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Jeffrey Gail ("Jeff") Tarango (born 20 November 1968, Manhattan Beach, California) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.

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).

But Tarango is probably best remembered not for his achievements as a tennis player, but for his temper. He had numerous on-court temper tantrums during his career, and more than once chose to default a match in protest at umpiring decisions he disagreed with.

The most famous incident Tarango was involved in came at Wimbledon in 1995. During a third round match in which he was trailing against Alexander Mronz, Tarango became infuriated and refused to continue when umpire Bruno Rebeuh, after having ruled against him several times before (and not always correctly), called one of his serves out. Tarango shouted: "That's it, I'm not playing", and turned to Rebeuh and yelled: "You are one of the most corrupt officials in the game and you cannot get away with this." He then called for the officiating supervisor and asked for Rebeuh to be removed, and was denied, then he packed his bags and stormed off the court, defaulting the match. He shouted at the crowd to "Shut up" when they jeered at him as he was leaving. To add to the controversy, Tarango's French wife Benedicte walked up to Rebeuh and slapped him twice in the face.

Tarango was fined US$63,000 for the incident, and banned for two Grand Slam tournaments, including the following year's Wimbledon.

Tarango retired from the professional tour in 2002 and now devotes his time to coaching.

He still makes occasional appearances at professional events, including the 2008 USA F21 Futures event in Milwaukee. and he also commentates for BBC Radio and in particular for their extended coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra.

References

1. Jeff Tarango at the Association of Tennis Professionals
2. The Advertiser: Sport's most embarrassing moments- no. 15. A wag and a slapper

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	6–7, 6–3, 7–6
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, Stuttgart, Gstaad, Marseille, Stuttgart

• American tennis players
• American tennis coaches
• Olympic tennis players of the United States
• Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• People from the Greater Los Angeles Area
• 1968 births
• Living people