Rodney Harmon is a former professional tennis player the ATP

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...

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Perhaps Rodney's greatest result came at the 1982 U.S. Open, when he got through to the quarterfinals. He beat 14th seeded and 1980 Australian Open

1980 Australian Open

The 1980 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 69th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 26 December 1980 through 4 January 1981.-Men's Singles:...

 champion Brian Teacher

Brian Teacher

Brian David Teacher is a 6' 3" right handed American former professional male tennis player. He reached a career-high ranking World No. 7 in 1981....

 in the second round 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, before overcoming Eliot Teltscher

Eliot Teltscher

Eliot Teltscher is a retired professional American tennis player.-Early years:Teltscher's mother was born in Israel; his father emigrated there during the Holocaust, and joined the British army...

 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in a long 5-set battle to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament. He lost to eventual champion Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....

 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 once in the quarterfinals. Harmon is featured on Tennis Channel's Tennis Channel Academy, where he stars in a 30-minute coaching show. There, commentator Tracy Austin

Tracy Austin

Tracy Ann Austin Holt is a former World No. 1 female professional tennis player from the United States who won the women's singles title at the US Open in 1979 and 1981 and the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1980, before a series of injuries cut her career short.-To 1980:Austin defeated...

 revealed that Rodney made headlines when he became the lone coach of the American 2008 Beijing Olympics tennis team

Tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Tennis competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 10 to August 17 at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre. The DecoTurf surface rendered the event a hardcourt tournament....

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Rodney was only the second African-American man to have reached the U.S. Open

U.S. Open (tennis)

The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...

 quarterfinals, alongside legend Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States...

 until James Blake

James Blake

James Riley Blake is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of August 2011, Blake is ranked no. 63 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances...

 in 2005. He currently directs the men's tennis division in the United States Tennis Association

United States Tennis Association

The United States Tennis Association is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and develop the growth of tennis, from the grass-roots to the professional levels...

, and has the privilege to witness the best young rising United States junior stars.

External links

• Tennis Channel Profile