General Matthew N. (Matt)
Doyle
Male
Ireland
1958-01-13
Redwood City, CA, United States of America
2025-02-08
Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland


About

From: Remembering former ATP Tour President Matt Doyle | ATP Tour | Tennis

Remembering former ATP Tour President Matt Doyle

By Richard Evans

Former ATP Tour President Matt Doyle, who has died at 70, was a Californian, born in Redwood City, but a heavy tint of Shamrock Green flowed through his veins. Multi-talented is often an overused term but it was a modest way to describe this hugely popular figure who presided over the formation of the new ATP Tour when it was founded under CEO Hamilton Jordan’s leadership in 1989.

An ATP singles title winner in Cologne in 1983, a year after reaching the last 16 of the US Open, Matt was already a man of diversity when he arrived on the Tour. While earning an economics degree at Yale University, this large, imposing athlete had given up basketball when he discovered he couldn’t jump and so turned to golf where his natural swing made him No. 1 at Yale. Along with tennis, Doyle became an expert golf commentator for the Irish network RTE when he stopped playing.

By then, he had become Mr Tennis in Ireland, both as a player and coach. His ancestry had made it easy for him to qualify to play for Ireland and, in partnership with another talented Irish player of the time, Sean Sorensen, the pair took Ireland into the Davis Cup World Group after a dramatic win over Switzerland in 1982. Enjoying what is known as the luck of the Irish, they drew the United States for their first taste of the big time and who should show up at the RDS Arena in Dublin but John McEnroe, whose family roots are as Irish as they come.

No amount of luck was going to enable Doyle to beat the rapturously acclaimed New Yorker, but Doyle’s big serve kept him in the match for a while before going down 9-7, 6-3, 6-3. In the first rubber of the tie, Doyle had been able to claim a World Group victory by beating Eliot Teltscher 6-3, 6-4. 6-4.

If lack of mobility restricted his prowess as a player, it never interfered with the tactical expertise he brought to the game and Mats Wilander was just the man to recognize that fact. Even though it was as a physical trainer that Doyle was invited to join Wilander’s team in 1987, Mats was quick to recognize the technical tip Matt offered him, as he related when we spoke from the Swede’s Sun Valley, Idaho, home.

“Hit your forehand harder, Matt told me,” said Wilander. “I told him my forehand was very solid and I rarely missed. ‘Right,’ he said, ‘so hit it harder!’ He said the same thing about my first serve. Basically he was telling me not to worry about making a few more mistakes. It worked.”

So much so that Wilander, who had won Roland Garros as a teenager in 1982, cleaned up the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open titles in 1988 with Doyle in his box. The ability to hit the ball harder was linked to Doyle’s strengthening program which, Mats recalls, still wincing at the memory, was based on what he calls incentives. “Do 500 push ups and you can have a beer this evening!” he recalled Doyle offering. “It was painful but it got me fit!”

Earlier in his career, Doyle had played the Satellite Circuit in France and had become friends with another Swedish star, Joakim Nystrom. It was about the time that a hyper-charged Irish personality called John O’Shea was starting his charity GOAL, which entailed driving trucks around Africa and other impoverished places to deliver food.

Being a tennis fan, O’Shea did not hesitate to draw on the generosity of players like Wilander, McEnroe, Nystrom, Peter Fleming and Pat Cash, all of whom willingly became involved in a completely insane idea organized by Doyle – a boxing exhibition! Although it is hard to find any reference to it on the web, I can certify that it happened because I was there.

To get tennis pros into a boxing ring is an unlikely event in itself but this actually took place in Dublin in 1989 the week before Wimbledon! Wilander agrees that it was not the best way to prepare for a Grand Slam, “but Matt and John O’Shea were very persuasive people and it was for a good cause”.

There was a gentleman’s agreement that no one would go for a KO but that did not stop McEnroe punching Wilander in the face. “I was a bit surprised,” admitted Mats, “but I just concentrated on pummeling John in the ribs!”

There was, needless to say, a great Irish party that evening with Matt Doyle the perfect, gregarious host. The ATP Tour has lost a great leader, a wonderful personality and one of those people one feels privileged to have known. R.I.P. might be a tough ask for Matt but we wish him well as he strums his Irish Harp.



