Thierry Champion (born 31 August 1966) is a former professional tennis player from France.

Tennis career

Champion was born in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Gard. During his career, he reached the quarter-finals at the French Open in 1990 and at Wimbledon in 1991.

A clay court specialist, Champion gained notoriety on the men's ATP tour as a wild card player with the ability to inflict defeat on seeded players well above his ranking. His play style was characterised by fast court coverage and strong baseline play with measured heavily spun passing shots, particularly from an unorthodox backhand stroke.

Reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 44 on the men's ATP rankings in 1991, subsequent years saw a dwindling career riddled with injury.

One of the worst Grand Slam defeats in tennis history came when Champion was triple bageled, losing 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 in the 2nd round of the 1993 French Open, by eventual winner Sergi Bruguera.[1]

Champion was the coach of French tennis player Gaël Monfils starting in September 2004, but they parted ways in September 2006. He was also the coach of Hicham Arazi, Nicolas Escudé and Paul-Henri Mathieu. At the 2008 Wimbledon Championships he was seen to be coaching French player Richard Gasquet for a short stint.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Legend
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
ATP World Series (0–1)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Finals by setting
Outdoors (0–1)
Indoors (0–0)
Result W–L Date Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Aug 1988 St. Vincent, Italy Grand Prix Clay Sweden Kent Carlsson 0–6, 2–6

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 3 (2–1)

Legend
ATP Challenger (2–1)
ITF Futures (0–0)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–1)
Clay (2–0)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Win 1–0 Jul 1996 Ostend, Belgium Challenger Clay Belgium Kris Goossens 6–3, 6–4
Win 2–0 Aug 1996 Poznań, Poland Challenger Clay Romania Ionuț Moldovan 6–0, 6–3
Loss 2–1 Nov 1996 Réunion Island, Reunion Challenger Hard Sweden Patrik Fredriksson 7–5, 0–6, 3–6

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 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open Q3 Q3 A 3R A 1R A 1R 1R 2R A A A 1R A 0 / 6 2–6 25%
French Open A A 1R 2R 2R 1R QF 3R 1R 2R 2R 2R 2R 3R Q2 0 / 12 14–12 54%
Wimbledon A 1R 1R A 1R 1R Q1 QF 3R A A A 1R A A 0 / 7 6–7 46%
US Open A A 2R A 1R A 2R 2R 2R A A Q3 A A A 0 / 5 4–5 44%
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 1–3 2–2 1–3 0–3 5–2 7–4 3–4 2–2 1–1 1–1 1–2 2–2 0–0 0 / 30 26–30 46%
ATP Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A A A A A A 1R 2R A Q1 A A A A 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Miami A A A A 1R 2R A 1R 2R A Q2 Q1 A 1R A 0 / 5 2–5 29%
Monte Carlo A A A 1R A 1R A 1R 2R A A 1R A A A 0 / 5 1–5 17%
Hamburg A A A A 2R A 1R A 2R A 1R Q1 A A A 0 / 4 2–4 33%
Rome A A A A A 1R 1R A 1R A Q2 Q2 Q3 A A 0 / 3 0–3 0%
Canada A A A A A A A A A A A A A 1R A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Cincinnati A A A A A A 1R A 2R A A A A A A 0 / 2 1–2 33%
Paris A A 1R 2R 1R A 2R 1R A 1R A Q1 Q2 A A 0 / 6 2–6 25%
Win–loss 0–0 0–0 0–1 1–2 1–3 1–3 1–4 0–4 5–6 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–2 0–0 0 / 28 9–28 24%

Doubles

Tournament 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 SR W–L Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A 1R A A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
French Open A 1R 1R 1R 2R 1R 2R 1R 1R 0 / 8 2–8 20%
Wimbledon Q2 A A 1R A A A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
US Open A A A A A A A A A 0 / 0 0–0  – 
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–2 1–2 0–1 1–1 0–1 0–1 0 / 10 2–10 17%
ATP Masters Series
Miami A A A A 3R A A A A 0 / 1 2–1 67%
Monte Carlo A A 1R A 1R A A A A 0 / 2 0–2 0%
Paris A 1R A A A A A A A 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 2–2 0–0 0–0 0–0 0–0 0 / 4 2–4 33%
Allikas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Champion
No tags for this post.