Chris Bailey (tennis)
Encyclopedia
Chris Bailey is a former professional tennis
player (1987–1994), British No. 1 and ATP
world No. 126 (1989), now a television sports commentator
on tennis (BBC Sport
since 1995, Sky Sports
1995-2007) and football (One since February 2010), and a real estate property consultant in Australia.
grass court tournament, losing in the next round to former world No. 5 Henri Leconte
. Later that month he reached the second round at Wimbledon, losing to future world No. 4 Brad Gilbert
.
In June 1989 Chris reached the quarter-finals on grass at Queen's
and in August the semi-finals on hard court at Livingston, New Jersey
. These contributed to him reaching a career-high world ranking of No. 126 in October 1989, aged 21 years.
However, after playing at Wimbledon in June 1990 he damaged a ligament during a practice session and underwent right knee surgery in July, not returning to the tour until almost a year later in June 1991 at Queen's, but only playing in four other ATP tour tournaments during the rest of the year, and none until May 1992. His new coach from about this time was Nick Carr of New Zealand, later a coach of Martin Verkerk
from 2001.
At Wimbledon in 1993, entering as a wildcard while only ranked world No. 263, Chris beat world No. 90 Patrick McEnroe
(younger brother of John McEnroe
) in straight sets in the first round. In the second round Chris took the 5th seed Goran Ivanišević
(the previous year's runner-up and 2001 Champion) to 5 sets over 3 hours and 34 minutes until 8.40 pm on Centre Court in front of 14,000 supporters. Chris had won the first set 7-5 and third 7-6(3), with the second set also going to a tiebreak. In the fifth set Chris had match point at 6-5 on the Ivanisevic serve, with Goran serving a first serve fault and then a let (net cord), before serving a second serve ace to save the point, with Goran going on to finally win the set 9-7.
After Wimbledon, in July 1993, Chris went on to win the Bristol grass court Challenger singles tournament, beating countryman Tim Henman
(a future world No. 4) in the quarter-finals and Mark Knowles
(a future world No. 1 doubles player) in the final. Chris also reached the final of the 1993 British Championships, losing to 6-times champion Jeremy Bates.
In July 1994 Chris reached the singles semi-finals at Bristol. In August 1994 Chris reached his highest doubles world ranking of No. 211, having won the Bronx, New York, Challenger doubles tournament with 27-year-old Swedish tennis partner Lars-Anders Wahlgren.
A month later, Chris played his last professional match, at the relatively young age of 26, in September 1994, reaching the quarter finals of the Singapore Challenger doubles event with Wahlgren. He was then ranked world No. 256 in singles, having reached as high as No. 155 in November 1993. Chris was subsequently forced to retire from professional tennis due to injury, after undergoing seven knee operations. He had a career singles win-loss record of 17-34 on the ATP World Tour & Grand Slam circuit (doubles 3-15), with a 57-52 result on the singles ATP Challenger Tour, with total career prize money of $208,917. He competed in singles at 7 Wimbledon (1987–90, 1992–94) and 3 Australian (1988–89, 1993) Slams and also represented Great Britain in European and Davis Cup
(twice in 1989) competitions.
and BBC Radio
(e.g. 5 Live
). From 2002 until 2004 he was a presenter on Sky Sports News
. In 2005 he commentated on his first Wimbledon singles final, with Tracey Austin and John McEnroe. He was also host of Sky Sports tennis Masters Series
coverage, regularly appearing with fellow English tennis playing friends Mark Petchey
and Barry Cowan
. In about March 2007, Chris left Sky, with his host role being taken over by football commentator Marcus Buckland
, but Chris continued to commentate annually for the BBC for various Grand Slam
events, such as the Australian Open
, having commentated on more than a dozen Wimbledons by 2010.
From 8 February 2010 Chris has appeared as the host of the One HD weekly World Football News
program.
to set up in the property market. However it was stated later in the year that he had moved to Australia. He was later appointed Senior Manager with CB Richard Ellis
in Sydney
, focusing on leasing and private client sales across the North Shore
area. He is now an Associate Director of GJS Property, formed in about 2005 by three ex-Knight Frank
consultants, located beside the Sydney 2000 Olympics site, dealing with commercial property predominantly around the North Ryde
area.
