Jamie Baker

Country (sports)	Great Britain
Residence	Glasgow, Scotland
Born	(1986-08-05)5 August 1986 (age 39) Glasgow,Scotland
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Turned pro	2004
Retired	2013
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach	Keith Reynolds (2004–2013)
Prize money	$401,380
Singles
Career record	7–20
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 186 (25 June 2012)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	1R (2008,2013)
French Open	Q2 (2012)
Wimbledon	1R (2006,2007,2008,2010,2012)
US Open	Q3 (2007)
Doubles
Career record	1–3
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 306 (1 November 2010)
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon	1R (2007,2013)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	1R (2008)
Last updated on: 2 July 2021.

Jamie Baker (born 5 August 1986) is a retired British professional maletennis player, who was British No. 2 in 2008.^[2]

He won the first match ofLeon Smith's tenure as Davis Cup captain, in the tie againstTurkey, helping Great Britain to a first Davis Cup win in three years.

Baker has twelve Futures single titles; in doubles, he has 1 Challenger and four Futures titles.

After retiring from tennis, Baker moved into Corporate Finance for a bank,^[3] whilst also being a part-time television pundit for Eurosport and the BBC.^[2]

Baker's parents are Gordon and Lynn, and he has an older brother Steven. Baker first picked up a tennis racket at four, and holidayed atCenter Parcs where he and Steven would win adult competitions.

Baker went to junior tournaments all over the UK, and met theMurraybrothers. Their motherJudy Murray counselled the Bakers that the best way to progress, would be for Jamie to leave home and move to theLTA Tennis Academy in Loughborough. Lynne and Gordon met host families who might look after their son, but decided they couldn't let Jamie go by himself. Gordon relocated to his company's office in Loughborough, while Lynn stayed in Glasgow. At Loughborough, Baker realised that he was in the second tier of junior players, but he was the only one in his group dedicated enough to compete on the senior tour.^[2]

His brother Steven is an international squash player.

He had a fairly successful junior career, peaking as high as 6 in the juniorITF rankings. He reached the quarter-finals of juniorWimbledon in 2004, and in the same year won the 18 and under national championships. He won a grade 1 junior event inVenezuela, before turning professional at the age of 18.

In 2005 Jamie began playing on the futures and challengers tours. His most successful challenger result was a quarter-final at the Burnie Challenger in February 2006. He made his ATP Tour debut by virtue of wild cards at the 2006Artois Championship and played atthe 2006 Wimbledon Championships.

Baker made his debut for theGreat Britain Davis Cup team in September 2006 in the crucial relegationplay-off against Ukraine. Great Britain won the tie 3–2, although Jamie lost his match, the fifth rubber, 6–3 7–6 againstSergei Bubka.

Baker continued in Challenger tournaments, reaching the final in Waikoloa and making semi finals at places like Lexington and Knowville. He also achieved his first ATP Tour victory, againstAlexander Peya, at the 2007 Artois Championships.

He made a second Davis Cup appearance in theWorld Group Play-off against Croatia onNo. 1 Court,Wimbledon in September. With Great Britain leading 4–0, Baker played the dead rubber, losing 6–4 6–4 againstMarin Čilić. Britain won the tie 4–1 and qualified for the 2008 World Group. He finished the season ranked as Britain's number 3 player.

In November, he was invited to practise withPete Sampras at his home.

Baker made a positive start to 2008 by qualifying for the Australian Open. He disposed of 9th seed (Q) Yuri Shukin 6–2 6–0 and then battling pastAlexander Peya 6–4 7–6 to reach the final round where he defeatedDaniel Köllerer 6–46–4. Though he was defeated in the first round byIvo Karlović, his result of 6–4 6–4 6–7 6–4 was described as highly creditable^[4]

Baker later played in his first 'live' Davis Cup rubber in theWorld Group first round match againstArgentina. Though he lost the opener toDavid Nalbandian (#9), and with Argentina winning 4–0, he gained his first Davis Cup win by beating clay court specialistAgustín Calleri (#41) 7–6, 6–4 in the final tie of the match. When the match finished, the Argentine fans who had been jeering throughout, rose as one to give him a standing ovation. Argentina had won their last ten home encounters 5–0, so Baker prevented the 2006 finalists taking their 11th successive 5–0 victory.^[2]

Following the Davis Cup, Jamie won 2 consecutive titles in $15,000 Futures Tournaments in Brownsville, Texas and Harlingen, Texas, becoming 211 in the world and British No 2.^[2]

