Sébastien René Grosjean (French pronunciation: [sebastjɛ̃ ʁəne ɡʁoʒɑ̃]; born 29 May 1978) is a French former professional tennis player. Grosjean reached the semifinals at the 2001 Australian and French Opens, and at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004. He finished eight consecutive seasons ranked in the top 30 (1999–2006), peaking at world No. 4 in October 2002. Grosjean retired from professional tennis in May 2010.[1]

Sébastien Grosjean
Sébastien Grosjean (2013)
Country (sports) France
ResidenceBoca Raton, Florida, United States
Born (1978-05-29) 29 May 1978 (age 46)
Marseille, France
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Turned pro1996
Retired2010
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$8,131,803
Singles
Career record341–247 (58.0%)
Career titles4
Highest rankingNo. 4 (28 October 2002)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenSF (2001)
French OpenSF (2001)
WimbledonSF (2003, 2004)
US Open3R (2000, 2005, 2007)
Other tournaments
Tour FinalsF (2001)
Olympic GamesQF (2000)
Doubles
Career record82–100
Career titles5
Highest rankingNo. 52 (12 April 2004)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open3R (2001)
French Open1R (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009)
US Open3R (2008)
Mixed doubles
Career record2–2
Career titles0
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
French Open3R (1998)
Team competitions
Davis CupW (2001)
Coaching career
Last updated on: 12 October 2022.

In December 2018, he was named the Davis Cup captain for France.[2] He is currently the director of the Open de Roanne.

Career

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Grosjean at the 2007 Australian Open

Juniors

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As a junior, Grosjean posted a 90-20 singles record and a 58-12 doubles record, winning the 1996 French Open boys' doubles. He reached No. 1 in the world in both singles and doubles in December 1996.

Pro tour

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Grosjean joined the professional tour in 1996. In 2003 and 2004, he reached the final of the Queen's London Tournament. In the same two years, he also reached the semifinals of Wimbledon. He finished 2001 as the No. 1 player from his country and for the first time in the top 10 becoming the first Frenchman to finish a year in the top 10 since Cédric Pioline in 1993. In 2001, Grosjean won the Davis Cup with the French team.

Grosjean is known for his extreme forehand, his best shot, he utilizes something of a western grip, which is hit at high velocities. He has appeared in four Grand Slam semifinal matches. As well as his two Wimbledon runs, he also reached the French Open semifinals in 2001. His most famous chance was at the 2001 Australian Open against Arnaud Clément. Grosjean led two sets to love and had a match point in the fourth set before Clément prevailed. This was long considered the worst 'choke' in five-set history,[citation needed] until the 2004 French Open final.

He won his fourth singles title at the 2007 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, with a victory over countryman Marc Gicquel. He also won the doubles final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as a wildcard team, where they upset the first and third seeds.

Considered one of the more popular players on the circuit, he is lauded for his attractive, graceful style and classical skills. He is affectionately nicknamed 'Big John' by fans, a literal translation of his surname into English.

Personal life

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Grosjean married his wife Marie-Pierre on 16 November 1998 and has a daughter named Lola (born 11 October 1998), a son named Tom (2002), and a daughter named Sam (2006). The family resides in Boca Raton, Florida (U.S.), where Grosjean trains at the Evert Tennis Academy. He is sponsored by Lacoste in apparel and Head rackets. He used the Head Radical Tour TwinTube 630 XL under various paint jobs throughout his career.

Major finals

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Year-end championships finals

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Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

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Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 2001 Masters Cup Hard (i)   Lleyton Hewitt 3–6, 3–6, 4–6

Masters Series finals

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Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

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Result Year Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1999 Miami Masters Hard   Richard Krajicek 6–4, 1–6, 2–6, 5–7
Win 2001 Paris Masters Carpet (i)   Yevgeny Kafelnikov 7–6(7–3), 6–1, 6–7(5–7), 6–4

ATP career finals

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Singles: 13 (4 titles, 9 runner-ups)

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Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–1)
ATP Masters Series (1–1)
ATP Championship Series (0–1)
ATP World Series (3–6)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–4)
Clay (0–3)
Grass (1–2)
Carpet (2–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (1–7)
Indoors (3–2)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 May 1999 Miami, United States Masters Series Hard   Richard Krajicek 6–4, 1–6, 2–6, 5–7
Loss 0–2 May 1999 Atlanta, United States World Series Clay   Stefan Koubek 1–6, 2–6
Loss 0–3 Apr 2000 Casablanca, Morocco World Series Clay   Fernando Vicente 4–6, 6–4, 6–7(3–7)
Win 1–3 Jun 2000 Nottingham, United Kingdom World Series Grass   Byron Black 7–6(9–7), 6–3
Loss 1–4 Feb 2001 Marseille, France World Series Hard   Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6–7(5–7), 2–6
Win 2–4 Nov 2001 Paris, France Masters Series Carpet   Yevgeny Kafelnikov 7–6(7–3), 6–1, 6–7(5–7), 6–4
Loss 2–5 Nov 2001 Sydney, Australia Masters Cup Finals Hard   Lleyton Hewitt 3–6, 3–6, 4–6
Win 3–5 Oct 2002 St. Petersburg, Russia World Series Hard   Mikhail Youzhny 7–5, 6–4
Loss 3–6 Jun 2003 Queen's, United Kingdom World Series Grass   Andy Roddick 3–6, 3–6
Loss 3–7 Oct 2003 Tokyo, Japan Championship Series Hard   Rainer Schüttler 6–7(5–7), 2–6
Loss 3–8 Jun 2004 Queen's, United Kingdom International Series Grass   Andy Roddick 6–7(4–7), 4–6
Loss 3–9 Apr 2005 Houston, United States International Series Clay   Andy Roddick 2–6, 2–6
Win 4–9 Oct 2007 Lyon, France International Series Carpet   Marc Gicquel 7–6(7–5), 6–4

