| Dale Houston | |
| Fullname: | Dale Houston |
| Birth Date: | 15 November 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Sydney, Australia |
| Plays: | Right-handed |
| Singlesrecord: | 2-3 |
| Singlestitles: | 0 |
| Highestsinglesranking: | No. 280 (17 June 1985) |
| Australianopenresult: | 3R (1984) |
| Doublesrecord: | 1-2 |
| Doublestitles: | 0 |
| Highestdoublesranking: | No. 229 (24 June 1985) |
Dale Houston (born 15 November 1961) is a former professional tennis player from Australia.
Houston was born in Sydney but played his junior tennis in Queensland.[1] In the early 1980s he took up a tennis scholarship to Wichita State University in Kansas. After graduating in June 1984 he competed for two years on the professional tour.[2]
At the 1984 Australian Open, just months after turning professional, Houston made it through to the third round, where he lost a competitive match to the defending champion Mats Wilander. Playing as a qualifier, Houston had straight set victories over Craig Miller and former Australian Open winner Mark Edmondson, which put him up against the Swedish second seed in the third round.[3] [4] He managed to take Wilander to four sets, winning the second 6–2 and getting to a tiebreak in the third.[5] Wilander won it in the fourth and went on to win the tournament.[6]
Following his performances at the Australian Open, he gained entry to Grand Prix tournaments in Sydney and Melbourne, for a first round exit in each.[7] In Melbourne he also competed in the doubles with John Frawley and made it to the quarter-finals.
In 1985 his appearances were restricted to Challengers, although he made it to the second round of qualifying at Wimbledon and played doubles at a Brisbane Grand Prix tournament. Mid-year he reached his highest ranking, 280 in the world. His loss to Mark Kratzmann in the Australian Open qualifying round that year was his final professional match.[8]