Jamie Baker

Jamie Baker (born 5 August 1986) is a retired British professional male tennis player, who was British No. 2 in 2008.

He won the first match of Leon Smith's tenure as Davis Cup captain, in the tie against Turkey, 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, whilst also being a part-time television pundit for Eurosport and the BBC.

Early and personal life 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 at Center Parcs where he and Steven would win adult competitions.

Baker went to junior tournaments all over the UK, and met the Murray brothers. Their mother Judy Murray counselled the Bakers that the best way to progress, would be for Jamie to leave home and move to the LTA 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.

Baker later played in his first 'live' Davis Cup rubber in the World Group first round match against Argentina. Though he lost the opener to David Nalbandian (#9), and with Argentina winning 4–0, he gained his first Davis Cup win by beating clay court specialist Agustín 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. and had to spend three days in intensive care in Florida. Fellow Scot Jamie Murray noted that he was lucky to be alive. Baker had been likely to miss Wimbledon as a result, but was granted a wildcard for the tournament. He lost in the first round 4–6 2–6 3–6 to the Italian Stefano Galvani. 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. In July he reached the semi-final of the Gyeongsan event in Korea and in August reached the same stage of two tournaments in Thailand, before winning the event in Nonthaburi, Thailand at the end of the month. 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 Australian Dane 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. He reached the final of the first one, losing to Chris Eaton in Glasgow.

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

The new Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith selected Baker to take part in Great Britain's vital Davis Cup tie vs Turkey, at Eastbourne, in July alongside James Ward, Ken Skupski, Colin Fleming and Alex Ward(non player). Defeat would have meant Great Britain's relegation to Europe 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.

2011

In March, Leon Smith announced his team for the Euro/Africa Zone Group II tie against Tunisia, but he sprang a surprise, omitting Alex 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. Baker lost his opening singles match, but won his dead rubber, contributing to Great Britain's 4–1 victory.

2012

In December, Baker spent nearly a month with his close friend Andy Murray at his luxurious winter training base in Miami,

2013 Baker qualified for the main draw of the 2013 Australian Open, beating Donald Young in three sets in the final qualifier. He was defeated by Lukáš 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, against Igor Kunitsyn, a Russian baseliner who had once been in the top 50.

Performance timeline

Singles

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 22 (12–10) LegendATP Challenger (0–1)ITF Futures (12–9)Finals by surfaceHard (12–9)Clay (0–0)Grass (0–1)Carpet (0–0)

Doubles: 9 (5–4) LegendATP Challenger (1–2)ITF Futures (4–2)Finals by surfaceHard (4–4)Clay (1–0)Grass (0–0)Carpet (0–0)