Doubles: 7 (5 titles, 2 runner-ups)

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Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (1–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (4–2)
Finals by surface
Hard (3–1)
Clay (1–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (1–1)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (3–0)
Indoors (2–2)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1–0 Apr 2000 Casablanca, Morocco World Series Clay   Arnaud Clément   Lars Burgsmüller
  Andrew Painter
7–6(7–4), 6–4
Loss 1–1 Oct 2001 Lyon, France World Series Carpet   Arnaud Clément   Daniel Nestor
  Nenad Zimonjić
1–6, 2–6
Win 2–1 Jul 2002 Los Angeles, United States World Series Hard   Nicolas Kiefer   Justin Gimelstob
  Michaël Llodra
6–4, 6–4
Win 3–1 Feb 2003 Marseille, France World Series Hard   Fabrice Santoro   Tomáš Cibulec
  Pavel Vízner
6–1, 6–4
Win 4–1 Mar 2004 Indian Wells, United States Masters Series Hard   Arnaud Clément   Wayne Black
  Kevin Ullyett
6–3, 4–6, 7–5
Win 5–1 Oct 2007 Lyon, France World Series Carpet   Jo-Wilfried Tsonga   Łukasz Kubot
  Lovro Zovko
6–4, 6–3
Loss 5–2 Oct 2009 Lyon, France 250 Series Hard   Arnaud Clément   Julien Benneteau
  Nicolas Mahut
4–6, 6–7(6–8)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

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Singles: 5 (2–3)

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Legend
ATP Challenger (2–3)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–2)
Clay (1–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 May 1997 Bratislava, Slovakia Challenger Clay   Radomír Vašek 6–4, 6–1
Loss 1–1 Jul 1997 Newcastle, United Kingdom Challenger Clay   Fabrice Santoro 6–2, 3–6, 3–6
Loss 1–2 Oct 1997 Brest, France Challenger Hard   Johan Van Herck 6–4, 2–6, 4–6
Win 2–2 Feb 1999 Cherbourg, France Challenger Hard   Antony Dupuis 4–6, 6–3, 6–0
Loss 2–3 Mar 2008 Sunrise, United States Challenger Hard   Robin Haase 7–5, 5–7, 1–6

Doubles: 2 (0–2)

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Legend
ATP Challenger (0–2)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–2)
Clay (0–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Oct 2009 Orléans, France Challenger Hard   Olivier Patience   Colin Fleming
  Ken Skupski
1–6, 1–6
Loss 0–2 Oct 2010 Orléans, France Challenger Hard   Nicolas Mahut   Pierre-Hugues Herbert
  Nicolas Renavand
6–7(3–7), 6–1, [6–10]

Junior Grand Slam finals

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Doubles: 1 (1 title)

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Result Year Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1996 French Open Clay   Olivier Mutis   Jan-Ralph Brandt
  Daniel Elsner
6–2, 6–3

Performance timelines

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Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# P# DNQ A Z# PO G S B NMS NTI P NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

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Tournament 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 SR W–L Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A Q2 1R 3R SF 2R QF QF 2R QF 3R 3R A 1R 0 / 11 25–11 69%
French Open 1R 1R 3R 3R SF QF 2R 2R 4R 2R 1R A A A 0 / 11 19–11 63%
Wimbledon Q3 4R 3R 1R 3R A SF SF QF 3R 2R 2R A A 0 / 10 25–10 71%
US Open Q1 1R 1R 3R 1R 2R 1R 2R 3R 2R 3R 1R A A 0 / 11 9–11 45%
Win–loss 0–1 3–3 4–4 6–4 12–4 6–3 10–4 11–4 10–4 8–4 5–4 3–3 0–0 0–1 0 / 43 78–43 64%
National Representation
Summer Olympics Not Held A Not Held QF Not Held A NH 0 / 1 3–1 75%
Year-End Championships
Tennis Masters Cup Did not qualify F Did not qualify 0 / 1 3–2 60%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A A 3R 3R 1R 3R 4R 2R 4R 1R 1R A Q1 0 / 9 10–9 53%
Miami A A F 3R 3R 3R 2R 4R 3R 3R 2R 2R A A 0 / 10 15–10 60%
Monte Carlo Q1 2R 3R 1R SF SF A 2R A 2R A 1R A A 0 / 8 13–8 62%
Rome A A 1R 1R 3R 3R 1R 2R 2R 1R A A A A 0 / 8 6–8 43%
Hamburg A A A 2R 3R 2R 2R 1R 3R 3R Q2 A NMS 0 / 7 9–7 56%
Canada A A 2R 3R A QF 3R 1R 3R 2R 1R A A A 0 / 8 11–8 58%
Cincinnati A 1R 1R 2R A 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R Q2 A A A 0 / 8 1–8 11%
Madrid[a] A A 2R SF 3R SF QF A 2R 2R A A A A 0 / 7 13–7 64%
Paris A 1R 1R 3R W 3R 2R A 1R 2R 1R A 1R A 1 / 10 8–9 47%
Win–loss 0–0 1–3 9–6 8–8 16–5 15–9 7–8 6–7 7–8 9–9 1–4 1–3 0–1 0–0 1 / 72 80–71 53%
Year-end ranking 197 88 27 19 6 17 10 15 25 28 53 170 677 722

