John Letts (born May 11, 1964), is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He enjoyed most of his tennis success while playing doubles. During his career, he won seven ATP tour doubles titles and reached four ATP tour doubles finals. He also reached the quarterfinals of the 1985 Australian Open in doubles knocking out the 3rd seeded team of Tomáš Šmíd and John Fitzgerald in the second round.

John Letts
Country (sports) United States
Born (1964-05-11) May 11, 1964 (age 60)
Houston, Texas, United States
Height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
CoachLarry Easley
Prize money$89,800
Singles
Career record4–11
Career titles0
0 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest rankingNo. 244 (13 June 1988)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open2R (1987)
WimbledonQ2 (1989)
US Open1R (1982)
Doubles
Career record35–51
Career titles1
2 Challenger, 0 Futures
Highest rankingNo. 69 (20 October 1986)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian OpenQF (1985)
French Open1R (1989)
Wimbledon2R (1989)
US Open2R (1987)
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Australian Open1R (1987)
French Open1R (1989)
Wimbledon2R (1987)

Born in Houston, Texas, Letts grew up in Southern California.

The 1982 U.S. National Champion for boys 18 & under, Letts received a full scholarship to Stanford University, where he was a two time All-American and member of two NCAA championship teams. At Stanford, he partnered with three doubles players who later reached the top five in the world: Scott Davis, Jim Grabb, and Patrick McEnroe.

He reached a high of No. 244 in the world in singles achieving most of his success on the ATP Challenger Tour including the semifinals of Manchester (1989) and San Luis Potosí (1988) and the quarterfinals of Nagoya (1988) and Dublin (1989). In Grand Slam singles, he reached the second round of 1987 Australian Open before losing to eventual champion Stefan Edberg in four sets. He played the opening match on the grandstand court at the new Australian Open facility in 1988 at Melbourne Park, losing to Australian Todd Woodbridge in 3 sets. A torn rotator cuff suffered in 1989 eventually ended Letts' playing career.

Letts attended law school and graduated cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law in 1994. He practiced intellectual property law for Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione in Chicago from 1994 to 1998.

In 1999, Letts founded iTennis, Inc., a tennis coaching and management company in Southern California.

His older sister, Elizabeth, is a #1 New York Times Best-Selling author.

ATP career finals

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Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

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Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters 1000 Series (0–0)
ATP 500 Series (0–0)
ATP 250 Series (1–3)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (1–3)
Indoors (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Oct 1986 Tel Aviv, Israel Grand Prix Hard   Peter Lundgren   Christo Steyn
  Danie Visser
6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Loss 1–1 Jan 1989 Auckland, New Zealand Grand Prix Hard   Bruce Man-Son-Hing   Steve Guy
  Shuzo Matsuoka
6–7, 6–7
Loss 1–2 Apr 1989 Seoul Open, South Korea Grand Prix Hard   Bruce Man-Son-Hing   Scott Davis
  Paul Wekesa
2–6, 4–6
Loss 1–3 Jan 1991 Wellington, New Zealand World Series Hard   Jaime Oncins   Luiz Mattar
  Nicolás Pereira
6–4, 6–7, 2–6

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

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Doubles: 3 (2–1)

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Legend
ATP Challenger (2–1)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (2–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Apr 1989 Nagoya, Japan Challenger Hard   Bruce Man-Son-Hing   Ramesh Krishnan
  Jonathan Canter
7–5, 4–6, 6–0
Win 2–0 Oct 1990 Singapore, Singapore Challenger Hard   Steve Guy   Mark Keil
  Kent Kinnear
6–1, 7–5
Loss 2–1 Feb 1991 São Paulo, Brazil Challenger Clay   Tom Mercer   Henrik Holm
  Nils Holm
7–5, 4–6, 4–6

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.

Doubles

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Tournament 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open QF A 2R 1R 2R A A A 0 / 4 5–4 56%
French Open A A A A 1R A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Wimbledon A A 1R Q2 2R A A A 0 / 2 1–2 33%
US Open A 1R 2R A 1R A A A 0 / 3 1–3 25%
Win–loss 3–1 0–1 2–3 0–1 2–4 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 10 7–10 41%
ATP Masters Series
Miami A A 1R 1R 2R A A A 0 / 3 1–3 25%
Rome A A A A 1R A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Canada A 1R 1R A 1R A A Q2 0 / 3 0–3 0%
Cincinnati A A A A A 1R A Q1 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 0–2 0–1 1–3 0–1 0–0 0–0 0 / 8 1–8 11%
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