Michael Joyce (tennis)

Michael T. Joyce (born February 1, 1973) is an American former tennis player, who turned professional in 1991. The right-hander reached his highest ATP singles ranking of World No. 64 in April 1996. He also became a coach of professional players, most notably former world number one Maria Sharapova from 2004 to 2011.

Michael Joyce
Full nameMichael T. Joyce
Country (sports) United States
ResidenceBoca Raton, Florida, United States
Born (1973-02-01) February 1, 1973
Santa Monica, California, United States
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Turned pro1991
Retired2003
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)[1]
Prize money$756,999
Singles
Career record46–67
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 64 (8 April 1996)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open2R (1996, 1997)
French Open1R (1998)
Wimbledon4R (1995)
US Open2R (1991, 1993)
Doubles
Career record8–21
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 181 (9 June 2003)
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon1R (1995)
US Open1R (1993, 1995, 1996)
Last updated on: 9 October 2021.

Tennis career

Juniors

Joyce and then-friend Erik Menéndez[2] entered the 1989 Boys' Junior National Tennis Championship,[3] not two weeks before Erik and his brother Lyle murdered their parents. Joyce beat Ian Williams in the 1st round of the Boys' 18 singles but lost to Jonathan Stark in the quarterfinals. He reached the finals of the Wimbledon Boys' event in 1991, losing to Thomas Enqvist.

Professional tennis player

On the professional tour, he won 3 Challenger events and reached the 4th round of the 1995 Wimbledon Championships. He won the men's singles in the Ojai Tennis Tournament in 2004.[4] Pat Rafter, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Jim Courier, and Michael Chang were among those Joyce beat.[5] He was 46–67 overall, going 1–10 against top 10 players.[6]

He was the subject of an essay by David Foster Wallace in Esquire;[1] the essay was later republished in Wallace's collections A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and String Theory.

Coach

Joyce was the coach of Maria Sharapova, along with her father, Yuri Sharapov, from summer 2004 until January 2011, when he was replaced by Thomas Högstedt. During his tenure, Sharapova won three Grand Slam singles titles and reached the World No. 1 ranking.[7]

Joyce coached American tennis player Jessica Pegula from 2012 to 2017. While with Joyce, in 2013 before suffering from an injury, Pegula reached a career high singles world ranking of 123 and a doubles world ranking of 92.

In 2017, Joyce coached former world number one Victoria Azarenka for 8 months after she returned to competition following maternity leave. However, with family issues interrupting her schedule, the pair split at the end of the year,[8] and Joyce took up the position of coach to Johanna Konta.[9] In October 2018, Joyce split ways with Konta and began coaching Eugenie Bouchard.[10] In April 2019, Joyce split ways with Bouchard;[11] two months later he started to work with Tímea Babos.[12] In 2021, Joyce joined USTA Player Development as a women's tennis national coach.[13]

Personal life

Joyce currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with his wife Jenna and their daughter (born May 2016).

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 10 (6–4)
Legend
ATP Challenger (3–3)
ITF Futures (3–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (6–4)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 Apr 1994 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Challenger Hard Mexico Leonardo Lavalle 6–1, 7–6
Loss 1–1 Sep 1994 Seoul, South Korea Challenger Hard South Africa David Nainkin 7–6, 3–6, 5–7
Loss 1–2 Nov 1994 Glendale, United States Challenger Hard Norway Christian Ruud 1–6, 3–6
Win 2–2 Dec 1994 [São Luís, Brazil Challenger Hard The Bahamas Roger Smith 6–3, 6–7, 7–6
Win 3–2 Dec 1998 USA F10, Phoenix Futures Hard United States Thomas Blake 6–4, 6–4
Win 4–2 Mar 2000 [Hamilton, New Zealand Challenger Hard Japan Gouichi Motomura 4–6, 6–4, 6–4
Loss 4–3 Sep 2001 Tarzana, United States Challenger Hard United States Levar Harper-Griffith 6–7(6–8), 3–6
Win 5–3 Nov 2002 USA F27, Hammond Futures Hard United States Tripp Phillips 7–6(10–8), 7–6(7–1)
Win 6–3 Feb 2003 Great Britain F4, Redbridge Futures Hard Italy Stefano Pescosolido 6–4, 3–6, 6–2
Loss 6–4 Mar 2003 USA F6, Mobile Futures Hard Republic of Ireland Peter Clarke 6–7(6–8), 4–6

