Jesse Levine: Difference between revisions

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	==Style of play==		==Style of play==

	Among his strengths as a player are "great feet" and "a superb forehand," and he is "a hard worker and a natural leader."		Among his strengths as a player are "great feet" and "a superb forehand," and he is "a hard worker and a natural leader." He has dazzling hand-eye coordination, which allows him to take the ball exceptionally early. He has all the shots, but his return of serve is his most valuable asset, and he cleverly constructs points. He is a serviceable volleyer, and is not afraid to move forward as points play out.

	"He's got a great heart," said ], who coaches ] and has previously worked with ], ], and ]. "A lot of players today are fast and fit, but just don't seem to play every point at 100%. It's like they're almost on cruise control and then want to play hard when it gets to 4-all or 5-all," Stefanki said. "I think because Jesse's so small and he doesn't want to give any free points, he tries every point 100%. That's a big asset out there."{{quote box2 \|width=30em \| bgcolor= \|align=right \|halign=left \| quote="When he hears that he's too small, not big enough, well, he just never listened. He says, 'I'm going to play this game.'"\|source= — Nathan Levine, Jesse's father<ref>], 8/20/08, accessed 8/27/08]</ref>}}		"He's got a great heart," said ], who coaches ] and has previously worked with ], ], and ]. "A lot of players today are fast and fit, but just don't seem to play every point at 100%. It's like they're almost on cruise control and then want to play hard when it gets to 4-all or 5-all," Stefanki said. "I think because Jesse's so small and he doesn't want to give any free points, he tries every point 100%. That's a big asset out there."{{quote box2 \|width=30em \| bgcolor= \|align=right \|halign=left \| quote="When he hears that he's too small, not big enough, well, he just never listened. He says, 'I'm going to play this game.'"\|source= — Nathan Levine, Jesse's father<ref>], 8/20/08, accessed 8/27/08]</ref>}}

Revision as of 22:12, 27 August 2008

Jesse Levine
Singles
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, FL, USA
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro	2007
Plays	Left-handed
Prize money	$275,679
Career record	9 - 18
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 96 (August 25, 2008)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2nd (2008)
French Open	-
Wimbledon	2nd (2008)
US Open	1st (2007)
Doubles
Career record	2 - 7
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 233 (August 25, 2008)
Last updated on: August 25, 2008.

Jesse Levine (b. October 15, 1987) is a left-handed Canadian-born American 5' 9", 145 pound, professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high rank of # 96 on August 25, 2008.

Early life and Jewish heritage

Levine's father played tennis for Penn State. Levine, who is Jewish, was born in Nepean, Ontario, in Canada, started playing tennis at age 7, grew up in the Centrepointe neighborhood in Ottawa, and attended Hillel Academy of Ottawa. Off the court, Levine keeps kosher at home and plays with a Star of David on his chain. He can read and write Hebrew. Levine, along with Wayne Odesnik, Dudi Sela, and Shahar Pe'er is one of a number of young Jewish tennis players who are highly ranked.

He and his family moved to the US at age 13, because his younger brother suffers from ulcerative colitis and the year-round warm weather was much better for him, and Levine currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida.

Junior tennis career

In 2001 he stunned Donald Young, coming back from love-5 down in the third, in the final of the U.S. Clay Court 14 Nationals, at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center in Fort Lauderdale. Levine had won the first set, lost the second, and found himself trailing 0-5 with Young serving for match point at 40-15. They were already bringing in the table for the trophy presentation, when Levine ran off an astonishing 23 consecutive points. He won 7-5 in the third.

In 2003 he and partner Jean Yves Aubone won the USTA boys 16s doubles championship.

In 2005 he was ranked 23rd in the final USTA national junior rankings. At the 2005 USTA Junior National, where he lost in the singles semifinals and doubles finals, both 7–6 in the third set, he was judged to have the best service return.

Along with Michael Shabaz, an Assyrian-American, he won the 2005 Wimbledon boys' doubles championship. He also reached the quarterfinals of the Jr. Wimbledon boys' singles tournament that year.

Levine was selected to go to the 2005 Maccabiah Games just after winning the doubles, but decided against it as he was too tired.

He finished as the runner-up at the 2006 U.S. Junior National Championship to World No. 1 Junior, Donald Young, forfeiting in the finals due to food poisoning. He was voted as having the best backhand.

His highest International Tennis Federation World Junior Ranking was No. 14.

He attended the University of Miami Online High School, and was class of 2007. The school offers an academic program for athletes who are too busy to attend bricks-and-mortar high schools.

Levine did most of his junior training at the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, and the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida, but decided at least a year or two of college was a better choice than turning professional.

