Henri Leconte

Henri Leconte

Henri Leconte in 2011
Country (sports)	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Born	(1963-07-04) 4 July 1963 Lillers, France
Height
Turned pro	1980
Retired	1996
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money	$3,440,660
Singles
Career record	377–269
Career titles	9
Highest ranking	No. 5 (22 September 1986)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	4R (1985)
French Open	F (1988)
Wimbledon	SF (1986)
US Open	QF (1986)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	RR (1985, 1986, 1988)
Doubles
Career record	200–141
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 6 (18 March 1985)

Henri Leconte (born 4 July 1963) is a former French professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991. Leconte's career-high singles ranking was World No. 5.

Biography and career

Leconte at the 2015 Australian Open

Leconte first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player who won the French Open junior title in 1981. He turned professional that year and won his first career doubles title at Bologna, and his first top-level singles title the following year, 1982, in Stockholm. Leconte played in the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1982, when France was defeated 4–1 by the United States.

Leconte teamed up with Yannick Noah to win the men's doubles title at the French Open in 1984. In 1985, Leconte and Noah reached a second Grand Slam doubles final at the US Open, where they finished runners-up. Leconte reached his career-high doubles ranking of World No. 6 in 1985. In singles in 1985, Leconte reached the quarter-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon, the latter run of which included a dazzling win over world no. 2, Ivan Lendl, in the fourth round of Wimbledon.

1986 saw Leconte reach two Grand Slam singles semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, and attain his career-high singles ranking of world no. 5. Leconte also played on the French team that won the World Team Cup that year.

In 1988, Leconte reached the men's singles final at the French Open beating Simon Youl, Bruno Orešar, Horacio de la Peña, Boris Becker, Andrei Chesnokov and Jonas Svensson. In the final, despite strong support from the French crowd, Leconte could not overcome two-time former champion Mats Wilander, who defeated him in straight sets.

In 1991, Leconte was involved in the Davis Cup final for a second time. France again faced the US, and this time Leconte defeated Pete Sampras in straight sets in a critical singles rubber, and also teamed with Guy Forget to win the doubles rubber, as France upset the heavily-favoured US team 3–1.

In total, Leconte played for France's Davis Cup team for a total of 13 consecutive years, compiling a 41–25 record. He compiled a doubles record of 17–5 and was undefeated with Guy Forget (11 wins), winning his last 14 doubles matches (from March 1985 to July 1993).

Leconte won his final top-level singles title in 1993 in Halle. He also won his final doubles title that year at Indian Wells.

Leconte (better known in some circles as Ryo), who currently sports a full beard, retired from the professional tour in 1996, having won a total of 9 career singles titles and 10 doubles titles. Playing on the ATP Champions Tour for over-35's, he formed a doubles partnership with the Iranian player Mansour Bahrami.

He is now the manager of an event company (HL Event) based in Belgium and opened a tennis academy in Fès, Morocco, in 2006.

In 2010, Leconte appeared on Australian television as a commentator for the 2010 Australian Open. There, he obtained a cult following as a result of a zany exhibition doubles performance, and his passionate and often parochial commentary, especially for compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose winning shots he routinely described as "unbelievable!"

In 2014, Leconte appeared as a commentator for the 2014 Australian Open. One match he commentated was the 3rd round battle of the French with Gilles Simon vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline

Tournament	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	SR	W–L
Australian Open	A	LQ	A	A	A	4R	NH	3R	3R	1R	3R	A	1R	A	2R	A	A	0 / 7	8–7
French Open	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	QF	SF	1R	F	A	QF	2R	SF	1R	1R	A	1R	0 / 15	27–15
Wimbledon	LQ	2R	1R	2R	A	QF	SF	QF	4R	A	2R	3R	3R	4R	1R	1R	A	0 / 13	26–13
US Open	A	A	1R	A	3R	4R	QF	4R	3R	A	2R	A	3R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 9	17–9
Win–Loss	0–1	1–2	0–3	2–2	3–2	13–4	14–3	8–4	13–4	0–1	8–4	3–2	9–4	3–3	1–3	0–1	0–1	0 / 44	78–44

A = Absent from tournament

NH = Tournament not held

LQ = Lost in Qualifying Round

SR = the ratio of the number of tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

Trivia

He participated in 2005 in the second season of La Ferme Célébrités, a TV reality game show. In 2007, his son Maxime also participated in the TV reality game show Secret Story, the French version of Big Brother.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1988	French Open	Clay	Mats Wilander	5–7, 2–6, 1–6

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1984	French Open	Clay	Yannick Noah	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	1985	US Open	Hard	Yannick Noah	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	7–6(5), 6–7(1), 6–7(6), 0–6

