Jeffrey John "J. J." Wolf (born December 21, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 56 on 17 October 2022. Wolf played collegiately at The Ohio State University.[1]

J. J. Wolf

Wolf at the 2022 Internationaux de Tennis de Vendée
Full name	Jeffrey John Wolf
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Born	(1998-12-21) December 21, 1998 (age 23) Indian Hill, Ohio, U.S.
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Turned pro	2019
Plays	Right-handed (two handed-backhand)
College	Ohio State University
Coach	Patrick Thompson, David Kass
Prize money	$678,060
Singles
Career record	17–19 (47.2%)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 56 (17 October 2022)
Current ranking	No. 56 (17 October 2022)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	Q2 (2020, 2022)
French Open	Q1 (2020)
US Open	3R (2020, 2022)
Doubles
Career record	0–1
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 606 (27 May 2019)
Grand Slam doubles results
US Open	1R (2016)
Last updated on: 1 August 2022.

Early years

Wolf was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Cincinnati Country Day School in Indian Hill, Ohio.[2] He is the grandson of NBA basketball coach Charley Wolf.[3]

In 2016, as the nation's third ranked recruit, he committed to playing collegiate tennis for the Ohio State Buckeyes.[4]

On the junior tour, Wolf has a career-high ranking of No. 18 achieved on 16 May 2016.

College

In his first season, at Ohio State University, Wolf was named 2017 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and First-Team All Big Ten.[5]

As of April 23, 2019 Wolf was the No. 1 ranked college player in the U.S.[6]

In 2019, Wolf had a combined record of 45–3 between singles and doubles.[7] On April 25, 2019, Wolf was named Big Ten Men's Tennis Athlete of the Year.[8]

Career

2016–2017: Major doubles debut

Wolf made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the 2016 US Open in the doubles event, partnering with John McNally. He received a wildcard to play in the men's singles qualifying competition for the 2017 US Open, but did not win a set.[9]

2018: First top 100 win

On August 12, 2018, Wolf defeated world No. 85 Jozef Kovalik in the first round of qualifying at the 2018 Western and Southern Open in Mason, Ohio.[10] Wolf won the match 7–6, 7–6. This upset marked Wolf's first win against an ATP top 100 player.

2019: Turning professional

Wolf began playing semi-pro tennis in 2016 and three years later, in July 2019, signed with Topnotch Management to play professionally.[11] He turned pro after going 35–2 and earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors as a junior at Ohio State.

On September 22, Wolf made it to the finals of the Columbus 3 Challenger event, losing to Peter Polansky. He beat fellow rising American Michael Mmoh in the round of 16 and top seed Emilio Gómez in the semifinals.[12]

Wolf reached a career-high of No. 189 in the ATP singles rankings on November 18, 2019 after winning the 2019 Champaign Challenger, defeating Sebastian Korda in a tight two-and-a-half hour match.[13][14] In January 2020 he started the year by winning the ATP Challenger Tour final in Nouméa, defeating Yuichi Sugita in the final.

2020: Top 150 & Major debut & third round at US Open

As of August 2020, Wolf won four Challenger titles and was victorious in three of his last five events dating back to the previous season. He was 14–2 with two titles during the first two months of 2020 before play was suspended due to the pandemic and made his top 150 debut on March 2, 2020 at World No. 144.

He qualified for the Western & Southern Open and was awarded a wildcard to the main draw at the 2020 U.S. Open. At the U.S. Open, Wolf defeated 29th-seeded Guido Pella of Argentina 6–2, 0–6, 6–3, 6–3 in the first round. Wolf went on to defeat Spain’s Roberto Carballés Baena 6–2, 6–4, 6–3 in round two, before losing in the third round to Russian Daniil Medvedev 6–3, 6–3, 6–2.[15] Wolf is only the third Ohio State Buckeye to reach the third round at the US Open after Francisco González in 1980 and Roger Smith in 1994.[16]

2021: Hiatus after hernia operations

In early 2021, Wolf underwent two hernia operations and could not compete for seven months.[17]

2022: First two Masters wins & ATP final, US Open third round, top 60

Ranked 209th at the 2022 Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco, Wolf reached the second round as a qualifier after defeating World No. 21 Lorenzo Sonego. It was his first ATP win since the 2020 US Open and only the third of his career.