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player (1987–1994), British No. 1 and ATP
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...
world No. 126 (1989), now a television sports commentator
Sports commentator
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
on tennis (BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
since 1995, Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
1995-2007) and football (One since February 2010), and a real estate property consultant in Australia.
Early life
Chris D. Bailey was born in Norwich in 1968 and grew up in Norfolk. In 1980 he won the under-12 British Championships, subsequently reaching the semi-finals in the under-16 (1984) and under-18 (1986) Championships. In 1985 he won the Cromer Lawn Tennis & Squash Association tournament, which now incorporates the Men's Open Championship of Norfolk. In 1986 he reached the junior Wimbledon quarter-finals. His nickname is Bails.Tennis career
Chris became a professional tennis player at the age of 19 in June 1987, with a provisional ranking of 625 in the world, winning his first match against fellow Englishman and world No. 202 Steve Shaw at the BristolBristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
grass court tournament, losing in the next round to former world No. 5 Henri Leconte
Henri Leconte
Henri Leconte is a former French professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991.-Biography and career:...
. Later that month he reached the second round at Wimbledon, losing to future world No. 4 Brad Gilbert
Brad Gilbert
Brad Gilbert , is an American tennis coach, a television tennis commentator, an author and former professional tennis player. He was born in Oakland, California and graduated from Piedmont High School ....
.
In June 1989 Chris reached the quarter-finals on grass at Queen's
Queen's Club Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. Between 1970 and 1989 it was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit. The event is now an ATP World Tour 250 series tournament on the Association of...
and in August the semi-finals on hard court at Livingston, New Jersey
Livingston, New Jersey
Livingston is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 29,366.Livingston was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on February 5, 1813, from portions of Caldwell Township and Springfield...
. These contributed to him reaching a career-high world ranking of No. 126 in October 1989, aged 21 years.
However, after playing at Wimbledon in June 1990 he damaged a ligament during a practice session and underwent right knee surgery in July, not returning to the tour until almost a year later in June 1991 at Queen's, but only playing in four other ATP tour tournaments during the rest of the year, and none until May 1992. His new coach from about this time was Nick Carr of New Zealand, later a coach of Martin Verkerk
Martin Verkerk
Martin Willem Verkerk is a retired Dutch tennis player. As a relatively unknown player, he had a brilliant run at the French Open in 2003, reaching the final before losing to Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero...
from 2001.
At Wimbledon in 1993, entering as a wildcard while only ranked world No. 263, Chris beat world No. 90 Patrick McEnroe
Patrick McEnroe
Patrick John McEnroe is a former professional tennis player and the former captain of the United States Davis Cup team.Born in Manhasset, New York, he is the younger brother of John McEnroe...
(younger brother of John McEnroe
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
) in straight sets in the first round. In the second round Chris took the 5th seed Goran Ivanišević
Goran Ivaniševic
Goran Ivanišević is a retired Croatian professional tennis player. He is best remembered for being the only person to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001, having previously been runner-up at the championships in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Ivanišević is famous...
(the previous year's runner-up and 2001 Champion) to 5 sets over 3 hours and 34 minutes until 8.40 pm on Centre Court in front of 14,000 supporters. Chris had won the first set 7-5 and third 7-6(3), with the second set also going to a tiebreak. In the fifth set Chris had match point at 6-5 on the Ivanisevic serve, with Goran serving a first serve fault and then a let (net cord), before serving a second serve ace to save the point, with Goran going on to finally win the set 9-7.
After Wimbledon, in July 1993, Chris went on to win the Bristol grass court Challenger singles tournament, beating countryman Tim Henman
Tim Henman
Timothy Henry "Tim" Henman OBE is a retired English professional tennis player and former British Number One. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis that suited the grass courts of Wimbledon. He was the first player from the United Kingdom since Roger Taylor in the 1970s to reach the...
(a future world No. 4) in the quarter-finals and Mark Knowles
Mark Knowles
Mark Knowles is a former World number 1 doubles professional male tennis player from the Bahamas, who will go down as one of the greatest athletes of his country for his longevity within his sport and charitable contributions off the court.After being awarded a scholarship to the Nick...
(a future world No. 1 doubles player) in the final. Chris also reached the final of the 1993 British Championships, losing to 6-times champion Jeremy Bates.
In July 1994 Chris reached the singles semi-finals at Bristol. In August 1994 Chris reached his highest doubles world ranking of No. 211, having won the Bronx, New York, Challenger doubles tournament with 27-year-old Swedish tennis partner Lars-Anders Wahlgren.
