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.

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.

His brother Steven is an international squash player.

He had a fairly successful junior career, peaking as high as 6 in the junior ITF rankings.

He reached the quarter-finals of junior Wimbledon in 2004, and in the same year won the 18 and under national championships.

He won a grade 1 junior event in Venezuela, before turning professional at the age of 18.

In 2005 Jamie began playing on the futures and challengers tours.

His most successful challenger result was a quarter-final at the Burnie Challenger in February 2006.

He made his ATP Tour debut by virtue of wild cards at the 2006 Artois Championship and played at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships.

Baker made his debut for the Great Britain Davis Cup team in September 2006 in the crucial relegation play-off against the Ukraine.

Great Britain won the tie 3–2, although Jamie lost his match, the fifth rubber, 6–3 7–6 against Sergei Bubka.

Baker continued in Challenger tournaments, reaching the final in Waikoloa and making semi finals at places like Lexington and Knowville.

Argentina had won their last ten home encounters 5–0, so Baker prevented the 2006 finalists taking their 11th successive 5–0 victory.

Following the Davis Cup, Jamie won 2 consecutive titles in $15,000 Futures Tournaments in Brownsville, Texas and Harlingen, Texas, becoming 211 in the world and British No 2.

Baker contracted Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) in April, 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.

He also achieved his first ATP Tour victory, against Alexander Peya, at the 2007 Artois Championships.

He made a second Davis Cup appearance in the World Group Play-off against Croatia on No. 1 Court, Wimbledon in September.

With Great Britain leading 4–0, Baker played the dead rubber, losing 6–4 6–4 against Marin Čilić.

Britain won the tie 4–1 and qualified for the 2008 World Group.

He finished the season ranked as Britain's number 3 player.

In November, he was invited to practise with Pete Sampras at his home.

Baker made a positive start to 2008 by qualifying for the Australian Open.

He disposed of 9th seed (Q) Yuri Shukin 6–2 6–0 and then battling past Alexander Peya 6–4 7–6 to reach the final round where he defeated Daniel Köllerer 6–4

6–4. Though he was defeated in the first round by Ivo Karlović, his result of 6–4 6–4 6–7 6–4 was described as highly creditable

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.