Tommy Ho

For other people named Thomas Ho, see Thomas Ho (disambiguation).

Tommy Ho

Full name	Thomas Ho
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Houston, Texas, United States
Born	(1973-06-17) June 17, 1973 Winter Haven, United States
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Turned pro	1988
Retired	1998
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$793,819
Singles
Career record	36–66
Career titles	0 4 Challengers
Highest ranking	No. 85 (June 26, 1995)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	2R (1995)
French Open	1R (1995)
Wimbledon	2R (1995)
US Open	3R (1992)
Doubles
Career record	57–40
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 13 (January 8, 1996)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	3R (1996)
French Open	SF (1995)
Wimbledon	2R (1995)
US Open	3R (1994)

Thomas "Tommy" Ho (born June 17, 1973, in Winter Haven, Florida) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. His parents are immigrants from Taiwan.

Tennis career

Juniors

Ho first came to the tennis world's attention as an exceptionally successful junior player. He won several junior tennis events in the 1980s, and set a number of 'youngest-ever' records.

Pro tour

In August 1988, Ho became the youngest-ever male player to play in the main draw of the US Open at the age of 15 years and 2 months. He lost the first round match to Johan Kriek 6–4, 7–6, 7–6. That same month, Ho became the second youngest male player to win a main draw match at a top-level tour event when he beat Matt Anger in the first round at Rye Brook 6–4, 3–6, 6–4, just after Argentina's Franco Davín.

Ho's early successes drew many comparisons with Michael Chang, another Asian American tennis player who achieved great success as a junior. However Ho did not manage to make the same kind of impact on the professional circuit as Chang (who went on to win the French Open and reach the World No. 2 singles ranking). Ho enjoyed some success in satellite tournaments, but did not win any top-level singles events on the tour. He did, however, win four tour doubles titles (Beijing in 1994, and Beijing, Hong Kong and Indian Wells in 1995).

Ho's professional career was hampered by injuries. In 1995, Ho and Brett Steven became the fastest-ever losers of a match at Wimbledon. In the very first point of their Men's Doubles match, Steven served and Ho tried to intercept the return at the net, only to injure his back. The pair thus had had to forfeit the match after just one rally, which had lasted all of five seconds. The back injury was to recur again in future years, and eventually led to Ho's retirement from the tour in 1997.

During his professional career, Ho reached career-high rankings of World No. 85 in singles and World No. 13 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled $793,819.

Post-retirement

Since retiring from the tour, Ho has completed a degree at Rice University in Houston and worked as a tennis journalist.

In 2011, Ho was inducted into the USTA Florida Hall of Fame.

Doubles titles

Legend (Doubles)

Grand Slam tournaments (0)

Tennis Masters Cup (0)

ATP Masters Series (1)

ATP International Series Gold (0)

ATP International Series (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner in Final	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1994	Beijing, China	Carpet	Kent Kinnear	David Adams Andrei Olhovskiy	7–6, 6–3
2.	1995	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Brett Steven	Gary Muller Piet Norval	6–4, 7–6
3.	1995	Hong Kong	Hard	Mark Philippoussis	John Fitzgerald Anders Järryd	6–1, 6–7, 7–6
4.	1995	Beijing, China	Carpet	Sébastien Lareau	Dick Norman Fernon Wibier	7–6, 7–6

Runners-up (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner in Final	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	1995	Memphis, U.S.	Hard (i)	Brett Steven	Jared Palmer Richey Reneberg	6–4, 6–7, 1–6
2.	1995	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Brett Steven	Byron Black Jared Palmer	4–6, 6–3, 3–6
3.	1996	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Jonas Björkman	Todd Woodbridge Mark Woodforde	5–7, 6–7

External links

• Tommy Ho at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Tommy Ho at the International Tennis Federation
• Tommy Ho at the Davis Cup