player – Tennisarchives.com

General First nameKenneth Eliot (Ken)
LastnameFlach
GenderMale
CountryUnited States of America
Date of birth1963-05-24
Place of birthSt Louis, United States of America
Date of death2018-03-12
Place of deathSan Francisco, California, United States of America

About

Kenneth Eliot Flach was born on May 24, 1963, in St. Louis and grew up in nearby Kirkwood, Missouri.

Before turning professional, Flach played tennis for Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where he won the NCAA Division II singles championships in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and teamed with Seguso to reach the 1983 Division I doubles final.

Flach married his first wife, model Sandra Freeman, in September of 1986 and had four children together.

Flach played doubles on the U.S. Davis Cup team from 1985–1991, compiling an 11–2 record. He was also a member of the U.S. team which won the World Team Cup in 1985.

During his career, Flach won 36 doubles titles (34 men's doubles and 2 mixed doubles). His final career title was won in 1994 at Scottsdale, Arizona.

Following his retirement from the professional tour in 1996, Flach devoted himself to coaching. He guided Vanderbilt University to its first NCAA tournament berth in 1999. In 2003, he led the team to Vanderbilt's first NCAA championship finals appearance in any sport. He had also played in seniors events, and won the Wimbledon 35-and-over men's doubles title in 1999 and 2000.

In 2010, after moving to California, he married makeup entrepreneur Christina Friedman, and became the director of tennis at Novato's Rolling Hills Club.
In early March of 2018, Flach became ill with bronchitis after playing 36 holes of golf. According to his widow, Flach's doctors at Kaiser Permanente failed to act with urgency allowing the infection to turn life-threatening. Christina Flach claims that rather than have Ken come in for an appointment, an advice nurse spent time assessing his health in a telephone conversation.

She claims that when Ken Flach began vomiting blood, he sent a desperate email to his doctor at Kaiser Permanente before the pair rushed to the emergency room, where he was intubated. He was later transferred to University of California San Francisco Medical Center with his organs failing.

Ken Flach was removed from life support and died of sepsis several days later, on March 12.

Christina Flach is now a volunteer with Sepsis Alliance working to educate others about the condition that killed her husband.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply