Dustin Brown (tennis)

Dustin Brown (born 8 December 1984)^[1] is a German-Jamaican former professional tennis player who rose to fame after beating Rafael Nadal at the Halle Open in 2014 and at Wimbledon in 2015. He was known for his technique, speed, and unorthodox playing style, often entertaining the crowd with trick shots.^[2]

Brown competed mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour, in singles and doubles, having won 31 titles overall. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of No. 64 in October 2016 and his career-high doubles ranking of No. 43 in May 2012.^[3][4] Brown is one of only two players who are undefeated against Rafael Nadal after playing more than one match with him (the other being Àlex Corretja), holding a 2–0 head-to-head record.^[5][6]

Brown did not reach an ATP singles final, but made two semifinals at the 2016 Open Sud de France and the 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad. In doubles, he won two titles on the ATP Tour.

Brown was born on 8 December 1984 in Celle, West Germany, a town situated near the city of Hanover. His father Leroy met his German-born mother Inge in Jamaica before settling in Celle. This unusual dual nationality has earned him the nickname "Shabba" based on a line from Jamie Foxx in the 1997 comedy Booty Call where he claimed to be a good tennis player. He also has two half-brothers named Steve and Dean. He played several sports such as football, judo, and handball throughout his childhood. He started playing tennis at the age of 5 but didn't really focus on the sport until the age of eight: "When I made the decision to pursue tennis instead of football, of course I wanted to be successful. I didn't want just to end up playing for a club somewhere."^[7] His reported idol growing up was Russian tennis player and former world No. 1 Marat Safin.^[8] His junior tennis career went well enough to draw the attention of Kim Michael Wittenberg, an American who ran a tennis academy near Hanover. Wittenberg regularly gave Brown lessons, and according to his pupil, he "taught me to play tennis."^[7][9]

At 11 years old, in 1996, the family returned to Jamaica, settling in Montego Bay. The move was motivated in part by the high cost of training in Germany as well as his need to develop discipline on the court: "I was pretty mentally soft when I was young. Anything could happen when I played—I could lose my temper, I got disqualified."^[7] In Jamaica, track and field, soccer, and cricket were the sports that commanded the best resources, tennis was played on poorly maintained public courts and with low-quality balls.^[7] Nevertheless, he continued to play junior tennis.^[9]

In 2004, 20-year-old Brown became unhappy with tennis in Jamaica, his family thought his potential warranted returning to Germany and a Volkswagen campervan that could sleep up to three people set him up.^[9] The mobile lodgings enabled him to play in the various European tournaments: "It was a brilliant idea by my parents, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go on playing. It was a means of competing week in, week out." He also brought in income with his racquet stringing machine, giving other players lower cost service, and letting out his spare mobile accommodations for a night.^[7]

Brown played his first junior match in August 1999 at the age of 14 at a grade 4 tournament in Jamaica. In 2002, he competed in two junior Grand Slam tournaments, reaching the second round of Wimbledon in singles as a qualifier and the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open in doubles partnering Luka Gregorc. Brown achieved a career-high junior singles ranking of 61 on March 18, 2002, and ended his junior career with a 34–26 record. In doubles, he achieved a career-high ranking of 116 on November 11, 2002, and a 15–24 overall record.^[10]

Junior Grand Slam results – Singles:

Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: A (-)
Wimbledon: 2R (2002)
US Open: 1R (2002)

Junior Grand Slam results – Doubles:

Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: A (-)
Wimbledon: 1R (2002)
US Open: QF (2002)

Brown officially turned pro in April 2002 at the age of 17 and began representing Jamaica. Between 2002 and 2009, Brown reached 11 ITF singles finals and 32 ITF doubles finals, winning 3 singles titles and 16 doubles titles.

Brown made his ATP debut at the 2003 Hall of Fame Open after qualifying for the main draw. He lost in the first round to Bob Bryan in three sets.

Brown reached his first Challenger final at the 2009 Baden Open where he lost to Florian Mayer in straight sets. Three months later, he won his first Challenger title at the 2009 Samarkand Challenger defeating Jonathan Dasnières de Veigy in the final. For the rest of 2009, he made four more Challenger finals including one doubles final. These results helped increase his ranking from 494 at the start of the year to 144 at year's end.

2010 is considered to be Brown's breakout year. At the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg, South Africa, he made his first ATP main-draw appearance since 2003, defeating fourth seed Marco Chiudinelli and No. 139 Laurent Recouderc to reach the quarterfinals, where he lost to eventual runner-up Stéphane Robert. He became the second Jamaican after Doug Burke at the 1989 BP National Championships in Wellington, New Zealand, to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP tournament.^[11]

On May 17, 2010, Brown reached the top 100 for the first time, debuting at No. 99. In June, he competed in his third ATP main draw at the Queen's Club Championships in London, defeating Frank Dancevic in three sets before losing to Denis Istomin in the second round. It was reported at the time that lack of funding and support from the Jamaican Tennis Association had tempted him to switch national association to Great Britain, his paternal grandmother being British.^[12][13] Later that month, Brown made his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon after receiving direct entry into the main draw. He lost in the first round to 16th seed Jürgen Melzer in four sets. After another ATP quarterfinal at the 2010 Hall of Fame Open, Brown received direct entry into the US Open and won his opening match against Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo to record his first Grand Slam win. He lost in the second round to world No. 4 Andy Murray in straight sets.