College career (2007)

Levine played for the University of Florida, enrolling in the Spring of 2007, but withdrew in August 2007 to turn pro.

Singles

He was 24-1 playing No. 1 singles for the Gators. He won all but 3 of his matches in straight sets.

In March 2007 he beat 6' 9", 236 pound John Isner, a senior at University of Georgia, then the No. 1 player in college tennis, who had been undefeated in his prior 46 matches, and who did not lose another regular-season match all season.

On May 23, 2007, Levine lost his first college match, in the quarterfinals in the NCAA Men's Singles to Washington's Alex Slovic, 6–3, 3–6, 6–4. He was ranked # 3 in singles by the NCAA in the final May 2007 standings, and was the only freshman in the top 22.

Awards. Levine was named the Southeastern Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week twice in 2007. Levine was also named 2007 SEC Freshman of the Year after going 11-0 at the No. 1 singles position in SEC play. He was also named to the 2007 men's tennis All-SEC first team.

Levine was in addition selected to the 2007 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-America Team for NCAA Division I men's tennis in both singles and doubles play; he was one of 10 players nationally to do so. Levine was also named the ITA National Rookie of the Year.

Doubles

Levine also played No. 1 doubles for the Gators with junior Greg Ouellette, and the duo was 21-3 in 2007, rising to # 3 in the final NCAA rankings. Levine and Ouellette were defeated 6–7 (4), 6–4, 6–2 by eventual winners Middle Tennessee State's Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom in the quarterfinals of the 2007 NCAA Men's Doubles championships.

Pro tournaments

2007

Levine played low-level ATP events. Levine missed the Gators' first dual match of the season, on Jan. 31, 2007, because he was at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, where he defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland (ranked # 118) 6–3, 6–2, and Kevin Kim of the US (ranked # 107) 6–2, 6–2, but lost to Benjamin Becker of Germany (ranked # 54) 3–6, 3–6.

He also received a wild card into the BMW Tennis Championship, where he lost 7–6 (4), 7–6 (3), to Gael Monfils.

In July 2007 Levine accepted an invitation from Roger Federer, ranked # 1 in the world, to join him in Dubai to practice with Federer for 10 days. Twice he and Federer had played match sets, both of which Federer won, 6–4.

"I had an unbelievable season, but in order to take tennis to the next level, I have to keep playing guys at the top level. College tennis is amazing, but I feel my game is ready."

— Levine

Levine withdrew from college prior to the 2007 U.S. Open, his first tournament as a professional.

As a wildcard at the 2007 US Open, after receiving good luck wishes from Federer, he was defeated by world # 4 Nikolay Davydenko in the first round, 6–4, 6–0, 6–1. "I was really nervous," Levine said, "but it was an amazing experience." In doubles, however, he won his first round match, pairing with Alex Kuznetsov, over Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Harel Levy of Israel, 6–1, 6–4, and their second round match upsetting 7th-seeded Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 7–6 (5), 6–4, before losing in the third round to 9th-seeded Czechs Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner, 6–4, 7–5.

In November 2007, Levine won his first pro title, winning the $75,000 Music City Challenger in Nashville, Tennessee, along the way beating world # 109 Robert Kendrick of the US, 7–5, 6–4, # 148 Sam Warburg of the US, 4–6, 6–3, 6–3, and # 170 Dusan Vemic of South Africa, 6–2, 7–5. "That first pro title was a big deal for me," Levine said. "I called my parents to tell them I'd won. I was pretty excited."

Levine then won the very next tournament in the same month, the $50,000 JSM Challenger in Champaign, Illinois, at the University of Illinois. In the second round he defeated # 197 Kevin Kim, 6–1, 7–5, and in the semifinals he again beat John Isner, now world # 118, this time 7–6 (5), 6–3. In the finals Levine topped Donald Young (world # 106), 7–6 (4), 7–6 (4), capping a week in which he did not lose a single set. He had won 8 of his last 9 matches against top-200 competition, and the one loss, which was to Young, he had subsequently avenged with the win against Young. With the win, Levine catapulted to # 192 in the world, continuing his meteoric rise.

Still later in November, he began the $50,000 Knoxville Challenger tournament in Tennessee by defeating former US Junior champion Michael McClune, 6–4, 6–1, in the first round, but three rounds later lost to Kevin Kim in the semifinals. The loss broke Levine's 16-match winning streak.

In early December, he and Andy Roddick defeated Robert Kendrick and Amer Delic 7–6, 6–4, in a fast-paced match on Har-Tru at the OMNI Healthcare/Harris Rally with Roddick charity tennis exhibition in Indian Harbour Beach.

