Eric Butorac

Eric Butorac (born May 22, 1981), nicknamed Booty,^[1] is an American retired professional tennis player. He was a doubles specialist, and for a period of approximately six years was the No. 3 ranked American doubles player. His best result was reaching the 2014 Australian Open finals with partner Raven Klaasen. Their run to the final included a victory over the World No. 1 team of Bob and Mike Bryan.

Eric Butorac

Butorac at the 2013 French Open
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Born	(1981-05-22) May 22, 1981 (age 42) Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Turned pro	2003
Retired	2016
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
College	Ball State Cardinals Gustavus Adolphus College
Prize money	$1,728,454
Singles
Career record	0–0
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 935 (January 16, 2006)
Doubles
Career record	269–242 (in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	18
Highest ranking	No. 17 (August 29, 2011)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	F (2014)
French Open	3R (2012, 2016)
Wimbledon	3R (2007, 2014)
US Open	QF (2014)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open	1R (2011, 2012, 2015)
French Open	SF (2014)
Wimbledon	3R (2013, 2014)
US Open	2R (2016)
Last updated on: December 13, 2016.

He attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he played on the men's tennis team for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he graduated in 2003.

Family

Butorac is of Croatian descent. Butorac's parents, Jan and Tim Butorac, are directors of the Rochester Tennis Connection (Indoor & Outdoor site) in Rochester, Minnesota. His brother, Jeff, is a basketball coach at Century High School. Tim Butorac is a USPTA professional, teaching tennis at the Rochester Indoor Tennis Club during the winter and at the Kutzky/Rochester Outdoor Tennis Center during the summer months.

College career

Eric Butorac played at Ball State University for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College. He has a long history with Gustavus: his father played for coach Steve Wilkinson, and, at age five, Eric attended tennis camp with Wilkinson. He closed out his senior season of 2003 by winning both the NCAA Division III singles and doubles championships, with Kevin Whipple as his partner.^[2]

Recent activity

In July 2006, Butorac and Jamie Murray reached their first ATP Tour doubles final, in Los Angeles, losing in straight sets to the Bryan brothers, who were the world's top-ranked doubles team.

In early February 2007, the US-Scots pair claimed their first doubles title in a Challenger event in Dallas,^[3] and a week later they won their first ATP title at the SAP Open.^[4] They continued their winning run the following week when the unseeded pair defeated second seeds Julian Knowle and Jürgen Melzer, 7–5, 6–3, to capture the doubles title of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships at the Racquet Club of Memphis.^{[citation needed]}

In April, May, and June 2009, Butorac and American Scott Lipsky won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, the Estoril Open in Portugal, and a tournament in Nottingham, England.^[5]

In 2010, Butorac paired with Rajeev Ram to make the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He also won titles in Chennai (with Ram), Tokyo and Stockholm (with Rojer). He was on the 2010 roster of the Boston Lobsters in the World Team Tennis pro league.

In 2011, Butorac had his best season reaching a career-high ranking of no. 17, and finishing as the no. 9 team in the world with partner Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands. They won three titles and made the semifinals of the Australian Open.

In 2012, Butorac made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and won the doubles title in São Paulo (with Bruno Soares).

In 2013, Butorac made it to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open and won the doubles title in Kuala Lumpur with Raven Klaasen.

In 2014, Butorac started his year with reaching the final of the Australian Open. He then went on to win titles in Memphis and Stockholm. All of these were with partner Raven Klaasen.

Off court

In 2009 Butorac started the Minnesota Tennis Challenge, a charity event to benefit St. Paul Urban Tennis. Participants included Bob and Mike Bryan, Justin Gimelstob, Rajeev Ram, Melanie Oudin, and Somdev Devvarman. Butorac is a regular speaker at coaching conventions and USTA showcases around the country.

Starting in 2010, Butorac has been the volunteer assistant coach at Harvard University. He is one of only three players from the NCAA Division III ranks to ever make a living on the tour.

Butorac was the president of the ATP Player's Council. He succeeded Roger Federer as president (whom he served under as VP for the previous term). He was succeeded by Novak Djokovic on August 30, 2016.

In February 2022, Butorac was named Tournament Director of the Western & Southern Open. The Western & Southern Open features an ATP Masters 1000 as well as a WTA 1000 tournament in the same week at the same venue, making it one of five events to host concurrent top tier tour tournaments.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2014	Australian Open	Hard	Raven Klaasen	Łukasz Kubot   Robert Lindstedt	3–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

Doubles: 29 (18 titles, 11 runners-up)

Legend ( Doubles) Grand Slam tournaments (0–1) ATP World Tour Finals (0–0) ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0) ATP World Tour 500 Series (2–2) ATP World Tour 250 Series (16–8)

