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 name	Michael T. Joyce
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, Florida, United States
Born	(1973-02-01) February 1, 1973 (age 51) Santa Monica, California, United States
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Turned pro	1991
Retired	2003
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)^[1]
Prize money	$756,999
Singles
Career record	46–67
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 64 (8 April 1996)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	2R (1996, 1997)
French Open	1R (1998)
Wimbledon	4R (1995)
US Open	2R (1991, 1993)
Doubles
Career record	8–21
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 181 (9 June 2003)
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon	1R (1995)
US Open	1R (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	Leonardo Lavalle	6–1, 7–6
Loss	1–1	Sep 1994	Seoul, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	David Nainkin	7–6, 3–6, 5–7
Loss	1–2	Nov 1994	Glendale, United States	Challenger	Hard	Christian Ruud	1–6, 3–6
Win	2–2	Dec 1994	[São Luís, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Roger Smith	6–3, 6–7, 7–6
Win	3–2	Dec 1998	USA F10, Phoenix	Futures	Hard	Thomas Blake	6–4, 6–4
Win	4–2	Mar 2000	[Hamilton, New Zealand	Challenger	Hard	Gouichi Motomura	4–6, 6–4, 6–4
Loss	4–3	Sep 2001	Tarzana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Levar Harper-Griffith	6–7^(6–8), 3–6
Win	5–3	Nov 2002	USA F27, Hammond	Futures	Hard	Tripp Phillips	7–6^(10–8), 7–6^(7–1)
Win	6–3	Feb 2003	Great Britain F4, Redbridge	Futures	Hard	Stefano Pescosolido	6–4, 3–6, 6–2
Loss	6–4	Mar 2003	USA F6, Mobile	Futures	Hard	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	Scott Melville	Mahesh Bhupathi   Leander Paes	4–6, 6–4, 6–7
Loss	0–2	Jul 1997	Flushing Meadows, United States	Challenger	Hard	David Witt	Geoff Grant   Mark Merklein	1–6, 4–6
Loss	0–3	Oct 1999	Japan F6, Fukuoka	Futures	Carpet	Kyle Spencer	Tasuku Iwami   Ryuso Tsujino	6–4, 6–7, 4–6
Loss	0–4	Nov 1999	Yokohama, Japan	Challenger	Carpet	Kyle Spencer	Satoshi Iwabuchi   Thomas Shimada	2–6, 4–6
Loss	0–5	Mar 2000	[Hamilton, New Zealand	Challenger	Hard	Jim Thomas	Neville Godwin   Michael Hill	6–7^(4–7), 4–6
Win	1–5	Jul 2000	USA F17, Chico	Futures	Hard	Luke Smith	Zack Fleishman   Robert Kendrick	7–6^(7–3), 6–7^(3–7), 6–1
Win	2–5	Sep 2001	Tarzana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Zack Fleishman	Kyle Spencer   Glenn Weiner	6–1, 5–7, 7–6^(8–6)
Win	3–5	Jul 2002	Granby, Canada	Challenger	Hard	Noam Behr	Thomas Dupre   Simon Larose	6–0, 6–3
Loss	3–6	Aug 2002	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Denis Golovanov	Daniel Melo   Marcelo Melo	3–6, 4–6
Loss	3–7	Aug 2002	Gramado, Brazil	Challenger	Hard	Denis Golovanov	Alessandro Guevara   Dejan Petrovic	6–3, 5–7, 2–6
Win	4–7	Mar 2003	USA F6, Mobile	Futures	Hard	Kevin Kim	Josh Goffi   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
Loss	1991	Wimbledon	Grass	Thomas Enqvist	4–6, 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

Tournament	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	SR	W–L	Win %
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

Tournament	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	SR	W–L	Win %
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. 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.

External links

• Michael Joyce at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Michael Joyce at the International Tennis Federation  
• Esquire: "The String Theory," July 1996