Early career and back injury

Dent won ATP titles in Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour. His victory in Memphis is still often referred to as his most impressive victory, as he beat future world No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

Dent played with distinction at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semi-finals, where he was defeated by eventual gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. He went on to lose the Bronze medal match 16–14 in the third set against Fernando González of Chile.

Dent, paired with Lisa Raymond, won the 2006 Hopman Cup, defeating the Netherlands two sets to one in the final.

In 2006 Dent did not play many competitive matches, due to a recurring back and groin problem. Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007.

Return from injury

On May 26, 2008, Dent received a wild card and played at the Carson challenger in the United States. It was his first match since February 2006. He lost his first round match to Cecil Mamiit. In July 2008 Dent took a wild card into his first ATP tour event for two seasons at the Hall of Fame tennis tournament in Newport, Rhode Island. He lost in three sets to Canada's Frank Dancevic.

On November 12, 2008, Dent won his first comeback match at the Champaign challenger against Frédéric Niemeyer, 6–3, 7–6⁽³⁾. He followed this win up by defeating second seed and fellow American Robert Kendrick. In the third round, Dent had to withdraw against Sam Warburg. Using his protected ranking of 56, Dent played the 2009 Australian Open, where he was eliminated in the first round by Amer Delić.

As a qualifier, he reached the fourth round of the 2009 Miami Open, defeating Nicolás Almagro and Tommy Robredo in the process. He lost to Roger Federer in the fourth round, 3–6, 2–6. Despite the scoreline, the first set was a very entertaining encounter, with Federer's longest service game lasting just short of a quarter of an hour; Dent had eight break point opportunities. He had a poor run of form following this, but reversed the poor form by qualifying for Wimbledon, having entered the qualifying via a wildcard. He won his way through to the main draw, where he lost to Daniel Gimeno Traver in five sets in the first round.

He received a wild card for the 2009 US Open and won his first US Open match since 2005, upsetting Feliciano López in four sets. He advanced to the third round after beating Iván Navarro in the second round, in a five-set match. Following the match, he took the umpire microphone and thanked the crowd for support, following it with a victory lap around the stadium. In the third round, he was beaten by Andy Murray in straight sets. Following the US Open, Dent won the USTA Challenger of Oklahoma in Tulsa.

In his opening event of the 2010 season, he entered the main draw at the 2010 Australian Open. He defeated Fabio Fognini, in the first round and moved on to face tenth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, to whom he lost.

On May 25, 2010, in Roland Garros, against Nicolás Lapentti, Dent served at 240 km/h and set a new tournament record that Fernando Verdasco and Andy Roddick had held before him (with 232 km/h). Additionally, at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships on June 23, 2010, Dent set a record with the fastest serve ever recorded at the Wimbledon tournament at 148 mph.

On November 8, 2010, Taylor Dent announced his retirement from professional tennis.^[1]

Playing style

Unusual for a contemporary tennis player, Dent favored a pure serve-and-volley style of play. He possessed a powerful serve and strong volleys. He had the fourth fastest serve in the world, at a velocity of 243 km/h. At the 2010 Wimbledon Championships he set the record for the fastest serve ever recorded at the event with a speed of 238 km/h. (148 mph)^[2]

Olympic finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
4th place	2004	Athens, Greece	Hard	Fernando González	4–6, 6–2, 14–16

Singles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 2002	Newport, United States	International Series	Grass	James Blake	6–1, 4–6, 6–4
Win	2–0	Feb 2003	Memphis, United States	Championship Series	Hard	Andy Roddick	6–1, 6–4
Win	3–0	Sep 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	International Series	Hard	Juan Carlos Ferrero	6–3, 7–6(7–5)
Win	4–0	Sep 2003	Moscow, Russia	International Series	Carpet	Sargis Sargsian	7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss	4–1	Oct 2004	Tokyo, Japan	Championship Series	Hard	Jiří Novák	7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Loss	4–2	Jan 2005	Adelaide, Australia	International Series	Hard	Joachim Johansson	5–7, 3–6
Loss	4–3	Jul 2005	Indianapolis, United States	International Series	Hard	Robby Ginepri	6–4, 3–6, 0–3, ret.

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	Sep 2004	Beijing, China	International Series	Hard	Alex Bogomolov Jr.	Justin Gimelstob Graydon Oliver	6–4, 4–6, 6–7(6–8)

Singles: 7 (5–2)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 1999	USA F9, Redding	Futures	Hard	Wade McGuire	6–4, 6–1
Loss	1–1	Dec 1999	USA F21, Laguna Niguel	Futures	Hard	Alexander Peya	4–6, 3–6
Win	2–1	Mar 2000	USA F6, San Antonio	Futures	Hard	Daniel Melo	6–2, 6–3
Win	3–1	Jun 2001	Surbiton, United Kingdom	Challenger	Grass	Neville Godwin	4–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–2
Win	4–1	Sep 2009	Tulsa, United States	Challenger	Hard	Wayne Odesnik	7–6(11–9), 7–6(7–4)
Win	5–1	Nov 2009	Knoxville, United States	Challenger	Hard	Ilija Bozoljac	6–3, 7–6(8–6)
Loss	5–2	Nov 2009	Champaign-Urbana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Michael Russell	5–7, 4–6

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1–0	Dec 2000	Champaign-Urbana, United States	Challenger	Hard	Mardy Fish	Noam Behr Michael Russell	walkover

Singles