Eric Butorac (born May 22, 1981), nicknamed Booty,[1] is an American retired professional tennis player. He was a doubles specialist, and for a period of approximately six years was the No. 3 ranked American doubles player. His best result was reaching the 2014 Australian Open finals with partner Raven Klaasen. Their run to the final included a victory over the World No. 1 team of Bob and Mike Bryan.

Eric Butorac
Butorac at the 2013 French Open
Country (sports) United States
ResidenceCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Born (1981-05-22) May 22, 1981 (age 43)
Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Turned pro2003
Retired2016
PlaysLeft-handed (two-handed backhand)
CollegeBall State Cardinals
Gustavus Adolphus College
Prize money$1,728,454
Singles
Career record0–0
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 935 (January 16, 2006)
Doubles
Career record269–242 (in ATP Tour and Grand Slam main draw matches, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles18
Highest rankingNo. 17 (August 29, 2011)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenF (2014)
French Open3R (2012, 2016)
Wimbledon3R (2007, 2014)
US OpenQF (2014)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open1R (2011, 2012, 2015)
French OpenSF (2014)
Wimbledon3R (2013, 2014)
US Open2R (2016)
Last updated on: December 13, 2016.

He attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he played on the men's tennis team for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he graduated in 2003.

Family

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Butorac is of Croatian descent. Butorac's parents, Jan and Tim Butorac, are directors of the Rochester Tennis Connection (Indoor & Outdoor site) in Rochester, Minnesota. His brother, Jeff, is a basketball coach at Century High School. Tim Butorac is a USPTA professional, teaching tennis at the Rochester Indoor Tennis Club during the winter and at the Kutzky/Rochester Outdoor Tennis Center during the summer months.

College career

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Eric Butorac played at Ball State University for one year before transferring to Gustavus Adolphus College. He has a long history with Gustavus: his father played for coach Steve Wilkinson, and, at age five, Eric attended tennis camp with Wilkinson. He closed out his senior season of 2003 by winning both the NCAA Division III singles and doubles championships, with Kevin Whipple as his partner.[2]

Recent activity

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In July 2006, Butorac and Jamie Murray reached their first ATP Tour doubles final, in Los Angeles, losing in straight sets to the Bryan brothers, who were the world's top-ranked doubles team.

In early February 2007, the US-Scots pair claimed their first doubles title in a Challenger event in Dallas,[3] and a week later they won their first ATP title at the SAP Open.[4] They continued their winning run the following week when the unseeded pair defeated second seeds Julian Knowle and Jürgen Melzer, 7–5, 6–3, to capture the doubles title of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships at the Racquet Club of Memphis.[citation needed]

In April, May, and June 2009, Butorac and American Scott Lipsky won the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger, the Estoril Open in Portugal, and a tournament in Nottingham, England.[5]

In 2010, Butorac paired with Rajeev Ram to make the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He also won titles in Chennai (with Ram), Tokyo and Stockholm (with Rojer). He was on the 2010 roster of the Boston Lobsters in the World Team Tennis pro league.

In 2011, Butorac had his best season reaching a career-high ranking of no. 17, and finishing as the no. 9 team in the world with partner Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands. They won three titles and made the semifinals of the Australian Open.

In 2012, Butorac made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and won the doubles title in São Paulo (with Bruno Soares).

In 2013, Butorac made it to the Round of 16 at the Australian Open and won the doubles title in Kuala Lumpur with Raven Klaasen.

In 2014, Butorac started his year with reaching the final of the Australian Open. He then went on to win titles in Memphis and Stockholm. All of these were with partner Raven Klaasen.

Off court

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In 2009 Butorac started the Minnesota Tennis Challenge, a charity event to benefit St. Paul Urban Tennis. Participants included Bob and Mike Bryan, Justin Gimelstob, Rajeev Ram, Melanie Oudin, and Somdev Devvarman. Butorac is a regular speaker at coaching conventions and USTA showcases around the country.

Starting in 2010, Butorac has been the volunteer assistant coach at Harvard University. He is one of only three players from the NCAA Division III ranks to ever make a living on the tour.

Butorac was the president of the ATP Player's Council. He succeeded Roger Federer as president (whom he served under as VP for the previous term). He was succeeded by Novak Djokovic on August 30, 2016.

In February 2022, Butorac was named Tournament Director of the Western & Southern Open. The Western & Southern Open features an ATP Masters 1000 as well as a WTA 1000 tournament in the same week at the same venue, making it one of five events to host concurrent top tier tour tournaments.

Major finals

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Grand Slam finals

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Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

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Outcome Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 2014 Australian Open Hard   Raven Klaasen   Łukasz Kubot
  Robert Lindstedt
3–6, 3–6

ATP career finals

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Doubles: 29 (18 titles, 11 runners-up)