A month later, Chris played his last professional match, at the relatively young age of 26, in September 1994, reaching the quarter finals of the Singapore Challenger doubles event with Wahlgren. He was then ranked world No. 256 in singles, having reached as high as No. 155 in November 1993. Chris was subsequently forced to retire from professional tennis due to injury, after undergoing seven knee operations. He had a career singles win-loss record of 17-34 on the ATP World Tour & Grand Slam circuit (doubles 3-15), with a 57-52 result on the singles ATP Challenger Tour, with total career prize money of $208,917. He competed in singles at 7 Wimbledon (1987–90, 1992–94) and 3 Australian (1988–89, 1993) Slams and also represented Great Britain in European and Davis Cup
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...
(twice in 1989) competitions.
Commentating career
In 1995 Chris went to work as a commentator and summariser on BBC TV's Wimbledon tennis coverage and for Sky TV Sports. He also worked as a freelance journalist and regularly commentated on tennis for EurosportEurosport
Eurosport is a pan-European television sport network operated by French broadcaster TF1 Group. The network of channels are available in 59 countries, in 20 different languages providing viewers with European and international sporting events...
and BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
(e.g. 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
). From 2002 until 2004 he was a presenter on Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News is a 24-hour sports news channel in the United Kingdom. It is run by BSkyB whose sports channels include Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as Sky Sports HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4....
. In 2005 he commentated on his first Wimbledon singles final, with Tracey Austin and John McEnroe. He was also host of Sky Sports tennis Masters Series
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
The ATP World Tour Masters 1000 is a series of nine tennis tournaments that are part of the Association of Tennis Professionals tour, held annually throughout the year in Europe, North America and Asia...
coverage, regularly appearing with fellow English tennis playing friends Mark Petchey
Mark Petchey
Mark Dave Petchey is a former tennis player from England, who turned professional in 1988. The right-hander won one doubles title in his career. He reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 8 August 1994, when he became the number 80 of the world...
and Barry Cowan
Barry Cowan (tennis)
Barry Cowan is a former British tennis player, best known for taking Pete Sampras to five sets at Wimbledon in 2001.-Early years:Cowan attended the LTA Rover School at Bisham Abbey...
. In about March 2007, Chris left Sky, with his host role being taken over by football commentator Marcus Buckland
Marcus Buckland
Marcus Buckland has been one of Sky Sports main presenters for a decade. He fronted PremPlus for six years and covered Champions League and international football as well. He is also a regular frontman for their overseas test matches involving the West Indies, India and Pakistan. In March 2007...
, but Chris continued to commentate annually for the BBC for various Grand Slam
Grand Slam (tennis)
The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...
events, such as the Australian Open
Australian Open
The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...
, having commentated on more than a dozen Wimbledons by 2010.
From 8 February 2010 Chris has appeared as the host of the One HD weekly World Football News
World football news
World Football News is an Australian Soccer program, airing on One HD. It currently airs on Mondays at 10pm. It began airing on the 8th of February 2010. The one-hour panel-based show is hosted by Chris Bailey, while David Zdrillic and Željko Kalac feature on the panel as regular analysts...
program.
Property career
In early 2007 Chris was thought to have moved to FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
to set up in the property market. However it was stated later in the year that he had moved to Australia. He was later appointed Senior Manager with CB Richard Ellis
CB Richard Ellis
CBRE Group, Inc. , a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm . The Company has approximately 31,000 employees , and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices worldwide...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, focusing on leasing and private client sales across the North Shore
North Shore (Sydney)
The North Shore is an informal term used to describe the primarily residential area of northern metropolitan Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The term usually refers to the suburbs located on the north shore of Sydney Harbour between Middle Harbour and the Lane Cove River, up to...
area. He is now an Associate Director of GJS Property, formed in about 2005 by three ex-Knight Frank
Knight Frank LLP
Knight Frank LLP is a multinational real estate and property service firm founded in London in 1896. Knight Frank together with its New York-based affiliate Newmark Knight Frank is one of the world's leading independent global property consultancies....
consultants, located beside the Sydney 2000 Olympics site, dealing with commercial property predominantly around the North Ryde
North Ryde, New South Wales
North Ryde is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Ryde is located 15 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Ryde...
area.