began partnering Alex Bolt; the pair won three ITF doubles titles before June.

Whittington made his first appearance in the singles main draw of an ATP Challenger Tour at Caloundra in February 2012, losing narrowly in round 1. The remainder of 2012 was spent on the ITF Circuit across Australia and Europe and he reached two semi-finals.

2013–2014: Doubles success

In January 2013, Whittington was given a wild card into the Burnie Challenger where he reached the quarter-finals, before playing ITF tour across USA and Europe. In April, Whittington reached his first final in Greece. He lost to Dimitar Kuzmanov in straight sets. He returned to Australia in September 2013 and lost in the final of the Australia F6 to Adam Feeney, before winning his first single title the following week at the F7 against Alex Bolt. Following the win, he told Tennis Australia "I’ve never felt like that before, I still feel like I’m out there playing."^[3] In November 2013, he won his second ITF title in Cambodia against Gavin van Peperzeel.^[4]

In doubles, Whittington played with a number of partners throughout 2013 but re-joined Alex Bolt in September and commenced a successful doubles run. The pair won three consecutive ITF doubles titles in Australia and in October, the pair reached their first Challenger final at the Melbourne Challenger, losing to Thanasi Kokkinakis and Benjamin Mitchell.

In January 2014, Whittington lost in the first round of qualifying for the 2014 Brisbane International and 2014 Australian Open.

Whittington and Bolt were given wild cards into the Men's doubles. The pair defeated the number 3 seeds David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco in round two, ultimately losing at the quarter-final stage to number 8 seed Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić. The match was played on Rod Laver Arena; the pair's first appearance on centre court.^[5] The pair then made a series of semi-finals across Australia circuit before winning their first Challenger title in Anning in May. This increased Whittington's double ranking to within the world's top 100.

In June, Whittington and Bolt qualified for the 2014 Wimbledon Championships – Men's doubles, this was the pair's first appearance at Wimbledon. They lost in round 1 to Feliciano López and Jürgen Melzer. In August, Whittington lost in the final of the Chinese Taipei F1 before returning to Australia playing in ITF and Challenger circuit. By November 2014, Whittington had reached his twentieth doubles final. Whittington ended 2014 with a singles ranking of 525 and doubles ranking of 109.

2015–2016: Focus on singles and ATP World Tour debut

In January 2015, Whittington and Bolt made the final of the Onkaparinga Challenger, before reaching the third round of the Men's doubles. Throughout the rest of 2015, Whittington began focussing on singles matches on the ATP Challenger tour, with limited success.

Whittington commenced 2016 at the Happy Valley Challenger, qualifying for and reaching the semi-final. This was his best singles performance to date at this level. Whittington then played the Canberra and Launceston challenger events before winning his third and fourth ITF singles title in Mornington in March.^[6] He played in Nanjing, Anning and Bangkok challenger events before winning his fifth ITF title in Guam in May. In June, Whittington won three ITF titles in three weeks in Hong Kong. In July, Whittington was seeded for the first time in a Challenger Event at Gimcheon and reached his first final against Max Purcell. This was followed up by a semi final result at Lexington Challenger and quarter final result at Granby. Whittington increased his singles ranking inside the top 200 for the first time. In September, Whittington contended the US Open for the first time, losing in round 1 of qualifying to João Souza.^[7] Whittington then qualified for the main draw of an ATP World Tour for the first time in Shenzhen. In his ATP debut, he saved four match points against Luca Vanni, eventually winning 2–6, 7–6, 6–2 in two hours and 20 minutes.^[8] He lost in round 2 to Richard Gasquet. Whittington ended the year playing challenger events in Vietnam and China. Whittington ended 2016 with a career high singles ranking of 170 and a doubles ranking of 312.

