Nathalie Tauziat

Nathalie Tauziat

Tauziat at the 2016 Billie Jean King Cup (Fed Cup)
Country (sports)	France
Residence	Anglet, France
Born	(1967-10-17) 17 October 1967 Bangui, Central African Republic
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Turned pro	1984
Retired	2003
Plays	Right-handed (one handed-backhand)
Prize money	$6,650,093
Singles
Career record	606–365 (62.4%)
Career titles	8
Highest ranking	No. 3 (8 May 2000)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	4R (1993)
French Open	QF (1991)
Wimbledon	F (1998)
US Open	QF (2000)
Other tournaments
Grand Slam Cup	SF (1998)
Doubles
Career record	525–326
Career titles	25
Highest ranking	No. 3 (8 October 2001)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	3R (1993)
French Open	SF (1990, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000)
Wimbledon	SF (2001)
US Open	F (2001)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	W (1997)

Nathalie Tauziat (born 17 October 1967) is a French former professional tennis player and coach. 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.

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. She is a first cousin of Didier Deschamps, former captain and current manager of the French football team. 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	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	Kimberly Po-Messerli	Lisa Raymond 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)	Alexandra Fusai	Lindsay Davenport Jana Novotná	7–6(7–5), 3–6, 2–6
Loss	1998	New York	Carpet (i)	Alexandra Fusai	Lindsay Davenport Natasha Zvereva	7–6(8–6), 5–7, 3–6

See also

• Performance timelines for all female tennis players who reached at least one Grand Slam final

External links

• Nathalie Tauziat at the Women's Tennis Association
• Nathalie Tauziat at the International Tennis Federation
• Nathalie Tauziat at the Billie Jean King Cup
• Nathalie Tauziat at Wimbledon
• Nathalie Tauziat at Olympedia (archive)
• Nathalie Tauziat at Olympics.com