Induction Year: 2000

Mike Estep was born in 1949 in Dallas. A very successful junior player, he held a No 1 ranking for five straight years (1963-67). Estep was named the Texas High School Player of the Year, led the U.S. to the Sunshine Cup Title and played on the U.S. Junior Davis Cup Team. Estep and George Taylor of Houston were the No. 1 doubles team in the country, the first time an all-Texas pair won a national junior boys’ championship.

At Rice Institute Estep was the Southwest Conference singles and doubles Champion in 1970, an NCAA semifinalist in doubles in 1968, a finalist in singles in 1969 and a semifinalist in singles in 1970. He received All-American honors for 3 consecutive years from 1969 to 1971, with an honorable mention in 1968. After earning a B.A. in political science in 1971, Estep joined the professional tennis circuit, gathering eight singles titles and 16 doubles titles throughout his 12-year career. He left the tour in 1983 and began coaching. He is especially recognized for his accomplishments in coaching Martina Navratilova during her rise to dominance in the game.

He was a board member of the Association of Tennis Professionals from 1982 to 1989, holding the position of chairman of the ATP Ranking Committee at the same time. He worked with the USTA to create a method for ranking juniors. He was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame inductee in 2005.