BRAD GILBERT Pro Tennis Coach

Career highlights

• Coach of Andre Agassi (no. 1)
• Coach of Andy Roddick (no. 1)
• Coach of Andy Murray
• Coach of Kei Nishikori
• Number 4 in the World Singles Player
• Wins over no. 1s Sampras, Becker, Courier, McEnroe, Edberg, Agassi, Connors, Wilander and Rafter
• Wins over Cash, Gerulaitis, Forget, Arias, Vilas, Chang, Korda, Stich, Sanchez, Enquist and Bruguera
• Junior Davis Cup player
• All-American Singles player
• Davis Cup player
• Olympic medallist
• Over forty singles finals and twenty titles
• Three doubles titles
• Author of best seller "Winning Ugly"
• Commentator on ESPN
• Expert tennis analyst on ESPN
• USTA Northern California Hall of Fame
• ITA Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame

Connect with Brad Gilbert

Brad Gilbert was born August 9, 1961 in Oakland, California, USA

TENNIS PLAYER

Gilbert started played tennis very early and made a name for himself as a top class tennis player while playing for Foothill College and later for Pepperdine University, where he became an All-American. He turned professional in 1982, winning his first top-level singles title the same year in Taipei and his first doubles title in 1985 in Tel Aviv.

Gilbert was not known for his powerful serve and his lightning backhand. He was mostly a defensive player who at times managed to win against much better players, controlling the game by destroying other players' rhythm and taking advantage of their oversights. McEnroe called him "a pusher," but Gilbert's strategy managed to keep him among the top ten players in the States for nine years. His professional tour lasted ten years, not a small feat.

Gilbert won a total of twenty top-level singles titles during his career, and defeated some of the great names of tennis, such as Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker and Michael Chang. His career-high singles ranking was as World no. 4, in 1990.

Gilbert's most successful year as a professional tennis player was 1989, when he won five singles titles. He won a bronze medal in the men's tennis singles at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988.

Gilbert is a member of the USTA Northern California Tennies Hall of Fame, Pepperdine University Athletics Hall of Fame, ITA Tennis Intercollegiate Hall of Fame and Marblehead High School Athletic Boosters Hall of Fame.

Gilbert retired as a professional tennis player in 1995, when he started a successful tennis coaching career.

COACH

Gilbert's highly successful coaching career has been attributed to his superb tactics and extraordinary strategy that he put to best use when playing tennis.

Gilbert's most famous coaching job was coaching Andre Agassi for eight years. They worked together from March 1994 until January 2002. During that period, Agassi won six majors, describing Gilbert as "the greatest coach of all time".

Gilbert worked as a coach to Andy Roddick from 2003 to 2004. During their working together, Roddick won the 2003 US Open, when he became the world no. 1, and reached the 2004 Wimbledon final.

In 2006 Gilbert started coaching Scottish tennis player Andy Murray. They worked together for sixteen months and during that time Murray reached his career high of No. 8 on the world tour.

Gilbert also coached British player Alex Bogdanovic in 2007 and Japanese Kei Nishikori in 2011.

Gilbert occasionally works as a tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. He has also written two books on tennis: "Winning Ugly," in which he shares his strategy on defeating more skilled opponents, and "I've Got Your Back," together with James Kaplan.

Gilbert currently lives with his wife and three children in San Rafael, California, USA.

Connect with Brad Gilbert