Leif Shiras
Full name: George Livingston Shiras
Nickname: Leif
Nickname: Leif
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| Bio | Shiras attended high school at Shorewood High School in Shorewood, Wisconsin. Prior to his professional career, Shiras played tennis at Princeton University. He spent a very typical playing career for most American tennis players of his time: in the late 1970s, he studied at Princeton University for several years, while playing for him in the NCAA tennis league, where he established himself as an excellent high-level player, he was an NCAA All-American in 1979 and 1980. After graduation, Leif tried his hand at pro-tour and achieved local success relatively quickly, entering and gaining a foothold in the first hundred single player ratings. At this level, he regularly played in tournaments of the elite Grand Prix series and Grand Slam tournaments. During his career as a player, Shiras reached one top-level final – at the Queen's Club Championships in 1984, where he lost to John McEnroe 1–6, 6–3, 2–6 having beaten No.1. Ivan Lendl (7-5, 6-3) in the first round (Lendl lost the No.1 spot due to his defeat for a week). His best singles performance at a Grand Slam event came at Wimbledon in 1989, where he reached the fourth round. His career-high ranking was World No. 31 in singles (in 1984) and World No. 57 in doubles in (in 1988). The American doubles career was not unsuccessful either: in the men's doubles ranking he was able to enter the Top60, having achieved several semifinals at the Grand Prix competitions; and in the competitions among mixed couples, he’s listed one semi-final of the Grand Slam tournament: at the US Open-1985, where Leif and Katie Horvath lost only to future winners: Martina Navratilova and Heinz Gunthardt (6-4, 6-2). He won 3 Challenger singles titles: at Spring in 1983, Fukuoka in 1986 and Munich in 1987. In the early 1990s, the results of Shiras fell noticeably, and at the end of the 1991 season, the American ended his active playing career, though he then picked up a racket several times at exhibition competitions, and in the late 1990s he even played in the futures qualification next to with his place of residence then. Shiras retired from the professional tour in 1990. Having completed his playing career, Leif was in great demand on television as a leading and sports commentator, soon becoming one of the faces of tennis broadcasting on a number of major English-language channels. In 2003, with the organization of a profile tennis channel in the USA, Shiras became a member of his commentary team, along with other former players. Since then, he has worked as a tennis journalist, primarily as a commentator for the Tennis Channel, British Sky Sports and Fox Sports. In 1993, he moved from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to where he currently resides, in Laguna Hills, California, with his two sons, Emmett and Austin, and his wife Maria. Leif broke into broadcasting tennis with Barry MacKay as his partner. In 1995, Shiras won the Wimbledon over-35 men's doubles title (partnering Paul McNamee). In 2010, as the member of the Class of 2010, he was inducted into the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in Athens, Georgia. |
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