The 21st century
United States · born Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1982 · right-handed · Newport champion 2003 and US Open semi-finalist 2005
All playersBack to the rankings
3
ATP singles titles, the first on grass at Newport in 2003
15
Career-high ranking, December 2005
4R
Best Wimbledon result, 2004
SF
2005 US Open, reached as an unseeded player
2003
First man to wear a sleeveless shirt at Wimbledon
Robby Ginepri was born in Fort Lauderdale in 1982 and grew up in Marietta, Georgia. He turned professional in 2001 and won his first ATP title on the grass at Newport in July 2003, aged 20. A year later he reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and won both his singles rubbers for the United States in a Davis Cup tie against Austria.
His best season was 2005. He won Indianapolis, reached the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Masters, and at the US Open went from unseeded to the semi-finals, where Andre Agassi beat him in five sets. He reached his career high of No. 15 that December. A third title followed at Indianapolis in 2009, and in 2010 he was the last American man left at Roland Garros, reaching the fourth round. He played at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
He retired in 2015, founded a performance academy in Marietta and became a USTA travelling coach. In 2018 he joined the US Davis Cup team as coach under Jim Courier, while also working with Frances Tiafoe.
| Newport 2003 | Seeded fourth, beat Grégory Carraz 6-3, 7-6 in the semi-finals and Jürgen Melzer 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 in the final for his first tour title |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon 2004 | Beat the world No. 5 Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-3, 6-4, 6-1, then lost in the fourth round to Sébastien Grosjean 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 |
| Wimbledon 2003 | Lost a long five-set first round to Arnaud Clément, wearing the first sleeveless shirt seen on a man at the Championships |
| Queen's 2008 | Lost in the second round to Andy Roddick, then in the first round at Wimbledon to Fernando González |
| Newport, Rhode Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Men's singles Hall of Fame Open | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"I've been waiting for this day for a while"
The person behind the player.
Wimbledon, June 2003
Sleeveless shirts were allowed for men at Wimbledon for the first time in 2003. Ginepri, from Marietta, was the first to wear one, in a long five-set first-round match against Arnaud Clément on Court 18. The Compendium records that he wore it proudly.
Source: Wimbledon Compendium 2025Newport, July 2003
After beating Grégory Carraz to reach his first tour final, he said: "You work so hard throughout the tournament. Just one more match to go." He then beat Jürgen Melzer in three sets for the title.
Source: The Vindicator, 16 July 2003Davis Cup, 2004
The following year he met Melzer again, in his only officially recorded Davis Cup tie. He beat him in five sets to open the United States' win over Austria, then won the dead fifth rubber against Stefan Koubek.
Source: USTANew York, September 2005
Unseeded at the US Open, he beat the eighth seed Guillermo Coria 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 after trailing by a break in the fifth set. "I'm a little foggy, a little dizzy. It's crazy. Crazy!" he said. "The last three matches took so much out of me, I'm just dead right now."
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (Associated Press), 8 September 2005Davis Cup, 2018
When he joined the Davis Cup staff in 2018, Jim Courier said he "checks all the boxes". By then he had worked as a travelling coach for young Americans including Stefan Kozlov, Noah Rubin and Frances Tiafoe.
Source: USTAFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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