In late December Levine won a wild card berth into the main draw of the Australian Open. The USTA had asked Levine and two other young American men to play off for the wild card that the organization received in a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia. The other players selected based on age (22 and under) and ranking (top 200) to compete in Boca Raton, Florida, were Wayne Odesnik and Kuznetsov. They played in a round-robin format, and Levine went undefeated. "It definitely feels good not having it just handed out," Levine said after defeating Odesnik 6–4, 6–0. He trained and played sets with Max Mirnyi, Xavier Malisse, Andy Murray, and Tommy Haas. Levine played qualifying in a couple of pre-Grand Slam tournaments in Adelaide and Sydney. He still flew coach down under. "I'll have to make a lot more money before I can go first class," he said.

2008

"That's nothing I can control. I have to come up with other things like my speed, and my conditioning, take their legs from them. They've got bigger legs .... Me, I'm just a little guy running around trying to make every ball."

— Levine, responding to a comment that just about every player out there is far bigger and stronger than he is.

In January 2008, at the Australian Open, Levine beat Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina, a 26-year-old veteran ranked # 77 in the world, to advance to the Australian Open's second round. In second-round action, Levine played a scrappy match against fellow lefty, No. 24 seed Jarkko Nieminen. But despite serving for the set at 5–3 in both the second and third sets, Levine went down 6–2, 7–5, 7–6 (7–2) to the Finn. "I felt like I was right there, and definitely had my chances in the second and third (sets). I have to work on converting a little better," said Levine. "Maybe I got a little too antsy, and tried to go for a little too much, maybe stepped too hard on the pedal instead of taking a foot off."

At the personal request of U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe, Levine was a practice partner with the U.S. Davis Cup team in early February in Austria, hitting with Andy Roddick, James Blake, and twins Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. "First of all, he's a lefty, but also, Jesse has shown a lot of promise since last summer, improved his ranking a lot, and he's a great kid and incredibly hard worker," McEnroe said. "Our guys have a good read on which young guys are working really hard, and they were pushing to invite Jesse. It will be a great experience for him, and he'll help our guys a lot." "One day I played four sets. It was a lot of fun, but my body was sore," Levine said. "The guys are so cool."

In February Levine defeated # 81-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium in the first round of the San Jose Open, 6–3, 2–6, 6–4, before losing to James Blake in the second round.

In May he won all five of his matches, dropping only one set, to win the Bradenton, Florida Challenger event. He and partner Kei Nishikori of Japan also won a challenger tournament in doubles in Turkey.

"When you make the top 100, it really changes everything. And I feel like I'm just on the other side, knocking."

— Levine, after winning his first round match at Wimbledon in 2008, to rise to # 124 in the world rankings.

In June at Wimbledon, after qualifying by winning three matches, and then getting "shivers" on his arms as he walked out for his opening match, he beat world # 85 Donald Young in the first round at Wimbledon, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. It was the first four-set match he had ever played. The key was Levine's persistent net play; he approached net 32 times, winning 25 of the points. In the next round he lost, in his first five-set match ever, to Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In July in Newport on the grass courts at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, he beat No. 5 seeded, world # 83 John Isner 6-3, 6-1 (winning 57 of 93 points contested). Later in the month he beat Benjamin Becker of Germany, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6), at the Rogers' Cup in Toronto.

In August at the New Haven, Connecticut International Series, he beat world # 67 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-0, 6-3, and world # 61 Steve Darcis of Belgium 2-0, retired.

Singles Titles

Legend (Singles)

Grand Slam (0)

Tennis Masters Cup (0)

ATP Masters Series (0)

ATP Tour (0)

Challengers (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	November 5, 2007	Nashville	Hard (I)	Alex Kuznetsov	3–6 6–2 7–6
2.	November 12, 2007	Champaign	Hard (I)	Donald Young	7–6 7–6

Style of play

Among his strengths as a player are "great feet" and "a superb forehand," and he is "a hard worker and a natural leader." He has dazzling hand-eye coordination, which allows him to take the ball exceptionally early. He has all the shots, but his return of serve is his most valuable asset, and he cleverly constructs points. He is a serviceable volleyer, and is not afraid to move forward as points play out.

"He's got a great heart," said Larry Stefanki, who coaches Fernando Gonzalez and has previously worked with John McEnroe, Marcelo Rios, and Tim Henman. "A lot of players today are fast and fit, but just don't seem to play every point at 100%. It's like they're almost on cruise control and then want to play hard when it gets to 4-all or 5-all," Stefanki said. "I think because Jesse's so small and he doesn't want to give any free points, he tries every point 100%. That's a big asset out there."

"When he hears that he's too small, not big enough, well, he just never listened. He says, 'I'm going to play this game.'"

— Nathan Levine, Jesse's father

The average professional tennis player is 3 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than Levine.

External links

References

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