Jesse Levine: Difference between revisions

Jesse Levine (b. October 15, 1987) is a left-handed Canadian-born American 5' 9", 145 pound, professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high rank of # 174 on December 3, 2007.

Levine's father played tennis for Penn State. Levine, who is Jewish, was born in Nepean, Ontario, in Canada, grew up in the Centrepointe neighborhood in Ottawa, and attended Hillel Academy of Ottawa. He moved to the US at age 13, and currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida.^[1]

In 2001 he had stunned Donald Young in the final of the U.S. Clay Court 14s, at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center in Fort Lauderdale.^[2]

In 2003 he and partner Jean Yves Aubone won the USTA boys 16s doubles championship.^[3]

In 2005 he was ranked 23rd in the final USTA national junior rankings.[1] At the 2005 USTA Junior National, where he lost in the singles semifinals and doubles finals, both 7-6 in the third set, he was judged to have the best service return.^[4]

His highest International Tennis Federation World Junior Ranking was No. 14.

Along with Michael Shabaz, an Assyrian-American, he won the 2005 Wimbledon boys' doubles championship. He also reached the quarterfinals of the Jr. Wimbledon boys' singles tournament that year.

He finished as the runner-up at the 2006 U.S. Junior National Championship to World No. 1 Junior, Donald Young, forfeiting in the finals due to food poisoning. He was voted as having the best backhand.^[5]

He attended the University of Miami Online High School, and was class of 2007. The school offers an academic program for athletes who are too busy to attend bricks-and-mortar high schools.

Levine did most of his junior training at the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, and the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Florida, but decided at least a year or two of college was a better choice than turning professional.[2]

Levine played for the University of Florida, enrolling in the Spring of 2007, but withdrew in August 2007 to turn pro.

He was 24-1 playing No. 1 singles for the Gators; winning all but 3 of his matches in straight sets.^[6]

In March 2007 he beat 6' 9", 236 pound John Isner, a senior at University of Georgia, then the No. 1 player in college tennis, who had been undefeated in his prior 46 matches, and who did not lose another regular-season match all season.[3][4]

On May 23, 2007, Levine lost his first college match, in the quarterfinals in the NCAA Men's Singles to Washington's Alex Slovic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.[5] He was ranked # 3 in singles by the NCAA in the final May 2007 standings, and was the only freshman in the top 22.[6]

Awards. Levine was named the Southeastern Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week twice in 2007.[7] Levine was also named 2007 SEC Freshman of the Year after going 11-0 at the No. 1 singles position in SEC play. He was also named to the 2007 men's tennis All-SEC first team.^[7]

Levine was in addition selected to the 2007 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-America Team for NCAA Division I men's tennis in both singles and doubles play; he was one of 10 players nationally to do so. Levine was also named the ITA National Rookie of the Year.

Levine also played No. 1 doubles for the Gators with junior Greg Ouellette, and the duo was 21-3 in 2007, rising to # 3 in the final NCAA rankings.[8][9] Levine and Ouellette were defeated 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2 by eventual winners Middle Tennessee State's Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom in the quarterfinals of the 2007 NCAA Men's Doubles championships.[10]

Levine played low-level ATP events. Levine missed the Gators' first dual match of the season, on Jan. 31, 2007, because he was at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, where he defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland (ranked # 118) 6-3, 6-2, and Kevin Kim of the US (ranked # 107) 6-2, 6-2, but lost to Benjamin Becker of Germany (ranked # 54) 3-6, 3-6.

He also received a wild card into the BMW Tennis Championship, where he lost 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3), to Gael Monfils.

In July 2007 Levine accepted an invitation from Roger Federer, ranked # 1 in the world, to to join him in Dubai to practice with Federer for 10 days.[11] Twice he and Federer had played match sets, both of which Federer won, 6-4.[12]

Levine withdrew from college prior to the 2007 U.S. Open, his first tournament as a professional. "I had an unbelievable season, but in order to take tennis to the next level, I have to keep playing guys at the top level," he said. "College tennis is amazing, but I feel my game is ready." He'll either live at home in Boca Raton or move to Bradenton, where he could continue training at the Bollettieri Academy. He does not have a touring coach, and is hoping the USTA will provide him with coaching.[13]

As a wildcard at the 2007 US Open, after receiving good luck wishes from Federer,[14] he was defeated by world # 4 Nikolay Davydenko in the first round, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1.^[8] "I was really nervous," Levine said, "but it was an amazing experience."^[9] In doubles, however, he won his first round match, pairing with Alex Kuznetsov, over Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Harel Levy of Israel, 6-1, 6-4, and their second round match upsetting 7th-seeded Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 7-6 (5), 6-4, before losing in the third round to 9th-seeded Czechs Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner, 6-4, 7-5.

In November 2007, Levine won his first pro title, winning the $75,000 Music City Challenger in Nashville, Tennessee, along the way beating world # 109 Robert Kendrick of the US, 7-5, 6-4, # 148 Sam Warburg of the US, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and # 170 Dusan Vemic of South Africa, 6-2, 7-5.

Levine then won the very next tournament in the same month, the $50,000 JSM Challenger in Champaign, Illinois, at the University of Illinois. In the second round he defeated # 197 Kevin Kim, 6-1, 7-5, and in the semifinals he again beat John Isner, now world # 118, this time 7-6 (5), 6-3. In the finals Levine topped Donald Young (world # 106), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), capping a week in which he did not lose a single set. He had won 8 of his last 9 matches against top-200 competition, and the one loss, which was to Young, he had subsequently avenged with the win against Young. With the win, Levine catapulted to # 192 in the world, continuing his meteoric rise.^[10]

Still later in November, he began the $50,000 Knoxville Challenger tournament in Tennessee by defeating former US Junior champion Michael McClune, 6-4, 6-1, in the first round,^[11] but three rounds later lost to Kevin Kim in the semifinals.^[12] The loss broke Levine's 16-match winning streak.^[13]

In early December, he and Andy Roddick defeated Robert Kendrick and Amer Delic 7-6, 6-4, in a fast-paced match on Har-Tru at the OMNI Healthcare/Harris Rally with Roddick charity tennis exhibition in Indian Harbour Beach.^[14]

The USTA asked Levine and three other young American men to play off December 18th-20th for the wild-card berth in the Australian Open that the organization received in a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia. The other players selected based on age (22 and under) and ranking (top 200) to compete in Boca Raton, Florida, are Wayne Odesnik, Isner, and Kuznetsov. They will play in a round-robin format. If two of them tie at 2-1, they'll play an additional match. Isner will take part in the playoff unless the Aussie list opens up before that. If Isner wins the playoff but then gets into the main draw by virtue of his ranking (of # 106), it is unclear which player will be awarded the wild card.^[15]

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	November 5, 2007	Nashville	Hard (I)	Alex Kuznetsov	3-6 6-2 7-6
2.	November 12, 2007	Champaign	Hard (I)	Donald Young	7-6 7-6

Among his strengths as a player are "great feet" and "a superb forehand," and he is "a hard worker and a natural leader."[15]

• ATP Tennis bio
• Bio and match history
• "Ottawa-born Levine a Wimbledon champ; Captures boys' doubles title at All England Club," 7/7/05
• University of Florida bio
• "Early Returns," 4/5/07