Baker contractedIdiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) in April,^[5] and had to spend three days in intensive care in Florida. Fellow ScotJamie Murray noted that he was lucky to be alive. Baker had been likely to missWimbledon as a result,^[6] but was granted a wildcard for the tournament. He lost in the first round 4–6 2–6 3–6 to the ItalianStefano Galvani.^[7] ITP was debilitating; unable to train at his previous intensity for more than a year, and with the problem exacerbated by further injuries, Baker's ranking plummeted to 427 by the year's end.^[2]

Singles

Baker began the 2009 season playing on the futures tour, but won just twice in his first six tournaments of the year.^[8] In July he reached the semi-final of theGyeongsan event inKorea and in August reached the same stage of two tournaments inThailand, before winning the event inNonthaburi, Thailand at the end of the month.^[8] In September and October he played four futures events in Australia, winning in two and was runner-up in the others. Following this he returned to the challenger tour, losing his first qualifying match inCharlottesville toJermaine Jenkins. A week later he qualified for the main draw inKnoxville and won his first round tie againstRaven Klaasen before losing toTaylor Dent in the second round.^[8] He also reached the second round of the events inChampaign, Illinois andPuebla, Mexico later in November.^[8]

Doubles

Baker partnered fellow BritonChris Eaton at the start of the year, the pair winning theGlasgow futures event.^[9] They lost in the first round of their next event. Baker partnered Australian Mark McCook in Korea, but again lost in the first round. In August he resumed his partnership with Eaton and they reached the final of the Great Britain 11 futures event. In his next two doubles events, Baker partnered AustralianDane Propoggia, reaching the final of the first futures event, but losing in the first round of the second. With his move up to the Challenger tour, Baker partnered Australian Nima Roshan in Puebla, reaching the semi-final.^[9]

Rather than begin the year in Australia trying to qualify for the Australian Open, Baker chose to play in Futures events in the United Kingdom.^[10] He reached the final of the first one, losing to Chris Eaton inGlasgow.^[5]

In May, Baker won his only Challenger title, playing doubles withJames Ward at theSavannah Challenger.^[11]

In July,James Ward beat Baker in the final of the Great Britain F8 Futures in Manchester.^[12]

The new Davis Cup CaptainLeon Smith selected Baker to take part in Great Britain's vitalDavis Cup tie vs Turkey, at Eastbourne, in July alongsideJames Ward,Ken Skupski,Colin Fleming andAlex Ward(non player). Defeat would have meant Great Britain's relegation toEurope Zone Group III. Baker played his part in the victory by winning both his singles matches, Britain eventually triumphing 5–0, and giving Great Britain a first Davis Cup win in three years.^[13]

In March, Leon Smith announced his team for theEuro/Africa Zone Group II tie against Tunisia, but he sprang a surprise, omittingAlex Bogdanovic, having recalled the 26-year-old to the squad after a three-year absence. Instead, Smith's singles players were Ward (No 214) who lost at the first hurdle in six of his seven tournaments this year. and Baker (No 406), who had lost first time out in his last two events. Although Bogdanovic (No 374) had lost all six of his live Davis Cup rubbers, he had at least won a Futures tournament in the United States this year.^[14] Baker lost his opening singles match, but won his dead rubber, contributing to Great Britain's 4–1 victory.

In December, Baker spent nearly a month with his close friendAndy Murray at his luxurious winter training base in Miami,^[2] along withJames Ward,Ross Hutchins andOliver Golding.^[15][16]

Baker qualified for the main draw of the2013 Australian Open, beatingDonald Young in three sets in the final qualifier.^[17] He was defeated byLukáš Rosol of the Czech Republic in the first round.

In May, Baker decided to retire, but wanted to have one more go by playing on his best surface, grass.There was success in the preliminaries in Nottingham and at Queens, and then for his last match, defeat in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying, againstIgor Kunitsyn, a Russian baseliner who had once been in the top 50.^[2]

On 29 June Baker announced his retirement from tennis.^[18][19]

