Eddie_Dibbs

Eddie Dibbs

Eddie Dibbs

American tennis player


Eddie Dibbs (born February 23, 1951) is a retired American tennis player also nicknamed "Fast Eddie". He attained a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 in July 1978, winning 22 titles and being a runner-up another 20 times.[2]

Quick Facts Country (sports), Residence ...

Dibbs holds the record number of ATP Tour career match wins for a player who never reached a Grand Slam final. He did reach two semifinals, both at Roland Garros, losing to Guillermo Vilas in 1975 and to Adriano Panatta in 1976. His most significant victory was defeating Jimmy Connors, 1–6, 6–1, 7–5 in London on carpet.

In 1976, only one other American player, Connors, had a better record than Dibbs.[3] In 1977, Dibbs was the 2nd highest ranked American in the tour.[3] In the 1978 season, he ended the year as the leading money winner on the professional tennis tour.[4]

Dibbs was consistently ranked in the top 10 tour rankings for five years from 1975 to 1979.[4] He is also the American tennis player with most singles victories in clay ever in the Open Era and ranks 7th all-time in overall singles victories on clay.[5]

Dibbs is credited with coining the tennis term "bagel" to describe a 6–0 set.[6][7][8] Dibbs played doubles with Harold Solomon. They were nicknamed "The Bagel Twins" by Bud Collins.[9] In 1976, they were ranked No. 4 worldwide, and they were among the top ten also in 1974, 1975 and 1976.[9]

A 2011 ranking system created at Northwestern University based on quality of performances and number of victories ranked Dibbs in the top 20 greatest players of all time.[10][11]

Biography

Dibbs was born in Brooklyn, New York to Lebanese parents.[3][12] His family moved to Miami when he was a youngster where he started playing at a young age. He was a two-time state singles champion for Miami Beach High School[13] and attended the University of Miami for three years before turning professional.[14] At the University of Miami he compiled a 93% winning record and was an NCAA All-American twice. He was inducted in the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.[14]

Career finals

Singles: 42 (22 wins, 20 losses)

More information Result, No. ...

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
More information Tournament, SR ...

References

  1. Eddie Dibbs Archived September 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame. umsportshalloffame.com
  2. "Eddie Dibbs". ATP. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  3. "The Big Apple: Tennis Bagel". Barrypopik. Archived from the original on January 31, 2007.
  4. "Bagel. Definition of bagel in tennis". Macmillandictionary. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013.
  5. "Sarasota Loves Tennis: Fun Facts to Know and Tell (by Jack & Sasha)". The Sarasota Salt. August 29, 2016. Archived from the original on August 30, 2016.
  6. "Harold Solomon". International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
  7. Herman, Robin (September 2, 1975). "It's a Field Day for Tennis Fans". New York Times.
  8. "University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame: Eddie Dibbs 1970-1972". Umsportshalloffame. Archived from the original on July 11, 2016.



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