2017: First Grand Slam appearance

On 2 January 2017, Tennis Australia awarded Whittington a wild card into the 2017 Australian Open. This was Whittington's first singles appearance in a grand slam.^[9] He defeated Adam Pavlásek in 4 sets in round 1, before losing to Ivo Karlović in round 2.^[10] Whittington partnered Marc Polmans in the 2017 Australian Open – Men's doubles, where they reached the semi-finals. Whittington played on the challenger tour before heading to USA in March, where he lost in qualifying for both Indian Wells and Miami Masters. At the French Open Whittington lost in round 1 of qualifying. In June, Whittington entered the qualifying for Wimbledon. In the first round of qualifying, he recovered from a 1–4 deficit in the final set, saving break points in the sixth game against Stéphane Robert of France, to prevail 3–6, 7–5, 6–4. In R2 of Qualifying he won from a set down again, winning 6–7, 6–4, 6–4 against Tim Smyczek before qualifying for Wimbledon for the first time 4–6, 2–6, 7–6⁽⁷⁾, 7–6⁽³⁾, 6–0. Whittington saved two match points in the third set tie-break at 4–6 after coming from 2–5 down in that same tie-break against Denis Kudla. Whittington gallantly went down to Thiago Monteiro in R1, saving match points against his serve at 4–5 in the fourth set before losing that set and the match in a tie-break.^[11]

Personal life

Whittington supports the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League.^[12] He also supports Orlando Magic in National Basketball Association.