Doubles: 11 (4–7)
Legend
ATP Challenger (2–6)
ITF Futures (2–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (4–5)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–2)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Jan 1997 Singapore, Singapore Challenger Hard United States Scott Melville India Mahesh Bhupathi
India Leander Paes		 4–6, 6–4, 6–7
Loss 0–2 Jul 1997 Flushing Meadows, United States Challenger Hard United States David Witt United States Geoff Grant
United States Mark Merklein		 1–6, 4–6
Loss 0–3 Oct 1999 Japan F6, Fukuoka Futures Carpet United Kingdom Kyle Spencer Japan Tasuku Iwami
Japan Ryuso Tsujino		 6–4, 6–7, 4–6
Loss 0–4 Nov 1999 Yokohama, Japan Challenger Carpet United Kingdom Kyle Spencer Japan Satoshi Iwabuchi
Japan Thomas Shimada		 2–6, 4–6
Loss 0–5 Mar 2000 [Hamilton, New Zealand Challenger Hard United States Jim Thomas South Africa Neville Godwin
Australia Michael Hill		 6–7(4–7), 4–6
Win 1–5 Jul 2000 USA F17, Chico Futures Hard Australia Luke Smith United States Zack Fleishman
United States Robert Kendrick		 7–6(7–3), 6–7(3–7), 6–1
Win 2–5 Sep 2001 Tarzana, United States Challenger Hard United States Zack Fleishman United Kingdom Kyle Spencer
United States Glenn Weiner		 6–1, 5–7, 7–6(8–6)
Win 3–5 Jul 2002 Granby, Canada Challenger Hard Israel Noam Behr France Thomas Dupre
Canada Simon Larose		 6–0, 6–3
Loss 3–6 Aug 2002 Belo Horizonte, Brazil Challenger Hard Russia Denis Golovanov Brazil Daniel Melo
Brazil Marcelo Melo		 3–6, 4–6
Loss 3–7 Aug 2002 Gramado, Brazil Challenger Hard Russia Denis Golovanov Brazil Alessandro Guevara
Australia Dejan Petrovic		 6–3, 5–7, 2–6
Win 4–7 Mar 2003 USA F6, Mobile Futures Hard United States Kevin Kim Brazil Josh Goffi
United States Travis Parrott		 6–7(0–7), 6–3, 7–5

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Result Year Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Loss1991WimbledonGrassSweden Thomas Enqvist4–6, 2–6

Performance timelines
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.

Singles
Tournament1991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003SRW–LWin %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A Q1 A Q2 A 2R 2R A Q3 A Q2 A A 0 / 2 2–2 50%
French Open A A A Q1 A 1R A Q1 A Q1 A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Wimbledon A A Q2 Q1 4R 1R Q2 Q1 Q3 Q1 Q1 Q1 Q1 0 / 2 3–2 60%
US Open 2R Q1 2R A 1R 1R 1R Q2 Q2 Q1 Q3 Q1 Q1 0 / 5 2–5 29%
Win–loss 1–1 0–0 1–1 0–0 3–2 1–4 1–2 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 10 7–10 41%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A A A Q1 3R Q2 Q2 A A A Q1 Q1 0 / 1 2–1 67%
Miami Open A A Q3 Q2 3R QF 1R A A A A A A 0 / 3 6–3 67%
Canada Masters A A A A 2R A A A Q2 Q1 A A A 0 / 1 1–1 50%
Cincinnati Masters A A A A A 1R A A Q2 Q1 A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 3–2 6–3 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 6 9–6 60%

Doubles
Tournament1993199419951996199719981999SRW–LWin %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
French Open A A A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Wimbledon Q2 A 1R A A Q2 A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
US Open 1R A 1R 1R A Q1 Q1 0 / 3 0–3 0%
Win–loss 0–1 0–0 0–2 0–1 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 4 0–4 0%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A A Q1 A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Miami Open A A Q2 A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Canada Masters A A A A A A 2R 0 / 1 1–1 50%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 1–1 0 / 1 1–1 50%

References
  1. Wallace, David Foster (September 17, 2008). "The String Theory". Esquire. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  2. "What Do Agassi and the Menendez Brothers Have in Common?" by David Johnson Psychology Today (November 30, 2009); retrieved May 16, 2023 NOTE: Article erroneously states Menéndez and Joyce played doubles at the 1989 Boys' USTA
  3. "1989 Draw Sheet, USTA Boys' 16 & Boys' 18 National Championship" web.archive.org retrieved May 16, 2023
  4. "Past champions" (PDF). ojaitourney.org. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  5. Werner, George L. W. (1991), "A Word from the Other Players", New Harvest, Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, pp. 255–266, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0489-3_16, ISBN 978-1-4612-6785-0, retrieved March 21, 2021
  6. "Michael Joyce | FedEx ATP Win/Loss | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  7. "Sharapova's long-time coach leaves job". RIA Novosti. January 16, 2011. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  8. "Azarenka splits with coach Joyce".
  9. Writer, Stuart Fraser. "Johanna Konta hires Maria Sharapova's 'fantastic' former coach | Sport | The Times".
  10. "Konta splits with coach Michael Joyce, Bouchard hires him - Women's Tennis Blog". October 10, 2018.
  11. @mikejoyce73 (April 27, 2019). "Genie and I have mutually decided to end our professional relationship at this time. I wish her all the best" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. "Wimbledon: Babos Tímea amerikai sztáredzővel készül". Nemzeti Sport (in Hungarian). June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  13. "Q&A: Michael Joyce, former coach of Maria Sharapova, joins USTA Player Development as national coach". www.usta.com. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
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