Titles by surface Hard (12–9) Clay (5–2) Grass (1–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Jul 2006	Los Angeles Open, United States	International	Hard	Jamie Murray	Bob Bryan   Mike Bryan	2–6, 4–6
Win	1–1	Feb 2007	Pacific Coast Championships, United States	International	Hard (i)	Jamie Murray	Chris Haggard   Rainer Schüttler	7–5, 7–6^(8–6)
Win	2–1	Feb 2007	U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States	Intl. Gold	Hard (i)	Jamie Murray	Jürgen Melzer   Julian Knowle	7–5, 6–3
Win	3–1	Jun 2007	Nottingham Open, United Kingdom	International	Grass	Jamie Murray	Joshua Goodall   Ross Hutchins	4–6, 6–3, [10–5]
Win	4–1	Aug 2008	Los Angeles Open, United States	International	Hard	Rohan Bopanna	Travis Parrott   Dušan Vemić	7–6^(7–5), 7–6^(7–5)
Win	5–1	Jan 2009	Chennai Open, India	250 Series	Hard	Rajeev Ram	Jean-Claude Scherrer   Stan Wawrinka	6–3, 6–4
Win	6–1	May 2009	Estoril Open, Portugal	250 Series	Clay	Scott Lipsky	Martin Damm   Robert Lindstedt	6–3, 6–2
Win	7–1	Oct 2009	Thailand Open, Thailand	250 Series	Hard (i)	Rajeev Ram	Guillermo García López   Mischa Zverev	7–6^(7–4), 6–3
Loss	7–2	May 2010	Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany	250 Series	Clay	Michael Kohlmann	Oliver Marach   Santiago Ventura	7–5, 3–6, [14–16]
Loss	7–3	Aug 2010	Los Angeles Open, United States (2)	250 Series	Hard	Jean-Julien Rojer	Bob Bryan   Mike Bryan	7–6^(8–6), 2–6, [7–10]
Win	8–3	Oct 2010	Japan Open, Japan	500 Series	Hard	Jean-Julien Rojer	Andreas Seppi   Dmitry Tursunov	6–3, 6–2
Win	9–3	Oct 2010	Stockholm Open, Sweden	250 Series	Hard (i)	Jean-Julien Rojer	Johan Brunström   Jarkko Nieminen	6–3, 6–4
Loss	9–4	Feb 2011	U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States	500 Series	Hard (i)	Jean-Julien Rojer	Max Mirnyi   Daniel Nestor	2–6, 7–6^(8–6), [3–10]
Win	10–4	May 2011	Estoril Open, Portugal (2)	250 Series	Clay	Jean-Julien Rojer	Marc López   David Marrero	6–3, 6–4
Win	11–4	May 2011	Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France	250 Series	Clay	Jean-Julien Rojer	Santiago González   David Marrero	6–3, 6–4
Win	12–4	Oct 2011	Malaysian Open, Malaysia	250 Series	Hard (i)	Jean-Julien Rojer	František Čermák   Filip Polášek	6–1, 6–3
Loss	12–5	Nov 2011	Valencia Open, Spain	500 Series	Hard (i)	Jean-Julien Rojer	Bob Bryan   Mike Bryan	4–6, 6–7^(9–11)
Win	13–5	Feb 2012	Brasil Open, Brazil	250 Series	Clay	Bruno Soares	Michal Mertiňák   André Sá	3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Loss	13–6	Oct 2012	Thailand Open, Thailand	250 Series	Hard (i)	Paul Hanley	Lu Yen-hsun   Danai Udomchoke	3–6, 4–6
Loss	13–7	Jan 2013	Brisbane International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Paul Hanley	Marcelo Melo   Tommy Robredo	6–4, 1–6, [5–10]
Loss	13–8	May 2013	Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany	250 Series	Clay	Marcos Baghdatis	Jarkko Nieminen   Dmitry Tursunov	1–6, 4–6
Win	14–8	Sep 2013	Malaysian Open, Malaysia (2)	250 Series	Hard (i)	Raven Klaasen	Pablo Cuevas   Horacio Zeballos	6–2, 6–4
Loss	14–9	Jan 2014	Australian Open, Australia	Grand Slam	Hard	Raven Klaasen	Łukasz Kubot   Robert Lindstedt	3–6, 3–6
Win	15–9	Feb 2014	U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States	250 Series	Hard (i)	Raven Klaasen	Bob Bryan   Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–4
Win	16–9	Oct 2014	Stockholm Open, Sweden (2)	250 Series	Hard (i)	Raven Klaasen	Treat Huey   Jack Sock	6–4, 6–3
Loss	16–10	Aug 2015	Winston-Salem Open, United States	250 Series	Hard	Scott Lipsky	Dominic Inglot   Robert Lindstedt	2–6, 4–6
Win	17–10	Nov 2015	Valencia Open, Spain	250 Series	Hard (i)	Scott Lipsky	Feliciano López   Max Mirnyi	7–6^(7–4), 6–3
Loss	17–11	Jan 2016	Auckland Open, New Zealand	250 Series	Hard	Scott Lipsky	Mate Pavić   Michael Venus	5–7, 4–6
Win	18–11	May 2016	Estoril Open, Portugal (3)	250 Series	Clay	Scott Lipsky	Łukasz Kubot   Marcin Matkowski	6–4, 3–6, [10–8]

Doubles 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.

Current till 2016 US Open.

Tournament	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	SR	W-L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	2R	3R	1R	QF	SF	QF	3R	F	3R	2R	0 / 10	23–10
French Open	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	3R	2R	2R	1R	3R	0 / 10	6–10
Wimbledon	3R	2R	2R	1R	2R	2R	1R	3R	2R	A	0 / 9	9–9
US Open	2R	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	QF	3R	1R	0 / 10	9–10
Win–loss	4–4	3–4	1–4	3–4	6–4	7–4	4–4	11–4	5–4	3-3	0 / 39	47–39

References

1. "Tennis: Murray needs new partner after ending his stretch with Booty". TheGuardian.com. August 2007.
2. Patton, Mark. "Gustavus Adolphus, Division III Tennis the Right Choice for Eric Butorac".
3. "Jamie Murray wins doubles title"
4. "San Jose Continues To Be Kind To Murray" March 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (last paragraph)
5. "Tennis Players – Scott Lipsky". ATP World Tour. Retrieved July 6, 2011.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eric Butorac.

• Eric Butorac at the Association of Tennis Professionals  
• Eric Butorac at the International Tennis Federation