Career Summary
Tarango turned professional in 1989, after completing his junior year at Stanford University where he won two NCAA team titles. During his career, he won 2 top-level professional singles titles and 14 doubles titles. His career-high world rankings were World No. 42 in singles and No. 10 in doubles. He was runner-up in the men's doubles at the 1999 French Open (partnering Goran Ivanišević).
The most famous incident involving Tarango came at Wimbledon in 1995. During a third round match in which he was trailing against Alexander Mronz, Tarango became infuriated with umpire Bruno Rebeuh, who had ruled against Tarango several times. During the match, when preparing to serve, the crowd heckled Tarango and he responded "shut up". Rebeuh immediately gave a code violation to Tarango for this claiming "shut up" was an audible obscenity. Tarango protested this and called for the tournament referee calling for Rebeuh to be removed. No relief was given to Tarango and he was instructed to continue to play. He then accused Rebeuh of being "One of the most corrupt officials in the game" - to this Rebeuh gave Tarango another code violation, this time for unsportsmanlike conduct. Tarango took umbrage, packed up his rackets and stormed off the court. To add to the controversy, Tarango's wife then slapped Rebeuh twice in the face.
Tarango was eventually banned by the ITF from the 1996 Wimbledon tournament.
Ironically, Tarango was also the beneficiary of a default in the men's doubles tournament at the same championship. He and partner Henrik Holm were at two sets all against the team of Jeremy Bates and Tim Henman when Henman angrily smashed a ball which inadvertently hit a ball girl, resulting in their disqualification.
As a result of an incident involving Rebeuh in 1989, the former professional player Jimmy Arias signed an affidavit attesting to his opinion that Rebeuh was not always "completely unbiased".
Tarango retired from the main tour in 2003 and now devotes his time to coaching, broadcasting for BBC, ESPN, Tennis Channel, Fox Sports and DirecTV. He also hosts a Charity Event in La Jolla for the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. Tarango is currently the Vice Chair for the AAC on the USOC (Governance Committee). He has been a member of the Davis Cup Committee for 6 years within the USTA. He still makes occasional appearances at professional events, including the 2008 USA F21 Futures event in Milwaukee. He also commentates for BBC Radio and in particular for their extended coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. During his broadcasting career, Tarango has earned a reputation for having a good eye for potential Hawk Eye overrules.
In his 2009 autobiography, "Open", Andre Agassi claims that Tarango cheated in a juniors tournament to hand the eight-year-old Agassi his first ever competitive loss.
Read more about this topic: Jeff Tarango
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