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Jim Gurfein

American tennis player

Summary

American tennis player

Field	Value
name	Jim Gurfein
country	USA
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, New York, U.S.
height
plays	Left-handed
singlestitles	0
highestsinglesranking	No. 96 (September 12, 1983)
AustralianOpenresult	2R (1981, 1983)
FrenchOpenresult	2R (1983)
Wimbledonresult	1R (1984)
USOpenresult	1R (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987)
doublestitles	1
highestdoublesranking	No. 100 (June 25, 1984)

Jim Gurfein (born January 4, 1961) is a former professional tennis player from the U.S. Gurfein reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 96 in September 1983.

Early years

Gurfein was born in New York City, and he is Jewish. Gurfein grew up in Great Neck, New York. He attended Great Neck North High School and Stanford University. While on tour, Gurfein kept a residence in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tennis career

Gurfein was runner-up of the 1981 NCAA singles tennis championship, falling to Stanford University teammate Tim Mayotte, and was an All American that year with teammates Mayotte, Scott Bondurant, and Scott Davis. He was a member of the U.S. Junior Davis Cup team in 1981.

In 1982, he won a doubles title in Cairo with Drew Gitlin. In July 1983, the 22-year-old Gurfein defeated world #22 Henri Leconte of France in a tournament in North Conway, New Hampshire and upset world #34 Christophe Roger-Vasselin in the Swedish Open in Båstad, Sweden.

Gurfein reached a career-high singles ranking of #96 in September 1983. He won one doubles title and reached his high doubles ranking of #100 in June 1984.

In 1984, he won the USTA Hawaiian Satellite tournament. In 1988, he defeated world #31 Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands in straight sets in a tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida and was a doubles winner in Seattle with Buff Farrow).

In 1986, Gurfein was participating in a tennis tour in Nigeria when, following a Bible study with fellow tennis pros Bud Cox and Morris Strode, Gurfein jumped through a hotel window while shouting "Jesus!" He suffered cuts and bruises and the three players were sent home from the tour. According to officials, Gurfein, Cox and Strode said that they had seen God, tore up their passports, cash and other possessions and threw them out of a seventh-floor window. Fellow tennis pro Bobby Banck said that the three men had twice broken into his hotel room in the middle of the night to urge him to "give up tennis and find the Lord." Banck had to call hotel security to remove the players from his room.

Career finals

Singles (1 loss)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Nov 1982	Bangkok, Thailand	Carpet (i)	USA Mike Bauer	1–6, 2–6

Doubles (1 win, 3 losses)

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents
Loss	0–1	Sep 1981	Bordeaux, France	Clay	SWE Anders Järryd	ECU Andrés Gómez
CHI Belus Prajoux	5–7, 3–6
Loss	0–2	Nov 1981	Manila, Philippines	Clay	USA Drew Gitlin	USA Mike Bauer
USA John Benson	4–6, 4–6
Win	1–2	Feb 1982	Cairo, Egypt	Clay	USA Drew Gitlin	SUI Heinz Günthardt
SUI Markus Günthardt	6–4, 7–5
Loss	0–3	Oct 1983	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	USA Erick Iskersky	SWE Anders Järryd
SWE Hans Simonsson	5–7, 3–6

References

"All-Americans".
"Jim Gurfein | Player Activity | Tennis".
(July 13, 1983). "Unseeded Americans Jim Gurfein and Scott Lipy n upset...".
(December 1, 1986). "3 Tennis Pros Leave Nigeria After Saying They Saw God". [[The New York Times]].
"Jim Gurfein ATP Match Results, Splits, and Analysis".
"Jim Gurfein | Bio | Tennis".
"Jim Gurfein Profile".
"Jim Gurfein {{!}} Overview {{!}} ATP World Tour {{!}} Tennis". ATP World Tour.
"Jim GURFEIN".
Sheldon Wallman. (March 12, 1982). "The Sports Scene".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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