Showing posts with label Nathalie Tauziat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nathalie Tauziat. Show all posts

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Nathalie Tauziat, a French former professional tennis player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships

Nathalie Tauziat (born 17 October 1967) is a French former professional tennis player.[1] She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships. Her career-high singles ranking was third in 2000. She currently coaches Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu.

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 tennis circuit after the 2003 French Open, after having played only doubles in 2002 and 2003. Tauziat won 8 singles titles and 25 doubles titles during 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.