In September 2010, Brown won his first ATP doubles title at the 2010 Open de Moselle partnering Rogier Wassen.

In October 2010, Brown began representing Germany and competed under the German flag for the first time at the Challenger Eckental, where he reached the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Igor Sijsling.^[14] His first title success playing under the German flag came a week later at the Lambertz Open, defeating Sijsling in the final.^[15]

Brown won his second ATP doubles title at the 2012 Grand Prix Hassan II partnering Paul Hanley.

Brown partnered Jonathan Marray at the 2012 French Open; they lost in the first round. Brown/Marray also reached four Challenger tour finals in 2012, winning two in Bosnia and Italy.^[16]

At 2013 Wimbledon, Brown qualified for the main draw and went all the way to the third round defeating Guillermo García López and former champion Lleyton Hewitt before falling to Adrian Mannarino in straight sets.

At the 2014 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, Brown upset first seed and world No. 9 John Isner in the second round to claim his first-ever win over a top 10 player. He would lose to Sam Querrey in the next round.

In 2014 he achieved his most significant career win by defeating world No. 1 Rafael Nadal at the Halle Open as a wildcard.

At Wimbledon in 2015 Brown came through qualifying without dropping a set. After beating Yen-hsun Lu in the first round, Brown then upset, for the second time in his career, 10th seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal in four sets in the second round,^[17] before losing to Victor Troicki in four sets in the next round.

In January 2016, Brown played world No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the Qatar Open. He lost in straight sets.

Brown reached his first singles semifinal on the ATP World Tour at the 2016 Open Sud de France after having lost eight consecutive quarterfinal matches.^[18] There, he lost against top seed and eventual champion Richard Gasquet in three sets.

Brown reached a career debut second round of the French Open in 2016.

After winning the 2016 Aegon Manchester Trophy, Brown received a wild card for the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. There, he defeated Dušan Lajović in the first round before losing to Nick Kyrgios in the second. Both matches were decided in five sets.

Brown made his second ATP singles semifinal at the 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad but lost to top seed and eventual champion Feliciano López in three sets.

Brown competed in the first round of the 2016 Summer Olympics against Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil. Brown was leading 6–4, 4–4 when he went down with an ankle injury. Medical staff taped him, he returned to the match playing two points. Bellucci increased the score to 4–5 in the second set. Brown could not return play and retired in tears.

On October 10, 2016, Brown achieved a career-high singles ranking of 64 and ended the year ranked 72.

Brown upset world No. 7 Marin Čilić at the 2017 Open Sud de France. He would retire after just one game of play against Benoît Paire in the next round due to a back injury.

Brown lost in straight sets to Andy Murray at Wimbledon in 2017 in the second round.^[19]

Brown qualified for the 2018 Australian Open in what would be his last grand slam to date. He lost to João Sousa in the first round in five sets.

At the 2018 Open Sud de France, Brown was one game away from defeating Nicolas Mahut in the first round, but he sustained a back injury and could not continue to play giving Mahut the victory. He left the court in tears.

In April 2019, Brown reclaimed an ATP Challenger singles title from three years previous at the Mouratoglou Open in Sophia Antipolis, winning the final over Filip Krajinović in straight sets.^[20]

On 13 June 2019, Brown upset compatriot and world No. 5 Alexander Zverev at the 2019 Stuttgart Open in the second round.^[21] Following this victory, he lost in a third-set tiebreaker to Félix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinal.

Brown reached the qualifying competition of the 2020 French Open Qualifying and the 2021 Australian Open Qualifying before being eliminated both times.^[22]

Throughout 2021, Brown seemed to focus less on singles and more on doubles as he was competing in more doubles events than singles and was finding more success as he was reaching a handful of quarterfinals and semifinals in challenger events and ATP events.

Brown received a wildcard into the 2021 Stuttgart Open due to his performance in the previous edition. He lost in the first round to Nikoloz Basilashvili in straight sets. This was his last professional singles match.

In 2022, Brown stopped representing Germany and returned to representing Jamaica in tournaments.

Due to persistent injuries since the start of 2018, Brown announced in January 2024 that he would retire from professional tennis at the end of the 2024 season.^[23]

Brown made his Davis Cup debut for Jamaica in 2003 which would be the only time he played for Jamaica at the Davis Cup. He won 4 of 5 singles matches played and all 3 doubles matches played.

Brown only played one match for Germany in 2015 in the singles where he lost to Dominican Víctor Estrella Burgos in four sets.

Brown's combined record for Jamaica and Germany is 4–2 in singles and 3–0 in doubles giving him an overall record of 7–2.

Brown was considered a serve-and-volleyer. His average serve speed was around 190–205 km/h, but reached up to 220 km/h. His shotmaking style was unorthodox, as he mixed up hard-hitting groundstrokes with light drop shots. He often used trick shots, including tweeners, behind-the-back shots, diving shots, down-the-line shots, jump shots and drop shots. As a result, he was described as one of the most entertaining players on the tour.

Current through the 2024 Moselle Open.

Brown's match record against players who have been ranked in the top 10,with those who are active in boldface.
Only ATP Tour and ATP Challenger main draw matches are considered.

• Brown has a 5–12 record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

• Dustin Brown at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Dustin Brown at the International Tennis Federation
• Dustin Brown at the Davis Cup