Brian Vahaly

Brian Vahaly (born July 19, 1979) is an American former professional tennis player and a graduate of University of Virginia.<ref name="Rat">Vahaly retires on his own terms</ref> He reached the quarterfinals of the 2003 Indian Wells Masters (defeating world no. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero en route) and achieved a career-high of world no. 57 in March 2003. He is currently the Chairman of the Board and President of the USTA.

Early career

He began playing tennis at the age of two with his parents Barry and Karen. As a junior, Brian Vahaly captured the Easter Bowl 18s title and reached the final of the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica in 1997. His best junior Grand Slam result was reaching the quarterfinal at Wimbledon that same year, where he finished 17th in the world junior rankings.

Vahaly proceeded to play four years of collegiate tennis at the University of Virginia from 1998 to 2001, where he was a three-time All-American and finished as the school's most successful player.<ref name="Rat"/> In 2000, he won the United States Amateur Championships (Men's Tennis). In 2001, Vahaly reached the singles final at the NCAA Championships, and lost in the doubles semifinal with Huntley Montgomery, but finished as the no. 1 player in doubles and no. 5 in singles (40-6).

Vahaly became UVA's first tennis All-American in 1999 and during the previous season was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of Year. In his last two seasons, he was a two-time ACC Player of Year, and as a senior, he was named the University of Virginia Male Athlete of Year. He graduated with two majors in Finance and Business Management, and finished his career at Virginia as an Academic All-American. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of University of Virginia Men's Tennis.

Professional career

In 2002, Vahaly enjoyed a breakthrough season on the ATP circuit, advancing to the semifinals of Memphis (falling to Andy Roddick) and the quarterfinals of Indian Wells. He defeated three top 10 ranked players Fernando González, (2003 French Open Champion and former world no. 1) Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Tommy Robredo at Indian Wells and later teamed with Andy Roddick in Washington, D.C., to defeat the no. 1 ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan. During the year he also posted wins over Michael Chang and Vince Spadea. Vahaly was the only college graduate in the top 100 in the world and was recognized by People magazine in its issue of the 25 Hottest Bachelors. In March 2003, he reached his career high singles ranking of world no. 57.

In 2004-2007, Vahaly spent most of the year on the ATP circuit playing events in Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Newport, Houston, Indian Wells, San Jose, Adelaide, and the Australian Open (losing to finalist Marat Safin).

Vahaly played his last tournament at the U.S. Open losing to Juan Martín del Potro. After the tournament, Vahaly revealed that the shoulder injury had plagued him for some time. On September 7, 2007, Brian underwent surgery to repair several tears to his right rotator cuff. He had two additional surgeries later that year.

Retirement

In November 2007, Vahaly announced his retirement from professional tennis on his website. He had three shoulder surgeries from 2006 to 2007. He moved to Washington, D.C., to work for a private equity fund. In 2013, Vahaly began serving on the USTA board of directors and then became the chief operating officer at two different venture capital firms, Venturehouse Group and NextGen Venture Partners.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Vahaly has recently elected to serve as the Chairman of the Board and President of the USTA and US Open for the 2025-2026 term.Template:Cn. He is also currently a Senior Advisor at Brown Advisory.

Personal life

Vahaly came out as gay in 2017 in a podcast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He is married to Bill Jones, with whom he is raising two twin boys.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He is one of very few out male professional tennis players, and the first gay man to publicly come out after playing on the ATP Tour.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 15 (10–5)

Legend ATP Challenger (5–4) ITF Futures (5–1)

Finals by surface Hard (9–4) Clay (1–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Template:Dts	USA F17-A, Quogue	Futures	Clay	Template:Flagicon Bjorn Jacob	5–7, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	1–1	Template:Dts	USA F17-B, Pittsburgh	Futures	Clay	Template:Flagicon Jaymon Crabb	3–6, 6–1, 4–6
Win	2–1	Template:Dts	Jamaica F1-A, Montego Bay	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon Julien Cassaigne	3–6, 6–1, 6–0
Win	3–1	Template:Dts	Jamaica F1, Negril	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon Daniel Willman	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Win	4–1	Template:Dts	USA F28, Laguna Niguel	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon John Doran	7–6(7–3), 6–2
Win	5–1	Template:Dts	USA F4, Brownsville	Futures	Hard	Template:Flagicon Nicolas Todero	6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Win	6–1	Template:Dts	Hamilton, New Zealand	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Louis Vosloo	6–2, 5–7, 6–4
Loss	6–2	Template:Dts	Tarzana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Eric Taino	2–6, 6–7(6–8)
Win	7–2	Template:Dts	Tallahassee, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Justin Gimelstob	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Win	8–2	Template:Dts	Aptos, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Noam Behr	2–6, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	8–3	Template:Dts	Champaign-Urbana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Paul Goldstein	3–6, 1–6
Loss	8–4	Template:Dts	College Station, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Andre Sa	3–6, 0–6
Win	9–4	Template:Dts	Tallahassee, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Justin Gimelstob	6–4, 6–0
Loss	9–5	Template:Dts	Bronx, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Thierry Ascione	2–6, 3–6
Win	10–5	Template:Dts	Calabasas, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Denis Gremelmayr	3–6, 6–2, 6–2

Doubles: 7 (3–4)

Legend ATP Challenger (3–4) ITF Futures (0–0)

Finals by surface Hard (3–3) Clay (0–1) Grass (0–0) Carpet (0–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Template:Dts	Dallas, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Huntley Montgomery	Template:Flagicon Giorgio Galimberti Template:Flagicon Frederic Niemeyer	6–7(1–7), 4–6
Loss	0–2	Template:Dts	Rocky Mount, United States	Challenger	Clay	Template:Flagicon Huntley Montgomery	Template:Flagicon Mark Merklein Template:Flagicon Eric Taino	3–6, 4–6
Loss	0–3	Template:Dts	Tallahassee, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Huntley Montgomery	Template:Flagicon Levar Harper-Griffith Template:Flagicon Jeff Williams	3–6, 6–4, 4–6
Win	1–3	Template:Dts	Waikoloa, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Scott Humphries	Template:Flagicon Brandon Coupe Template:Flagicon Travis Parrott	6–3, 7–6(7–3)
Win	2–3	Template:Dts	College Station, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Paul Goldstein	Template:Flagicon Andre Sa Template:Flagicon Bruno Soares	7–5, 2–6, 6–4
Loss	2–4	Template:Dts	Austin, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Robert Kendrick	Template:Flagicon Andre Sa Template:Flagicon Bruno Soares	3–6, 1–6
Win	3–5	Template:Dts	Bronx, United States	Challenger	Hard	Template:Flagicon Cecil Mamiit	Template:Flagicon Julien Benneteau Template:Flagicon Nicolas Mahut	6–4, 6–4

Wins over top-10 players

• Vahaly has a Template:Tennis record record against players who were ranked in the top 10 at the time the match was played.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Player	Template:Abbr	Event	Surface	Template:Abbr	Score	Template:Abbr	Template:Abbr
2003
Template:Flagicon Juan Carlos Ferrero	3	Indian Wells Open, United States	Hard	2R	6–4, 3–6, 6–3	140	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

• Template:ATP
• Template:ITF profile
• TENNIS: U.S. Team Picked For the Davis Cup