{{short description|Barbadian-American tennis player}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}} {{Infobox tennis biography | name = Martin Blackman | image = | caption = | country = {{flagu|United States}} /<br />{{flagicon|BAR}} Barbados | residence = Orlando, Florida, U.S. | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1970|4|5}} | birth_place = The Bronx, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | height = {{height|ft=6|in=2}} | turnedpro = | plays = Right-handed | careerprizemoney = $141,468 | singlesrecord = 3–14 | singlestitles = 3 | highestsinglesranking = No. 158 (June 6, 1994) | FrenchOpenresult = 1R (1994) | USOpenresult = 1R (1990) | doublesrecord = 4–7 | doublestitles = 6 | highestdoublesranking = No. 142 (September 19, 1994) | USOpenDoublesresult = 1R (1994) }} '''Martin Blackman''' (born March 5, 1970) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He later represented Barbados.<ref>[http://itftennis.com/ProCircuit/players/player/profile.aspx?PlayerID=10000148 ITF Tennis Profile]</ref>

==Early life== Blackman was born in New York City, before moving to Barbados when he was 2 years old. He spent much of his childhood in Barbados, where his father Courtney Blackman served as Governor of the Central Bank and he attended the Harrison College School. For two summers, Blackman's family lived on the Upper West Side in New York and he trained at the Port Washington Tennis Academy. In 1983 he returned to the United States and attended the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy on a tennis scholarship.<ref>{{cite book|title=Blacks at the net: Black achievement in the history of tennis, Volume 1|author=Djata, Sundiata A.|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2006}}</ref>

==Junior career== Blackman beat future Grand Slam winners Michael Chang and Petr Korda en route to the semi-finals of the 1986 US Open Juniors and was also a semi-finalist at the same event a year later, with MaliVai Washington in the doubles.<ref name=ATP>[http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Bl/M/Martin-Blackman.aspx ATP World Tour Profile]</ref> The biggest junior title that he won was the 1986 USTA National Championships (16s), in both the singles and doubles, partnering Chang.<ref name=ATP/> He was also a member of two NCAA Division I Championship winning teams while at Stanford.<ref name=ATP/>

==Professional career==

Blackman started on the Grand Prix tennis circuit in 1987 when, at the age of just 16, he appeared at Indianapolis and achieved a win over world number 74 Luiz Mattar.<ref name=ATP/>

The right-handed Blackman made his first Grand Slam appearance in the 1990 US Open, where he lost a three set match to Martín Jaite in the first round.<ref name=ATP/>

In 1994 he played in his two further Grand Slams, at the French Open and US Open.<ref name=ATP/> At Roland Garros he was unable to better his previous effort and again exited in the opening round, this time to countryman Bryan Shelton in four sets.<ref name=ATP/> At his home event he only entered the main draw of the doubles, with Ivan Baron.<ref name=ATP/> The pair lost their only match to Canadians Daniel Nestor and Greg Rusedski.<ref name=ATP/> Also in 1994, Blackman and partner Renzo Furlan reached the semi-finals of the Romanian Open.<ref name=ATP/>

He appeared in 10 rubbers for the Barbados Davis Cup team during his career, winning his first five matches and losing his final five.<ref>[http://www.daviscup.com/en/players/player/profile.aspx?playerid=10000148 Davis Cup Profile]</ref>

Blackman achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 158 and No. 142 in men's doubles, and eventually retired from the ATP Tour in 1995.

==Coaching career==

Blackman was head men's tennis coach at American University from 1998 to 2004, when he became Director of the Junior Tennis Champions Center at College Park, Maryland He was Senior Director of Talent Identification and Development for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) from 2009 to 2011, serving on the Board of Directors from 2003 to 2004 and 2005–06. He founded the Blackman Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=Martin Blackman – General Manager, Player Development |url=https://www.playerdevelopment.usta.com/About-USTA/Player-Development/Bios/martin_blackman_-_general_manager_player_development/ |publisher=US Tennis Association |accessdate=January 18, 2019 }}</ref> In 2015, Blackman re-joined the USTA, succeeding Patrick McEnroe as General Manager of Player Development.<ref>{{cite news |title=Blackman takes over as USTA GM of development |url=https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/12625028/martin-blackman-hired-replace-patrick-mcenroe-usta-general-manager-player-development |accessdate=January 18, 2019 |publisher=ESPN |agency=Associated Press |date=April 6, 2015 }}</ref>

==Personal life== Blackman holds an Economics Degree from George Washington University and from the prestigious school, Stanford University. He lives in Florida with his wife and their four children.

==Challenger titles== ===Singles=== {|class="sortable wikitable" style=font-size:97% !style="width:20px"|No. !style="width:30px"|Year !style="width:140px"|Tournament !style="width:50px"|Surface !style="width:140px"|Partner !style="width:90px" class="unsortable"|Score |- |1. |1993 |Belo Horizonte, Brazil |Hard |{{flagicon|RSA|1928}} David Adams |6–7, 6–4, 7–6 |}

===Doubles=== {|class="sortable wikitable" style=font-size:97% !style="width:20px"|No. !style="width:30px"|Year !style="width:140px"|Tournament !style="width:50px"|Surface !style="width:140px"|Partner !style="width:140px"|Opponents !style="width:90px" class="unsortable"|Score |- |1. |1992 |Singapore |Hard |{{flagicon|ITA}} Laurence Tieleman |{{flagicon|GER}} Patrick Baur<br />{{flagicon|NED}} Sander Groen |6–4, 1–6, 7–6 |- |2. |1994 |Wellington, New Zealand |Hard |{{flagicon|USA}} Kenny Thorne |{{flagicon|AUS}} Sandon Stolle<br />{{flagicon|AUS}} Simon Youl |6–7, 6–3, 6–3 |- |3. |1994 |Poznań, Poland |Clay |{{flagicon|CHI}} Sergio Cortés |{{flagicon|POR}} João Cunha-Silva<br />{{flagicon|POR}} Emanuel Couto |6–7, 7–5, 7–5 |}

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackman, Martin}} Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:Barbadian male tennis players Category:American male tennis players Category:American people of Barbadian descent Category:Sportspeople of Barbadian descent Category:Stanford Cardinal men's tennis players Category:Tennis players from New York City Category:20th-century American sportsmen Category:Tennis players from Florida Category:Sportspeople from Orlando, Florida