Doubles

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Tournament 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 SR W–L Win%
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A A 3R A A A A 1R 1R 2R A 0 / 4 3–4 43%
French Open 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R A A A A A A 1R 1R 1R 0 / 8 0–8  – 
Wimbledon A A A A A A A A A A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
US Open A A A A A A 2R A 1R 1R 1R 1R 3R A 0 / 6 3–6 33%
Win–loss 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 2–1 1–1 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–2 0–3 3–3 0–1 0 / 18 6–18 25%
National Representation
Summer Olympics A Not Held A Not Held 1R Not Held A NH 0 / 1 0–1 0%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A A A 2R Q1 2R A W 2R QF A 1R A 1 / 6 10–5 67%
Miami A A A A A 1R 2R A QF A 2R A A A 0 / 4 4–4 50%
Monte Carlo A A A A 2R 2R A A 1R A A A A A 0 / 3 2–3 40%
Rome A A A A 1R 2R 1R 2R A A 2R A A A 0 / 5 3–5 38%
Hamburg A A A A Q1 A A 1R 1R A A A A NMS 0 / 2 0–2 0%
Canada A A A 1R 1R A 1R A QF 1R A A A A 0 / 5 2–5 29%
Cincinnati A A A Q2 A A 2R A 1R A A A A A 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Madrid[a] A A A A A A 1R A A A A A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Paris A A 1R 1R A A A A A 1R 2R 2R A 1R 0 / 6 2–6 25%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–1 0–2 2–4 2–3 3–6 1–2 9–5 1–3 5–4 1–1 0–1 0–1 1 / 34 24–33 42%

Top 10 wins

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Season 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
Wins 0 0 0 2 3 7 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 16
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score GR
1999
1.   Carlos Moyá 1 Miami, United States Hard 4R 3–6, 6–4, 7–6(11–9) 74
2.   Gustavo Kuerten 6 Indianapolis, United States Hard QF 6–4, 6–3 32
2000
3.   Tim Henman 9 Indian Wells, United States Hard 2R 6–3, 3–6, 7–5 19
4.   Lleyton Hewitt 10 Toronto, Canada Hard 2R 6–3, 7–6(7–5) 27
5.   Gustavo Kuerten 3 Stuttgart, Germany Hard (i) 3R 7–6(11–9), 6–3 32
2001
6.   Magnus Norman 4 Australian Open, Melbourne Hard 4R 7–6(9–7), 6–3, 0–6, 6–4 19
7.   Marat Safin 2 World Team Cup, Düsseldorf Clay RR 7–6(8–6), 6–3 10
8.   Andre Agassi 3 French Open, Paris Clay QF 1–6, 6–1, 6–1, 6–3 10
9.   Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6 Paris Masters, France Carpet (i) F 7–6(7–3), 6–1, 6–7(5–7), 6–4 8
10.   Pat Rafter 5 Tennis Masters Cup, Sydney Hard (i) RR 7–6(7–4), 6–3 7
11.   Andre Agassi 3 Tennis Masters Cup, Sydney Hard (i) RR 6–3, 6–4 7
12.   Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6 Tennis Masters Cup, Sydney Hard (i) SF 6–4, 6–2 7
2003
13.   Lleyton Hewitt 1 Queen's Club, United Kingdom Grass QF 6–3, 6–4 20
14.   Juan Carlos Ferrero 3 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 4R 6–2, 4–6, 7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–3) 14
2005
15.   Andre Agassi 10 Houston, United States Clay QF 4–6, 6–1, 6–2 30
2006
16.   Guillermo Coria 9 Australian Open, Melbourne Hard 3R 6–2, 6–2, 3–6, 6–4 28

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Stuttgart from 1996 to 2001, and Madrid from 2002 onwards.

References

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  1. ^ "Grosjean ends his pro tennis career". Yahoo! Sports. 27 May 2010. Archived from the original on 16 December 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  2. ^ "Davis Cup – Grosjean named French Davis Cup captain".
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