Benjamin Nicholas Monroe (born April 12, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. Monroe was a doubles specialist. He reached a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 30 on 2 October 2017 and won four ATP Tour doubles titles and thirteen ATP Challenger Tour titles in his career.[1]
He briefly coached American player Jack Sock in the off season in 2022 and in 2023.[2][3]
College career
Monroe had a highly successful college career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2000 to 2004. His achievements include:
University of North Carolina's Senior Male Student-Athlete of the Year (2003–2004)
Recipient of the Arthur Ashe Regional Sportsmanship Award (2003–2004)
National and Regional NCAA/ITF John Van Nostrand Sportsmanship Awards (2003–2004)
Professional career
2001
Nicholas competed in doubles in his first main-draw Futures match. He and partner (compatriot) Tripp Phillips lost in the first round of USA F21. This was the only tour event he competed in 2001.[1]
Nicholas won his first Futures doubles match, partnering Yannis Vlachos to the semifinals of Slovenia F1.[1]
2004: Turned Pro
After playing only four Futures events in 2003, Monroe played, from June, a full schedule in 2004. In his first doubles tournament of the year, he reached his first final, partnering Jonathan Igbinovia. In August he reached his first singles semifinal, at Indonesia F2 in Makassar. In October, Monroe captured his first doubles Futures title, in doubles, partnering Márcio Torres, at Venezuela F3. He won a second two weeks later, Mexico F17, playing alongside Jeremy Wurtzman. Later in November, Monroe played in his first Challenger tournament, the Puebla Challenger in Puebla, Mexico, losing in the first round to Santiago González. In doubles, he and Wurtzman reached the semifinals. Three weeks later in Guadalajara, however, he won two Challenger matches to reach the quarterfinals.
2005
His first full year as a professional, Nicholas played ITF Circuit and USTA Pro Circuit events. He reached his first final and won his first singles title at the ITF Circuit event in South Africa, when he defeated Stephen Mitchell. Highly successful in doubles, Nick won four titles in 2005: with Jeremy Wurtzman at the USTA Pro Circuit event in Orange Park, Florida; with Izak van der Merwe at ITF Circuit events in Botswana and Zimbabwe; and with Sam Warburg at the ITF Circuit event in Israel.
Monroe competed in 29 events in 2005, all but one of which were Futures. He lost in the first round of his only main draw Challenger event singles match, to Zack Fleishman at the Cuenca Challenger. Monroe won his first singles title, South Africa F1 in late October, defeating Stephen Mitchell in the final.[1]
2006
Nicholas started the year by winning the ITF Circuit title in Costa Rica. A month later, he won another ITF title, this time in Nigeria. He reached the semifinals of a USTA Pro Circuit event in Little Rock, before reaching back-to-back finals in India. He lost to Karan Rastogi in Delhi and defeated Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya in Dehradun. He reached another ITF Circuit final in the fall in Japan, where he lost to Satoshi Iwabuchi. At the beginning of the year, Nick won consecutive doubles titles on the ITF Circuit with partner Sam Warburg in Mexico and Costa Rica.[1]
2007
Nicholas began the year by attempting to qualify for the 2007 Australian Open. He defeated Jeremy Chardy in his first round singles qualifying match. He reached consecutive ITF Futures events in Japan, where he lost to Gouichi Motomura both times. He won two titles at ITF Futures events in Mexico and won a USTA Pro Circuit event in Rochester, New York, where he defeated Robert Yim in the final. The fall of 2007 saw Monroe reach the semifinals of USTAPro Circuit events in Manchester, Texas, where he lost to eventual champion Michael McClune, and Waikoloa, Hawaii where he lost to Lester Cook. He partnered with Izak van der Merwe to win the USTA Pro Circuit doubles title in Brownsville, Texas.[1]
2012: Challenger circuit doubles success
Nicholas won the Challenger in Medellin, Colombia (doubles) with his partner Maciek Sykut.
He also won two doubles Challengers in Mexico with German partner, Simon Stadler.
[4]
2017–18: Continued doubles success: First Masters final & US Open quarterfinal, top 30 debut
Following three semi-final finishes in Chennai, Auckland and Quito all with Artem Sitak, Monroe reached a top 40 doubles ranking of No. 39 on 3 April 2017 after the biggest run of his career to the final of the 2017 Miami Open with Jack Sock.[5] He later peaked at a career-high of No. 30 on 2 October 2017 after reaching his ninth final at the 2017 ATP Shenzhen Open partnering Nikola Mektic.
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