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Archive statistics 1977 - 1986
8
293
149


Tournament wins 1985 - Irish Championships (Amateur)
1983 - Irish Championships (Amateur)
1983 - Cologne Indoor Open (Grand Prix Circuit)
1982 - Irish Championships (Amateur)
1981 - Irish Championships (Amateur)
1981 - Irish National Championships (Amateur)
1980 - France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 2 (Open)
1980 - Irish Championships (Amateur)


Tournaments Roland Garros Qualifying - 1986 Miami Open - 1986 Austrian International Indoor - 1986 Monte Carlo - Qualifying - 1986 Queens Club - Qualifying - 1986 King's Cup - Second Division - 1986 Lausanne International - 1986 ABN AMRO Rotterdam - Qualifying - 1986 Milano Indoor - Qualifying - 1986 Brussels Indoor - Qualifying - 1986 Miami Open - Qualifying - 1986 Australian Open - 1985 New South Wales Championships - 1985 Irish Championships - 1985 South African Championships - 1985 Roland Garros Qualifying - 1985 US Open Qualifying - 1985 Bastad - 1985 Tel Aviv Open - 1985 Cincinnati - Qualifying - 1985 King's Cup - Premier Division - 1985 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 2 - 1985 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 4 - 1985 Cleveland Grand Prix - 1985 Bordeaux Open - 1985 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 1 - 1985 Stuttgart - Qualifying - 1985 Stockholm Open - Qualifying - 1985 Las Vegas - Qualifying - 1985 Brussels Indoor - Qualifying - 1985 Stratton Mountain - 1985 Australian Open - 1984 Wimbledon - 1984 Roland Garros - 1984 US Open - 1984 Canadian International Championships - 1984 Pacific Coast Championship - 1984 Cincinnati - 1984 Irish Championships - 1984 Pacific Southwest Championships - 1984 South African Championships - 1984 Swiss International Covered Courts - 1984 Bavarian International Championships - 1984 Championships of Stuttgart - 1984 Pacific Coast Championship - Qualifying - 1984 Vienna International Indoor - 1984 Stockholm Open - 1984 King's Cup - Premier Division - 1984 Cologne Indoor Open - 1984 WCT - Forest Hills - 1984 Swiss International Indoor - Qualifying - 1984 Wembley Indoor - Qualifying - 1984 Germany 1 Satellite - Leg 1 - 1984 Germany 1 Satellite - Leg 2 - 1984 Germany 1 Satellite - Leg 3 - 1984 Germany 1 Satellite - Leg 4 - 1984 Germany 1 Satellite - Masters - 1984 Livingston - 1984 Wimbledon - 1983 Roland Garros - 1983 US Open - 1983 Irish Championships - 1983 Queens Club Tournament - 1983 Pacific Southwest Championships - 1983 Kent Championships - 1983 West of England Championships - 1983 European Community Championships - 1983 Vienna International Indoor - 1983 King's Cup - Premier Division - 1983 Cologne Indoor Open - 1983 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 2 - 1983 Stowe - 1983 Lorraine Open - 1983 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 1 - 1983 Austrian International - Qualifying - 1983 Wembley Indoor - Qualifying - 1983 Las Vegas - Qualifying - 1983 Wimbledon - 1982 Roland Garros - 1982 US Open - 1982 Canadian International Championships - 1982 Pacific Coast Championship - 1982 Cincinnati - 1982 Irish Championships - 1982 Queens Club Tournament - 1982 Italian International Championships - 1982 Pacific Southwest Championships - 1982 German International Championships - 1982 Kent Championships - 1982 West of England Championships - 1982 Swiss International Covered Courts - 1982 Paris Indoor - 1982 Vienna International Indoor - 1982 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 2 - 1982 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 3 - 1982 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 4 - 1982 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Masters - 1982 Lorraine Open - 1982 Brussels Indoor - 1982 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 1 - 1982 Frankfurt Open - 1982 WCT - Chicago - Qualifying - 1982 Wimbledon - 1981 US Open - 1981 Irish Championships - 1981 Wimbledon Plate (Consolation) - 1981 Swiss International Covered Courts - 1981 Atlanta Open - 1981 Tel Aviv Open - 1981 Vienna International Indoor - 1981 Stockholm Open - 1981 Cologne Indoor Open - 1981 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 3 - 1981 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 4 - 1981 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Masters - 1981 Stowe - 1981 Kyoto Classic - 1981 Nagoya - 1981 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 1 - 1981 Tokyo Challenger - 1981 Napa - Qualifying - 1981 Wimbledon - 1980 Irish Championships - 1980 Kent Championships - 1980 Roland Garros Qualifying - 1980 Wimbledon Qualifying - 1980 Swiss International Covered Courts - 1980 Tel Aviv Open - 1980 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 2 - 1980 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 4 - 1980 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Masters - 1980 France 1 Indoor Satellite - Leg 1 - 1980 Shimizu City - 1980 Maebishi City - 1980 Swiss International Indoor - Qualifying - 1980 Queens Club Tournament - 1979 Kent Championships - 1979 Wimbledon Qualifying - 1979 AMEX - Lincoln - 1979 Nagoya - 1979 Amex - San Diego - 1979 AMEX - Charlotte - 1979 AMEX - Huntington Beach - 1979 AMEX - Austin - 1979 United States 1 Satellite - Leg 1 - Qualifying - 1979 Intercollegiate Championships - 1978 US National Amateur Indoors - 1978 Tinton Falls - 1978 AMEX - Lincoln - 1978 Intercollegiate Championships - 1977 Switzerland Satellite Leg 1 - Qualifying - 1977

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