Nathalie Tauziat

Nathalie Tauziat
Tauziat at the 2016 Billie Jean King Cup (Fed Cup)
Country (sports) France
ResidenceAnglet, France
Born (1967-10-17) 17 October 1967 (age 57)
Bangui, Central African Republic
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Turned pro1984
Retired2003
PlaysRight-handed (one handed-backhand)
Prize money$6,650,093
Singles
Career record606–365 (62.4%)
Career titles8
Highest rankingNo. 3 (8 May 2000)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open4R (1993)
French OpenQF (1991)
WimbledonF (1998)
US OpenQF (2000)
Doubles
Career record525–326
Career titles25
Highest rankingNo. 3 (8 October 2001)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open3R (1993)
French OpenSF (1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000)
WimbledonSF (2001)
US OpenF (2001)
Team competitions
Fed CupW (1997)

Nathalie Tauziat (born 17 October 1967) is a French former professional tennis player and coach.[1] She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships and runner-up in the women's doubles at the 2001 US Open partnering Kimberly Po-Messerli. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in both singles and doubles.[2]

She previously coached Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu and compatriot Harmony Tan.

Early life

Tauziat was born in Bangui, Central African Republic, where she lived for the first eight years of her life.[3] She is a first cousin of Didier Deschamps, former captain and current manager of the French football team.[4] About a week after Tauziat reached the Wimbledon final on 4 July 1998, Deschamps led France to win the World Cup on 12 July 1998.

Career

Tauziat turned professional in 1984. She won her first singles title in 1990. She reached her only Grand Slam singles final at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships, beating Haruka Inoue, Iva Majoli, Julie Halard-Decugis, Samantha Smith, Lindsay Davenport and Natasha Zvereva before losing to Jana Novotná. Her appearance in this final was the first by a Frenchwoman since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925.

Tauziat was runner-up with partner Kimberly Po in the 2001 US Open women's doubles final, losing to the team of Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs. She and partner Alexandra Fusai were doubles runners-up at the 1997 and 1998 Chase Championships. She was also part of the 1997 French Fed Cup team, which won its first title in the history of the competition.

Tauziat reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 3 at the age of 32 years and 6 months in the spring of 2000, making her the oldest woman to debut in the top three and the fourth oldest to be ranked in the top three. She retired from the WTA Tour after the 2003 French Open, after having played only doubles in 2002 and 2003. Tauziat won 8 singles titles and 25 doubles titles on the WTA Tour in her career.

She wrote a book with the title "Les Dessous du tennis féminin" (published in 2001 in French) in which she gave her insights about life on the women's professional tennis circuit. In 2004 Tauziat received a state honour – le chevalier de la Légion d'honneur – from French President Jacques Chirac for her contributions to international tennis. She was an official WTA Tour mentor to French tennis player Marion Bartoli, beginning in 2003.

Career statistics

Main article: Nathalie Tauziat career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles

Tournament 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Career SR Career win–loss
Australian Open A A NH A A A A A A 4R 1R A A A A A 2R A 0 / 3 4–3
French Open 1R 3R 2R 4R 4R 1R 4R QF 4R 3R 2R 3R 2R 3R 1R 2R 3R 1R 0 / 18 30–18
Wimbledon A LQ 2R 2R 2R 1R 4R 4R QF 4R 3R 3R 3R QF F QF 1R QF 0 / 16 40–16
US Open A LQ 1R 2R 2R 3R 4R 1R 2R 4R 2R 3R 2R 1R 4R 3R QF 4R 0 / 16 27–16
SR 0 / 1 0 / 1 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 1 0 / 53 101–53

Doubles

Tournament 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Career SR
Australian Open A NH A A A A A A 3R 2R A A A A A 2R A A A 0 / 3
French Open 1R 3R QF 3R 3R SF 3R QF QF SF QF 3R SF QF SF SF QF 2R 1R 0 / 19
Wimbledon 3R 1R 2R 3R 1R 3R 3R 3R 2R 3R 3R 2R 3R 2R 2R 2R SF QF A 0 / 18
US Open 2R 1R 1R 1R 3R 2R 3R 3R 2R 1R QF 1R QF 2R 3R 3R F A A 0 / 17
SR 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 3 0 / 4 0 / 3 0 / 2 0 / 1 0 / 57

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Opponent Score
Loss 1998 Wimbledon Grass Czech Republic Jana Novotná 4–6, 6–7(2–7)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 2001 US Open Hard United States Kimberly Po-Messerli United States Lisa Raymond
Australia Rennae Stubbs 		2–6, 7–5, 5–7

Year-end championships

Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)

Result Year Championship Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 1997 New York Carpet (i) France Alexandra Fusai United States Lindsay Davenport
Czech Republic Jana Novotná		 7–6(7–5), 3–6, 2–6
Loss 1998 New York Carpet (i) France Alexandra Fusai United States Lindsay Davenport
Belarus Natasha Zvereva		 7–6(8–6), 5–7, 3–6

See also

References

  1. ^ Parsons, John (March 2000). The Official Wimbledon Annual 1999. Pelican Publishing. pp. 122–. ISBN 9781565547148. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Nathalie Tauziat". www.itftennis.com. International Tennis Federation.
  3. ^ Haylett, Trevor (28 June 1995). "Tauziat reclaims the tricolore from Pierce". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Wimbledon's top 50 women players of all time". The Telegraph. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 18 July 2020.