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	May 2005	Mexico F4,Celaya	Futures	Hard	Marcelo Melo	6–3, 5–7, 6–3
Loss	1–1	Jul 2005	USA F19,Godfrey	Futures	Hard	Sam Warburg	6–7(6–8), 3–6
Loss	1–2	Oct 2005	Great Britain F13,Edinburgh	Futures	Hard	Mark Hilton	3–6, 3–6
Win	2–2	Oct 2005	Great Britain F14,Bolton	Futures	Hard	Ladislav Chramosta	6–3, 6–2
Loss	2–3	Feb 2006	Australia F2,Wollongong	Futures	Hard	Satoshi Iwabuchi	2–6, 6–7(4–7)
Loss	2–4	Mar 2006	New Zealand F2,Hamilton	Futures	Hard	Konstantinos Economidis	4–6, 0–6
Win	3–4	May 2006	Greece F3,Kalamata	Futures	Hard	Josh Goodall	6–3, 6–3
Win	4–4	Sep 2006	Great Britain F14,Nottingham	Futures	Hard	Jonathan Marray	6–1, 6–1
Loss	4–5	Jan 2007	Waikoloa, United States	Challenger	Hard	Michael Russell	1–6, 5–7
Win	5–5	Mar 2007	Great Britain F6,Sunderland	Futures	Hard	Gary Lugassy	6–4, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
Loss	5–6	Sep 2007	Great Britain F18,Nottingham	Futures	Hard	Josh Goodall	3–6, 4–6
Win	6–6	Feb 2008	USA F4,Brownsville	Futures	Hard	Kevin Anderson	7–6(7–1), 6–4
Win	7–6	Mar 2008	USA F5,Harlingen	Futures	Hard	Jurek Stasiak	6–2, 7–6(7–5)
Win	8–6	Sep 2009	Thailand F3,Nonthaburi	Futures	Hard	Daniel King-Turner	6–4, 6–4
Loss	8–7	Sep 2009	Australia F5,Darwin	Futures	Hard	Dayne Kelly	4–6, 4–6
Win	9–7	Sep 2009	Australia F6,Darwin	Futures	Hard	John Millman	6–4, 2–6, 6–3
Win	10–7	Oct 2009	Australia F7,Happy Valley	Futures	Hard	Robert Smeets	6–1, 6–3
Loss	10–8	Oct 2009	Australia F8,Port Pirie	Futures	Hard	Matthew Ebden	2–6, 4–6
Loss	10–9	Jan 2010	Great Britain F1,Glasgow	Futures	Hard	Chris Eaton	4–6, 4–6
Loss	10–10	Jul 2010	Great Britain F8,Manchester	Futures	Grass	James Ward	2–6, 6–7(1–7)
Win	11–10	Aug 2011	Great Britain F12,London	Futures	Hard	Edward Corrie	6–1, 4–6, 6–1
Win	12–10	Apr 2012	Mexico F3,Córdoba	Futures	Hard	Adam El Mihdawy	6–3, 6–2

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Dec 2003	Spain F30,Orense	Futures	Hard	Adrian Cruciat	Guillem Burniol Israel Matos Gil	6–4, 6–4
Win	2–0	Mar 2007	Great Britain F5,Jersey	Futures	Hard	Aisam Qureshi	Ross Hutchins Josh Goodall	6–2, 7–6(7–2)
Win	3–0	Mar 2007	Great Britain F6,Sunderland	Futures	Hard	Aisam Qureshi	Sam Groth Andrew Coelho	6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Loss	3–1	Nov 2007	Knoxville, United States	Challenger	Hard	Brendan Evans	Sam Warburg Harel Levy	6–3, 2–6, [6–10]
Win	4–1	Jan 2009	Great Britain F1,Glasgow	Futures	Hard	Chris Eaton	Romain Jouan Pierrick Ysern	7–5, 6–0
Loss	4–2	Aug 2009	Great Britain F11,Ottershaw	Futures	Hard	Chris Eaton	Tim Bradshaw Dominic Inglot	6–4, 6–7(2–7), [3–10]
Loss	4–3	Sep 2009	Australia F5,Darwin	Futures	Hard	Dane Propoggia	Matthew Ebden Sadik Kadir	4–6, 5–7
Win	5–3	May 2010	Savannah, United States	Challenger	Clay	James Ward	Bobby Reynolds Fritz Wolmarans	6–3, 6–4
Loss	5–4	May 2011	Busan, South Korea	Challenger	Hard	Vasek Pospisil	Danai Udomchoke Im Kyu-Tae	4–6, 4–6

• Jamie Baker at theAssociation of Tennis Professionals
• Jamie Baker at theInternational Tennis Federation
• Jamie Baker at theDavis Cup (archived)
• LTA Profile

• 1986 births
• Living people
• Scottish male tennis players
• British male tennis players
• Tennis players from Glasgow
• 21st-century Scottish sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2015
• Use British English from September 2015
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English