At his next tournament in Indian Wells, Wolf, having qualified for the tournament again, beat Hugo Gaston in straight sets before losing in three sets to 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, despite having a match point in the third set. Wolf then reached the semifinals at the Phoenix Challenger, losing to eventual champion Denis Kudla. Wolf then qualified for Miami, and beat Daniel Altmaier in the first round.[18] He lost in three sets to third seed and world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.[19]

He reached the top 100 at World No. 99 on 1 August 2022. Also in August, at the 2022 Citi Open, he reached the round of 16 after defeating 6th seed Denis Shapovalov.[20] He reached an ATP 500 quarterfinal for the first time in his career after defeating 9th seed Holger Rune.[21] The same day he lost in his quarterfinal match to top seed Andrey Rublev. As a result he moved up 15 positions to a new career-high of World No. 84 on 8 August 2022.

At the US Open he upset 16th seed Roberto Bautista Agut.[22] Next he defeated Alejandro Tabilo to reach the third round for a second time at this Major. He lost to Nick Kyrgios in straight sets.[23] As a result he moved into the top 75 in the rankings to a new career-high of No. 72 on 12 September 2022.

At the 2022 Firenze Open he reached his first ATP semifinal in his career by defeating fourth seed Maxime Cressy in the round of 16 [24] and seventh seed Alexander Bublik in the quarterfinals.[25] He defeated qualifier Mikael Ymer in the semifinals to reach the first final of his career. As a result he moved 20 positions up into the top 60 in the rankings at world No. 56 on 17 October 2022.[26]

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	Oct 2022	Firenze Open, Italy	250 Series	Hard (i)	Félix Auger-Aliassime	4–6, 4–6

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 7 (6–1)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Oct 2017	USA F34, Harlingen	Futures	Hard	Evan Zhu	6–7(1–7), 6–1, 6–2
Win	2–0	Jan 2019	Columbus, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Mikael Torpegaard	6–7(4–7), 6–3, 6–4
Loss	2–1	Sep 2019	Columbus, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Peter Polansky	3–6, 6–7(4–7)
Win	3–1	Nov 2019	Champaign, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Sebastian Korda	6–4, 6–7(3–7), 7–6(8–6)
Win	4–1	Jan 2020	Nouméa, New Caledonia	Challenger	Hard	Yūichi Sugita	6–2, 6–2
Win	5–1	Mar 2020	Columbus, USA	Challenger	Hard (i)	Denis Istomin	6–4, 6–2
Win	6–1	Oct 2021	Las Vegas, USA	Challenger	Hard	Stefan Kozlov	6–4, 6–4

Performance timeline

Singles

Current through the 2022 Erste Bank Open.

Record against top 10 players

Wolf's record against those who have been ranked in the top 10, with those who are active in boldface. Only ATP Tour main draw matches are considered:

Player	Record	Win %	Hard	Clay	Grass	Last Match
Number 1 ranked players
Daniil Medvedev	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (3–6, 3–6, 2–6) at 2020 US Open
Number 3 ranked players
Dominic Thiem	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (7–6(7–5), 5–7, 6–7(6–8)) at 2022 Winston-Salem
Milos Raonic	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–7(5–7), 1–6) at 2020 St. Petersburg
Stefanos Tsitsipas	0–2	0%	0–2	–	–	Lost (4–6, 7–6(7–5), 1–6) at 2022 Miami Masters
Number 5 ranked players
Andrey Rublev	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (2–6, 3–6) at 2022 Washington DC
Number 6 ranked players
Félix Auger-Aliassime	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (4–6, 4–6) at 2022 Florence
Number 7 ranked players
Richard Gasquet	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (4–6, 4–6) at 2020 Cincinnati Masters
Number 8 ranked players
John Isner	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (4–6, 7–6(7–3), 4–6) at 2021 Atlanta
Karen Khachanov	0–1	0%	0–1	–	–	Lost (6–7(4–7), 5–7) at 2022 Vienna
Number 9 ranked players
Roberto Bautista Agut	1–1	50%	1–1	–	–	Won (6–4, 6–4, 6–4) at 2022 US Open
Number 10 ranked players
Denis Shapovalov	1–0	100%	1–0	–	–	Won (6–2, 6–7(5–7), 6–3) at 2022 Washington DC
Total	2–11	15%	2–11 (15%)	0–0 ( – )	0–0 ( – )	* Statistics correct as of 24 October 2022[update].

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jeffrey John Wolf.

• J.J. Wolf at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Jeffrey John Wolf at the International Tennis Federation

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