Nathalie Tauziat
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| Country |  France |
|
| Residence | Anglet, France | |
| Date of birth | October 17, 1967 | |
| Place of birth | Bangui, Central African Republic | |
| Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 4 in) | |
| Weight | 54.5 kg (120 lb) | |
| Turned pro | 1985 | |
| Plays | Right-handed | |
| Career prize money | $6,650,093 | |
| Singles | ||
| Career record: | 606-365 | |
| Career titles: | 8 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 3 (May 2000) | |
| Grand Slam results | ||
| Australian Open | 4R (1993) | |
| French Open | QF (1991) | |
| Wimbledon | F (1998) | |
| US Open | QF (2000) | |
| Doubles | ||
| Career record: | 525-326 | |
| Career titles: | 25 | |
| Highest ranking: | No. 3 (October 8, 2002) | |
|
Infobox last updated on: July 12, 2006. |
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Nathalie Tauziat (born October 17, 1967, in Bangui, Central African Republic) is a former professional tennis player from France.
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[edit] Career
Tauziat turned professional in 1984 and lived in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera during the early stages of her career and later moved to Bayonne in the southwest of France. She retired from the WTA Tour tennis circuit after the 2003 French Open, after having played only doubles in 2002 and 2003. Her highest WTA Tour singles and doubles rankings were both World No. 3. Tauziat was coached by Régis de Camaret throughout her professional career. She played mostly the serve-and-volley style.
Tauziat won her first WTA tour singles title in Bayonne in 1990. This was followed by tournament victories in Quebec City, Canada in 1993, Eastbourne, United Kingdom in 1995, and Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1997. In 1991, she reached the French Open singles quarterfinals for the first and only time, becoming the first Frenchwoman to do so since Brigitte Simon reached the semifinals in 1978.
At Wimbledon in 1998, Tauziat reached the only Grand Slam singles final of her career on her 42nd attempt. She lost to Jana Novotná 6–4, 7–6. Her appearance in this final was the first by a Frenchwoman since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925. She finished the year by becoming the first Frenchwoman to earn more than U.S. $1 million in prize money.
Tauziat was a relatively late bloomer for a female professional tennis player, moving into the world top ten at 30 years of age in 1998. She was only the third Frenchwoman to do so, the others being Françoise Durr and Mary Pierce. On February 7, 1999, Tauziat and two other Frenchwomen were ranked in the singles top ten, the first time France had three women ranked in the top ten simultaneously. (Tauziat was ranked sixth. The other Frenchwomen in the top ten on that date were fifth ranked Pierce and ninth ranked Sandrine Testud.) France was the third nation after the United States and Australia to have more than two players in the singles top ten simultaneously. France repeated this accomplishment between November 15, 1999, and January 9, 2000, when Tauziat, Julie Halard-Decugis, Amélie Mauresmo, and Pierce had simultaneous top ten rankings.
Tauziat became the third-oldest player to win a Tier 1 WTA tour event since 1981 when she won the tournament in Moscow in 1999. This was followed two weeks later by the singles title at the Tier II tournament in Leipzig, Germany. This was the only year in which she won more than one WTA tour singles title. She reached the semifinals at the season-ending WTA Tour Championships for the second time in 1999 (the first was in 1997). Her career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 was reached at age 32 years and 6 months in the spring of 2000, making her the oldest woman to reach the top three and the fourth-oldest to be ranked in the top three.
She reached her only U.S. Open singles quarterfinal in 2000. In 2001, she competed in singles at the French Open for the 18th and final time, a tournament record that was matched by Conchita Martínez in 2005. She won her eighth and final singles title, and her third on grass, at Birmingham in 2001 to re-enter the top ten and become the oldest winner of a singles title since 1994 at 33 years, 8 months. Two weeks later, she reached the Wimbledon singles quarterfinals for the fifth time, becoming the oldest female Grand Slam tournament quarterfinalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
In 2001, Tauziat won her 112th grass-court match, placing her fifth on the open era list (behind Navratilova with 309 victories, Chris Evert with 207 victories, Pam Shriver with 188 victories, and Helena Suková with 125 victories). In the summer of 2001, she won her 600th career singles match en route to a fourth round finish at the U.S. Open, only the 11th player to reach that milestone in the open era. In October 2001, she became at age 34 years, 12 days the fourth-oldest player to qualify in singles for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships (the ninth time she had done so) and also qualified in doubles for the seventh time. She attained a career-high number 3 doubles ranking on October 8, 2001.
She was seeded in singles at every tour event she played in the last four years of her career.
Tauziat won 8 WTA tour singles titles and was the runner-up in 14 WTA tour tournaments during her career. She won 25 WTA tour doubles titles during her career and was the runner-up in 32 WTA tour doubles tournaments. Eight of her doubles titles were in partnership with fellow Frenchwoman Alexandra Fusai, and eleven of her doubles runner-ups were with Fusai. Tauziat secured WTA tour doubles titles at least once on four different surfaces - clay, grass, hardcourt, and indoor.
Tauziat represented her country in the Fed Cup from 1985 through 2001 and at the Olympic Games in 1988, 1992, and 1996. As of December 31, 2005, she holds the following Fed Cup records for her country: most years played (16), most ties played (40), most total match wins (33), and most doubles match wins (20). She was a member of the Fed Cup-winning team in 1997, in which she won both of her singles matches in the opening round against Japan and her doubles matches against Belgium in the semifinals and against the Netherlands in the final. She made Fed Cup singles history in 1997 when she defeated Japan's Naoko Sawamatsu 7–5, 4–6, 17-15. The final set was the longest set ever in Fed Cup singles, and the 54 games in the match tied the record for the most games in a rubber.