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Legend ( Doubles)
Grand Slam tournaments (0–1)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (2–2)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (16–8)
Titles by surface
Hard (12–9)
Clay (5–2)
Grass (1–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Jul 2006 Los Angeles Open, United States International Hard   Jamie Murray   Bob Bryan
  Mike Bryan
2–6, 4–6
Win 1–1 Feb 2007 Pacific Coast Championships, United States International Hard (i)   Jamie Murray   Chris Haggard
  Rainer Schüttler
7–5, 7–6(8–6)
Win 2–1 Feb 2007 U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States Intl. Gold Hard (i)   Jamie Murray   Jürgen Melzer
  Julian Knowle
7–5, 6–3
Win 3–1 Jun 2007 Nottingham Open, United Kingdom International Grass   Jamie Murray   Joshua Goodall
  Ross Hutchins
4–6, 6–3, [10–5]
Win 4–1 Aug 2008 Los Angeles Open, United States International Hard   Rohan Bopanna   Travis Parrott
  Dušan Vemić
7–6(7–5), 7–6(7–5)
Win 5–1 Jan 2009 Chennai Open, India 250 Series Hard   Rajeev Ram   Jean-Claude Scherrer
  Stan Wawrinka
6–3, 6–4
Win 6–1 May 2009 Estoril Open, Portugal 250 Series Clay   Scott Lipsky   Martin Damm
  Robert Lindstedt
6–3, 6–2
Win 7–1 Oct 2009 Thailand Open, Thailand 250 Series Hard (i)   Rajeev Ram   Guillermo García López
  Mischa Zverev
7–6(7–4), 6–3
Loss 7–2 May 2010 Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany 250 Series Clay   Michael Kohlmann   Oliver Marach
  Santiago Ventura
7–5, 3–6, [14–16]
Loss 7–3 Aug 2010 Los Angeles Open, United States (2) 250 Series Hard   Jean-Julien Rojer   Bob Bryan
  Mike Bryan
7–6(8–6), 2–6, [7–10]
Win 8–3 Oct 2010 Japan Open, Japan 500 Series Hard   Jean-Julien Rojer   Andreas Seppi
  Dmitry Tursunov
6–3, 6–2
Win 9–3 Oct 2010 Stockholm Open, Sweden 250 Series Hard (i)   Jean-Julien Rojer   Johan Brunström
  Jarkko Nieminen
6–3, 6–4
Loss 9–4 Feb 2011 U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States 500 Series Hard (i)   Jean-Julien Rojer   Max Mirnyi
  Daniel Nestor
2–6, 7–6(8–6), [3–10]
Win 10–4 May 2011 Estoril Open, Portugal (2) 250 Series Clay   Jean-Julien Rojer   Marc López
  David Marrero
6–3, 6–4
Win 11–4 May 2011 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur, France 250 Series Clay   Jean-Julien Rojer   Santiago González
  David Marrero
6–3, 6–4
Win 12–4 Oct 2011 Malaysian Open, Malaysia 250 Series Hard (i)   Jean-Julien Rojer   František Čermák
  Filip Polášek
6–1, 6–3
Loss 12–5 Nov 2011 Valencia Open, Spain 500 Series Hard (i)   Jean-Julien Rojer   Bob Bryan
  Mike Bryan
4–6, 6–7(9–11)
Win 13–5 Feb 2012 Brasil Open, Brazil 250 Series Clay   Bruno Soares   Michal Mertiňák
  André Sá
3–6, 6–4, [10–8]
Loss 13–6 Oct 2012 Thailand Open, Thailand 250 Series Hard (i)   Paul Hanley   Lu Yen-hsun
  Danai Udomchoke
3–6, 4–6
Loss 13–7 Jan 2013 Brisbane International, Australia 250 Series Hard   Paul Hanley   Marcelo Melo
  Tommy Robredo
6–4, 1–6, [5–10]
Loss 13–8 May 2013 Bavarian International Tennis Championships, Germany 250 Series Clay   Marcos Baghdatis   Jarkko Nieminen
  Dmitry Tursunov
1–6, 4–6
Win 14–8 Sep 2013 Malaysian Open, Malaysia (2) 250 Series Hard (i)   Raven Klaasen   Pablo Cuevas
  Horacio Zeballos
6–2, 6–4
Loss 14–9 Jan 2014 Australian Open, Australia Grand Slam Hard   Raven Klaasen   Łukasz Kubot
  Robert Lindstedt
3–6, 3–6
Win 15–9 Feb 2014 U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships, United States 250 Series Hard (i)   Raven Klaasen   Bob Bryan
  Mike Bryan
6–4, 6–4
Win 16–9 Oct 2014 Stockholm Open, Sweden (2) 250 Series Hard (i)   Raven Klaasen   Treat Huey
  Jack Sock
6–4, 6–3
Loss 16–10 Aug 2015 Winston-Salem Open, United States 250 Series Hard   Scott Lipsky   Dominic Inglot
  Robert Lindstedt
2–6, 4–6
Win 17–10 Nov 2015 Valencia Open, Spain 250 Series Hard (i)   Scott Lipsky   Feliciano López
  Max Mirnyi
7–6(7–4), 6–3
Loss 17–11 Jan 2016 Auckland Open, New Zealand 250 Series Hard   Scott Lipsky   Mate Pavić
  Michael Venus
5–7, 4–6
Win 18–11 May 2016 Estoril Open, Portugal (3) 250 Series Clay   Scott Lipsky   Łukasz Kubot
  Marcin Matkowski
6–4, 3–6, [10–8]

Doubles performance timeline

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Current till 2016 US Open.

Tournament 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 SR W-L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open 2R 3R 1R QF SF QF 3R F 3R 2R 0 / 10 23–10
French Open 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 3R 2R 2R 1R 3R 0 / 10 6–10
Wimbledon 3R 2R 2R 1R 2R 2R 1R 3R 2R A 0 / 9 9–9
US Open 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R QF 3R 1R 0 / 10 9–10
Win–loss 4–4 3–4 1–4 3–4 6–4 7–4 4–4 11–4 5–4 3-3 0 / 39 47–39

References

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  1. ^ "Tennis: Murray needs new partner after ending his stretch with Booty". TheGuardian.com. August 2007.
  2. ^ Patton, Mark. "Gustavus Adolphus, Division III Tennis the Right Choice for Eric Butorac".
  3. ^ "Jamie Murray wins doubles title"
  4. ^ "San Jose Continues To Be Kind To Murray" Archived March 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (last paragraph)
  5. ^ "Tennis Players – Scott Lipsky". ATP World Tour. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
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