Masters Series finals

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1991	Indian Wells	Hard	Guy Forget	Jim Courier Javier Sánchez	6–7(1), 6–3, 3–6
Winner	1993	Indian Wells	Hard	Guy Forget	Luke Jensen Scott Melville	6–4, 7–5

Singles finals 16 (9-7)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	1982	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Mats Wilander	7–6(4), 6–3
Runner-up	1.	1983	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Guillermo Vilas	6–7, 6–4, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	1983	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	John McEnroe	1–6, 4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	3.	1984	Memphis, U.S.	Carpet	Jimmy Connors	3–6, 6–4, 5–7
Winner	2.	1984	Stuttgart Outdoor, Germany	Clay	Gene Mayer	7–6(9), 6–0, 1–6, 6–1
Winner	3.	1985	Nice, France	Clay	Víctor Pecci	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	1985	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Ivan Lendl	4–6, 4–6, 6–7(6)
Winner	4.	1985	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Kelly Evernden	6–7(6), 6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	5.	1986	Bristol, United Kingdom	Grass	Vijay Amritraj	6–7(6), 6–1, 6–8
Winner	5.	1986	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Thierry Tulasne	7–5, 6–3
Winner	6.	1986	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Miloslav Mečíř	6–2, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2
Winner	7.	1988	Nice, France	Clay	Jérôme Potier	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	6.	1988	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Kent Carlsson	2–6, 1–6, 4–6
Runner-up	7.	1988	French Open, Paris	Clay	Mats Wilander	5–7, 2–6, 1–6
Winner	8.	1988	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet	Jakob Hlasek	7–6(3), 7–6(6), 6–4
Winner	9.	1993	Halle, Germany	Grass	Andriy Medvedev	6–2, 6–3

Doubles finals 19 (10-9)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	1981	Bologna, Italy	Carpet	Sammy Giammalva Jr.	Tomáš Šmíd Balázs Taróczy	7–6, 6–4
Winner	2.	1982	Nice, France	Clay	Yannick Noah	Paul McNamee Balázs Taróczy	5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	1982	Bournemouth, England	Clay	Ilie Năstase	Paul McNamee Buster Mottram	6–3, 6–7, 3–6
Winner	3.	1982	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Yannick Noah	Fritz Buehning Pavel Složil	6–2, 6–2
Winner	4.	1982	Vienna, Austria	Carpet	Pavel Složil	Mark Dickson Terry Moor	6–1, 7–6
Runner-up	2.	1983	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Yannick Noah	Heinz Günthardt Balázs Taróczy	2–6, 4–6
Winner	5.	1983	Aix-en-Provence, France	Clay	Gilles Moretton	Ivan Camus Sergio Casal	2–6, 6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	3.	1984	Philadelphia, U.S.	Carpet	Yannick Noah	Peter Fleming John McEnroe	2–6, 3–6
Winner	6.	1984	French Open, Paris	Clay	Yannick Noah	Pavel Složil Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Winner	7.	1984	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Pascal Portes	Colin Dowdeswell Wojtek Fibak	2–6, 7–6, 7–6
Winner	8.	1984	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Tomáš Šmíd	Vijay Amritraj Ilie Năstase	3–6, 7–6, 6–4
Runner-up	4.	1985	U.S. Open, New York	Hard	Yannick Noah	Ken Flach Robert Seguso	7–6, 6–7, 6–7, 0–6
Winner	9.	1988	Nice, France	Clay	Guy Forget	Heinz Günthardt Diego Nargiso	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	1988	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Ivan Lendl	Sergio Casal Emilio Sánchez	0–6, 3–6
Runner-up	6.	1990	London/Queen's Club, England	Grass	Ivan Lendl	Jeremy Bates Kevin Curren	2–6, 6–7
Runner-up	7.	1991	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Guy Forget	Jim Courier Javier Sánchez	6–7, 6–3, 3–6
Runner-up	8.	1992	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Guy Forget	Brad Pearce Byron Talbot	1–6, 6–3, 3–6
Winner	10.	1993	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Guy Forget	Luke Jensen Scott Melville	6–4, 7–5
Runner-up	9.	1994	Halle, Germany	Grass	Gary Muller	Olivier Delaître Guy Forget	4–6, 7–6, 4–6

External links

• Official website
• Henri Leconte at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Henri Leconte at the Davis Cup

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Florence Arthaud Max Morinière Daniel Sangouma Jean-Charles Trouabal Bruno Marie-Rose	French Sportperson of the Year 1991 (with Guy Forget)	Succeeded by Marie-José Pérec
Preceded by Jimmy Connors	ATP Comeback Player of the Year 1992	Succeeded by Mikael Pernfors