In addition to her 57 career WTA tour finals, Tauziat reached at least the women's doubles quarterfinals in 15 Grand Slam tournaments. Her best doubles performance in a Grand Slam tournament was at the 2001 U.S. Open, where she was the runner-up with Kimberly Po-Messerli. She also played in the season-ending WTA Tour Championships on seven occasions between 1988 and 2001. She was the runner-up with Fusai in 1997 and 1998. She was a WTA tour doubles semifinalist on 42 occasions (excluding Grand Slam tournaments): 1985(3), 1986(1), 1987(2), 1988(3), 1989(5), 1990(1), 1991(1), 1993(2), 1994(2), 1995(3), 1996(1), 1997(2), 1998(4), 1999(4), 2000(3), and 2001(5).
Tauziat 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.
Tauziat has been an official WTA tour mentor to French tennis player Marion Bartoli since 2003.
Tauziat is a first cousin of Didier Deschamps, a former French football player. She married Ramuncho Palaurena on July 16, 2005. The couple have a daughter, born in 2005.
[edit] Grand Slam singles finals
[edit] Runner-up (1)
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
| 1998 | Wimbledon |  Jana Novotná |
6–4, 7–6 |
[edit] WTA tour singles finals
- 1988: RU - Nice, Mahwah
- 1990: W - Bayonne; RU - Wichita
- 1991: RU - Zürich
- 1992: RU - San Antonio, Bayonne
- 1993: W - Quebec City
- 1995: W - Eastbourne
- 1996: RU - Birmingham
- 1997: W - Birmingham; RU - Zürich, Chicago
- 1998: RU - Wimbledon, Leipzig
- 1999: W – Moscow, Leipzig; RU – Birmingham, Eastbourne
- 2000: W – Paris Indoor Open
- 2001: W – Birmingham; RU – Dubai
[edit] WTA tour doubles finals
- 1987: W - Paris Open, Zürich with Isabelle Demongeot (France)
- 1988: W - West Berlin, Zürich with Demongeot; RU - Nice, Brighton with Demongeot
- 1989: W - Hamburg with Demongeot; RU -Zürich with Judith Wiesner (Austria)
- 1990: W - Brighton with Helena Suková (Czech Republic); RU - Chicago with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (Spain)
- 1991: W - Bayonne with Patricia Tarabini (Argentina); RU - Barcelona with Wiesner, Carlsbad with Gigi Fernandez (U.S.)
- 1992: RU - Barcelona with Wiesner
- 1993: W – Melbourne with Nicole Provis (Australia); RU - Quebec City with Katerina Maleeva (Bulgaria)
- 1994: W - Los Angeles with Julie Halard-Decugis (France), Quebec City with Elna Reinach (South Africa); RU - Barcelona with Halard-Decugis
- 1995: W - Linz with Meredith McGrath (U.S.)
- 1996: W - Leipzig, Luxembourg with Kristie Boogert (Netherlands); RU - Paris Indoors, Indian Wells with Halard-Decugis, Birmingham with Lori McNeil (U.S.), Oakland with Irina Spirlea (Romania)
- 1997: W - Linz, Chicago with Alexandra Fusai (France); RU - Indian Wells with Lisa Raymond (U.S.), Birmingham with Linda Wild (U.S.), Tour Championships, Atlanta, Quebec City with Fusai
- 1998: W - Linz, Strasbourg, New Haven with Fusai; RU - Tour Championships, Indian Wells, Berlin, Carlsbad with Fusai
- 1999: W – Prostějov (Czech Republic), Berlin with Fusai; RU – Hanover, Rome, Strasbourg with Fusai, Zürich with Natasha Zvereva (Belarus)
- 2000: W – Eastbourne with Ai Sugiyama (Japan), Montreal with Martina Hingis (Switzerland), Luxembourg with Fusai; RU – Pan-Pacific Open (Tokyo) with Fusai, Linz with Sugiyama
- 2001: W – Miami with Sánchez Vicario, Los Angeles with Kimberly Po-Messerli (U.S.), Leipzig with Elena Likhovtseva (Russia); RU – Paris Indoor Open, Nice, Birmingham with Po-Messerli, U.S. Open with Po-Messerli
- 2002: RU – Birmingham with Po-Messerli
[edit] WTA Tour Championships
- 1988: Doubles – 1R with Isabelle Demongeot (France)
- 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993: Singles - 1R
- 1994: Doubles – 1R with Julie Halard-Decugis (France)
- 1995: Doubles - lost playoff match with Halard-Decugis for the final berth
- 1997: Singles - SF; Doubles - RU with Alexandra Fusai (France)
- 1998: Singles - QF; Doubles - RU with Fusai
- 1999: Singles – SF; Doubles – QF with Fusai
- 2000: Singles – QF; Doubles – QF with Fusai
- 2001: Singles – 1R; Doubles – SF with Kimberly Po-Messerli (U.S.)
[edit] Grand Slam women's doubles record (QF or better)
- French Open - SF ('90,'94,'97, ’99, ‘00), QF ('87,'92,'93,'95,'98,‘01)
- Wimbledon – SF (’01), QF (’02)
- U.S. Open – RU (’01), QF ('95, '97)
[edit] Grand Slam singles performance timeline
| 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 | A | 2R | 2R | 2R | 1R | 4R | 4R | QF | 4R | 3R | 3R | 3R | QF | F | QF | 1R | QF | 0 / 16 | 40-16 |
| U.S. Open | A | A | 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 |
NH = tournament not held.
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
[edit] External links
- Nathalie Tauziat profile on the WTA Tour's official website
- Fed Cup profile for Nathalie Tauziat
