Glenn Michibata

Major Accomplishments

Was a Top 10 player in the Canadian national singles ranking for 12 years, including No.1 from 1981-1983.

Tennis Canada Player of the Year in 1983 and 1985.

ATP Tour singles ranking reached a career high of No. 48 in 1986.

Reached the Australian Open final with doubles partner Grant Connell.

Reached a career-high ATP Would Tour doubles ranking of No. 5 with Connell.

Attended Pepperdine University on an athletic scholarship and became a three-time all-American.

Represented Canada at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Member of the Canadian Davis Cup team 14 times.

Biography

Glenn Michibata was an ATP touring professional from 1983 to 1993. The right-handed tennis player earned a career-high world singles ranking of No. 48 in April 1986.

As a junior player, Michibata won the Canadian National Junior Under 12, 14, 16 titles as well as the Junior Under 18 twice. He was the first Canadian in the junior ranks to reach the quarter-finals of Junior Wimbledon. He attended Pepperdine University where he was a four-year letter winner from 1979-1983 and a three-time All American.

Overall he was ranked in the Top 10 in Canada from 1980 to 1991 and represented his country in the Davis Cup 14 times. He retired from the Tour with a singles career win-loss record of 72-113. He represented country at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, which helped earn him his induction into the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame.

In doubles play, Michibata was paired with fellow Canadian Connell and the two competed together for five years from 1988-1992 and won four doubles titles together in the United States, Singapore and South Korea. The team reached a ranking of world No. 5 in 1991. They reached the semifinals of both the French Open and Wimbledon that year. A year earlier they were finalists at the Australian Open. During those five years playing doubles together on the Tour, they were the runners-up in 12 events including the ATP Masters Series in Canada (Rogers Cup) in 1991, which was held in Montreal, Quebec. On their way to the finals the pair faced another Canadian team, Sebastien Lareau and Sebastien LeBlanc, in the quarter-finals and defeated them in two sets. The tandem then lost in a three-set heartbreaker 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 to Americans Patrick Galbraith and Todd Witsken. The previous year, in 1990, Michibata and Connell made it to the semifinals of Rogers Cup, which was held in Toronto, after defeating John McEnroe and partner Mark Woodforde in three sets. Unfortunately, they lost in the semis. Michibata and Connell were named the Doubles Team of the Year by Tennis Canada in 1987. They were considered one of the best doubles combinations on the Tour.

Michibata retired from playing in 1993 and became the director of tennis at the Whistler and Golf Resort in British Columbia. He was Daniel Nestor’s personal coach for two years before he became the assistant coach at the University of Southern California from 1997-2000. He is currently the head coach for the Princeton University Tigers men’s tennis team.

In 2010, Michibata and Connell were also inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame during the ATP World Tour event in Toronto.