Gilad Bloom

Gilad Bloom (Hebrew: גלעד בלום‎, born 1 March 1967) is a former professional tennis player from Israel. Bloom trained at the Israel Tennis Centers.[1] His career-high rankings were World No. 61 in singles (in 1990) and World No. 62 in doubles (in 1992).

Gilad Bloom
Country (sports) Israel
ResidenceRamat HaSharon
Born (1967-03-01) 1 March 1967
Tel Aviv, Israel
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Turned pro1986
Retired1995
PlaysLeft-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money$694,271
Singles
Career record93–122
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 61 (15 October 1990)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open3R (1990)
French Open2R (1990, 1992)
Wimbledon3R (1987)
US Open4R (1990)
Doubles
Career record57–78
Career titles4
Highest rankingNo. 62 (24 February 1992)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian OpenQF (1992)
French Open2R (1987, 1991)
Wimbledon2R (1987)
US Open2R (1989)

Personal life

Bloom grew up in Ramat HaSharon,[2] is Jewish,[3] and is married to Michal Bareket-Bloom. He has a son, Guy Tyler Bloom, from a previous marriage, and another son, Jonathan Yehuda Bloom (from his second marriage). He is known as a fan of the Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team. Bloom has a rock band (The Gilad Bloom Band), the band plays shows in Manhattan Bars regularly since 2009, Bloom's band performs original songs written and composed by himself, Bloom sings and plays guitar on the band.

Tennis career

A left-handed player, Bloom was Israel's junior champion, 3-time men's singles champion, and 2-time men's doubles champion. Bloom came in second in the boy's under-12 final at the annual Ericsson Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships in 1979.[4]

Bloom turned professional in 1983, and played on the ATP tour for 13 years. During his career he won four tour doubles titles (at Tel Aviv and São Paulo in 1987, and at Seoul and Umag in 1991). He also finished runner-up in three top-level singles events (Tel Aviv in 1989, Manchester in 1990, and Singapore in 1991).

Bloom played Davis Cup for Israel from 1984–95.[5] He helped Israel qualify to the 1994 Davis Cup World Group, winning the qualification playoff's 5th and deciding rubber against Switzerland's Jakob Hlasek in one of the most memorable matches in Israeli tennis history.

His best singles performance at a Grand Slam event was at the 1990 US Open, where he reached the fourth round before being knocked out by Ivan Lendl. At Wimbledon in June 1991 he lost to world No. 8 Guy Forget in five sets despite winning 171 points to Forget's 168.

Among his upsets were in May 1988 world No. 14 Martín Jaite, 6–4, 2–6, 6–2, at Forest Hills; in June 1990 # 25 Petr Korda, 6–0, 6–4, 4–6, 6–2, in Wimbledon, in June 1991 # 16 Brad Gilbert, 6–2, 6–0, in Manchester, England; and in June 1994 # 16 Carlos Costa in Austria, 6–3, 3–6, 7–5.

Bloom represented Israel at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic tennis tournaments.[6]

He retired from the professional tour in 1995.

Career finals
Legend
Grand Slam
Tennis Masters Cup
ATP Masters Series
ATP Tour

Singles (3 runners-up)
Result No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1. Oct 1989 Tel Aviv Open, Tel Aviv Hard Jimmy Connors 6–2, 2–6, 1–6
Loss 2. Jun 1990 Manchester Open, Manchester Grass Pete Sampras 6–7, 6–7
Loss 3. Apr 1991 Singapore Open, Singapore Hard Jan Siemerink 4–6, 3–6

Coaching career

Since retiring from the tour, Bloom has played in seniors events and worked as a tennis coach and Director Of Tennis.

In 1995 he was senior coach with the Israel Tennis Centers, coaching the country's top juniors among them Dudi Sela.[7]

Since moving to NYC in 2000 Bloom had his own tennis program (Gilad Bloom Tennis) for 9 years and was also the first Director Of Tennis at The John McEnroe Tennis Academy in Randall's Island, NY (2010-12).[8] After leaving the McEnroe Academy Bloom worked as the Executive Director of Tennis at TCR (The Club of Riverdale) in Riverdale, NY (2012-15).[9][10] Bloom is currently back to running his own tennis program (Gilad Bloom Tennis) in NYC.[11]

gollark: They wouldn't just use worse technology for no particular reason, mostly.
gollark: The people in the past *were actually quite smart*.
gollark: Well, DRAM wasn't used for most of computing history.
gollark: Unfortunately for you, they would be too bad for you to do interesting stuff with for several decades.
gollark: Anyway, electronic computers were invented around 1930.

See also

References
  1. ITC Champions Archived 19 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Between racket and music - Haaretz - Israel News | Haaretz.com
  3. Day by day in Jewish sports history. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
  4. israelinsider: politics: Israeli girl wins world tennis championship
  5. "Davis Cup: Gilad Bloom".
  6. Israel wins first Olympic medal since 2008 - Israel News - Jerusalem Post
  7. "Bloom seeks to guide tennis youth". 29 November 1995. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011.
  8. 12-Year-Old Girl May Embody McEnroe’s Vision for U.S. Tennis - The New York Times
  9. New tennis technology can be a game-changer
  10. The Digital Tennis Court from the Future - Men's Journal
  11. Gilad Bloom Tennis | New York Tennis Magazine
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