Tour finals

Singles: 14 (8–6)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	5 May 2013	Heraklion, Greece F5	Hard	Dimitar Kuzmanov	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	2.	15 September 2013	Toowoomba, Australia F6	Hard	Adam Feeney	6–7, 6–4
Winner	3.	22 September 2013	Cairns, Australia F7	Hard	Alex Bolt	6–4, 6–4
Winner	4.	1 December 2013	Phnom Penh, Cambodia F1	Hard	Gavin van Peperzeel	7–5, 6–0
Runner-up	5.	24 August 2014	Chinese Taipei, F1	Hard	Liang Chi Huang	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	6.	16 November 2014	Wollongong, F9, Australia	Hard	Brydan Klein	3–6, 3–6
Winner	7.	20 March 2016	Mornington, F2 Australia	Hard	Gavin van Peperzeel	6–2, 6–3
Winner	8.	27 March 2016	Mornington, F4 Australia	Hard	Christopher O'Connell	7–5, 6–3
Winner	9.	29 May 2016	Tumon, F1 Guam	Hard	Shuichi Sekiguchi	7–6, 7–6
Winner	10.	12 June 2016	Hong Kong, F1	Hard	He Yecong	7–5, 6–3
Winner	11.	19 June 2016	Hong Kong, F2	Hard	Daniel Nolan	6–3, 6–3
Winner	12.	25 June 2016	Hong Kong, F3	Hard	Jumpei Yamasaki	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	13.	24 July 2016	Gimcheon, South Korea	Hard	Max Purcell	6–3, 6–7, 1–5 (ret)
Runner-up	14.	26 November 2017	Hua Hin, Thailand	Hard	John Millman	2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 33 (23–10)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	1.	20 November 2011	F12 Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	John Peers Dane Propaggia	4–6, 6–4, 10–5
Winner	2.	27 November 2011	F13 Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	Matthew Barton Michael Look	6–7, 6–4, 12–10
Winner	3.	19 February 2012	F1 Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	Brydan Klein Dane Propaggia	6–7, 6–2
Winner	4.	15 April 2012	F4, Italy	Clay	Alex Bolt	Erik Crepaldi Claudio Grassi	6–3, 7–6
Winner	5.	10 June 2012	F2, Slovenia	Clay	Alex Bolt	Miki Janković Nik Razboršek	6–4, 7–6
Winner	6.	24 June 2012	F6, Germany	Clay	Alex Bolt	Jan-Lennard Struff Mattis Wetzel	6–1, 6–0
Runner-up	7.	15 July 2012	F10, Great Britain	Grass	Andrew Harris	Lewis Burton Edward Corrie	1–6, 1–6
Runner-up	8.	15 July 2012	F5, Australia	Hard	Jay Andrijic	Adam Feeney Nick Lindahl	3–6, 5–7
Winner	9.	16 September 2012	F6 Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	Yuichi Ito Yusuke Watanuki	6–3, 6–2
Winner	10.	14 October 2012	F10 Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	Matthew Barton Michael Look	7–6, 7–6
Winner	11.	5 May 2013	F5, Greece	Hard	Joshua Milton	Filip Peliwo Hugo Di Feo	2–6, 6–3, 10–7
Winner	12.	15 September 2013	F6, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Adam Feeney Gavin van Peperzeel	6–1, 3–6, 10–7
Winner	13.	22 September 2013	F7, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Kento Takeuchi Isaac Frost	6–3, 6–2
Winner	14.	29 September 2013	F8, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Adam Feeney Gavin van Peperzeel	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	15.	21 October 2013	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Thanasi Kokkinakis Benjamin Mitchell	3–6, 2–6
Winner	16.	1 December 2013	F1, Cambodia	Hard	Gavin van Peperzeel	Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul Danai Udomchoke	6–3, 3–6, 10–7
Winner	17.	3 May 2014	Anning, China	Clay	Alex Bolt	Daniel Cox Gong Maoxin	6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	18.	20 July 2014	F1, Estonia	Clay	Micke Kontinen	Lukas Mugevicius Aleksandr Vasilenko	7–6, 3–6, 6–10
Winner	19.	27 July 2014	F2, Estonia	Clay	Markus Kerner	Vladamir Ivanov Yan Sabanin	6–3, 6–3
Runner-up	20.	16 November 2014	F9, Australia	Hard	Mitchell Krueger	Marc Polmans Steven de Waard	6–7, 6–7
Runner-up	21.	11 January 2015	Onkaparinga, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Aleksandr Nedovyesov Andrey Kuznetsov	5–7, 4–6
Winner	22.	29 March 2015	F4, Australia	Hard	Jordan Thompson	Marc Polmans Steven de Waard	6–2, 7–6
Runner-up	23.	3 May 2015	Anning, China	Clay	Karunuday Singh	Bai Yan Wu Di	3–6, 4–6
Winner	24.	11 November 2015	Canberra International, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Brydan Klein Dane Proppagia	7–6, 6–3
Winner	25.	28 February 2016	F1, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Marc Polmans José Statham	7–6, 6–3
Runner-up	26.	6 March 2016	F2, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Marc Polmans Steven de Waard	3–6, 7–6, 6–10
Winner	27.	13 March 2016	F3, Australia	Hard	Greg Jones	Gavin van Peperzeel Bradley Mousley	6–3, 6–2
Winner	28.	29 May 2016	F1, Guam	Hard	Toshihide Matsui	Sho Katayama Yutaro Matsuzaki	6–3, 3–6, 10–8
Winner	29.	5 June 2016	F6, Japan	Clay	Yasutaka Uchiyama	Katsuki Nagao Hirosama Oku	7–6, 6–4
Runner-up	30.	11 February 2017	Launceston, Australia	Hard	Alex Bolt	Bradley Mousley Luke Saville	1–6, 2–6
Runner-up	31	5 November 2017	Canberra International, Australia	Hard	Luke Saville	Alex Bolt Bradley Mousley	3–6, 2–6
Winner	32	19 November 2017	Toyota, Japan	Hard (i)	Max Purcell	Ruben Gonzales Christopher Rungkat	6–3, 2–6, [10–8]
Winner	33	15 April 2018	Taipei, Taiwan	Hard (i)	Matthew Ebden	Prajnesh Gunneswaran Saketh Myneni	6–4, 5–7, [10–6]

Doubles performance timeline

Current through 2018 Australian Open.

References

External links

• Andrew Whittington at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Andrew Whittington at the International Tennis Federation
• Andrew Whittington at Tennis Australia

This page was last edited on 14 January 2024, at 06:57