Jocelyn Robichaud (born 8 April 1978 in
Joliette
Joliette is a city in southwest Quebec, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Montreal, on the L'Assomption River and is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of Joliette. It is considered to be a part of the North Shore of Greate ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
) is a former tour professional
tennis player
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cove ...
. Robichaud captured three junior
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
titles and played
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
for
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. More of a doubles specialist, he won three
Challenger events in doubles and reached a career-high
ATP doubles ranking of World No. 119.
Junior tennis
Robichaud won his first of three Grand Slams in doubles partnering
Jong-min Lee, as the tandem defeated the Dutch duo of
Raemon Sluiter
Raemon Sluiter (born 13 April 1978) is a Dutch former professional tennis player and current coach. His career-high ATP singles ranking is World No. 46, achieved in February 2003. Though he achieved only limited success during his professional ...
and
Peter Wessels
Peter Wessels (born 7 May 1978) is a presently inactive tour professional male tennis player from the Netherlands. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 72 in February 2005.
Biography
Wessels had an excellent junior career, ...
in the final of the
1995 U.S. Open, 7–6, 6–2. After winning the Victorian Junior Championships and Australian Hardcourt Junior Championship, Robichaud and partner
Daniele Bracciali
Daniele Bracciali (; born 10 January 1978) is an Italian former tennis player, best ranked world no. 21 in doubles. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world no. 49, achieved in May 2006. In doubles, he reached the semifinals of the 2012 Fren ...
captured the
1996 Australian Open
The 1996 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on Hardcourt, outdoor hard courts at Melbourne Park in Melbourne in Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia. It was the 84th edition of the Australian Open and was held from 15 through 28 ...
junior title, defeating
Bob and Mike Bryan
The Bryan brothers, identical twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They were born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being the elder by two minutes. ...
in the final, 3–6, 6–3, 6–3. Robichaud partnered
Martin Verkerk
Martin Willem Verkerk (born 31 October 1978) is a retired professional Dutch tennis player. He reached the final of the 2003 French Open – Men's singles, French Open in 2003 and achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 14 in September 200 ...
at the next major and the pair reached the semi-finals of the
1996 French Open
The 1996 French Open was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor clay courts at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. The tournament was held from 27 May until 9 June. It was the 100th staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...
. He rejoined Bracciali to win his third junior slam as the duo captured the
1996 Wimbledon Championship by dispensing of the South African pair of
Damien Roberts and
Wesley Whitehouse
Wesley Whitehouse (born 13 March 1979) is a South African-born New Zealand tennis player.
Biography
Whitehouse lives or has lived in between Pretoria, South Africa and Phoenix, Arizona but currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand
Career J ...
in the final, 6–3, 7–6. Bracciali and Robichaud nearly made it a third Grand Slam title together but fell in the final of the
1996 U.S. Open to the Bryan twins, 7–5, 3–6, 4–6. Robichaud reached an ITF junior doubles ranking of World No. 1, in December, 1995.
In singles, Robichaud's best results were reaching the third round of the
1995 Australian Open
The 1995 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at Flinders Park in Melbourne in Victoria in Australia. It was the 83rd edition of the Australian Open and was held from 16 through 29 January 1995.
Seniors
Men's s ...
, the quarter-finals of the junior
1995 Italian Open, and the third round of the 1996 Wimbledon Championship. His career-high ITF Junior singles ranking was World No. 11, which he reached in December, 1995.
Senior tennis
Rochichaud captured the
Aptos Challenger twice in succession – in 1996 and 1997 – both times partnering fellow Québécois
Sébastien Leblanc
Sébastien LeBlanc Canadian.(born 27 December 1973 in Montreal) is a former tour professional tennis player. Leblanc captured three junior Grand Slam titles and played Davis Cup for Canada. More of a doubles specialist, he won five Challenge ...
. His third Challenger title was winning the 1999
drkoop.com USTA Challenger of Miami, partnering
Miles Wakefield. In addition, Robichaud captured an additional 5
ITF Futures tennis event titles. His career (main draw) match win–loss doubles record at Challenger level was 43 and 33, while at ATP Tour and Grand Slam level it was 6 wins, 15 losses. His best top-flight result were reaching the quarter-finals of the
1997 Canadian Open, partnering
Tommy Haas
Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...
. In fact, all 6 of his ATP Tour match wins occurred at his home country's major tournament. Rochibaud appeared in the main draw of a Grand Slam event twice as a senior, both times in doubles, at the 2000
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
, partnering
Jack Waite
Jack Waite (born May 1, 1969) is an American former tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis ra ...
, and
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, with
Michael Sell
Michael Sell (born August 23, 1972) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He was the co-head coach of the women’s tennis team at Louisiana State University with Julia Sell from 2015 to April 2022.
Career
Before he tu ...
. He and Waite lost in straight sets while he and Sell lost 8–10 in the fifth set to
Marc-Kevin Goellner
Marc-Kevin Peter Goellner (born 22 September 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Germany. He won two singles titles, achieved a Bronze medal in doubles at the 1996 Summer Olympics and attained a career-high singles ranking of Worl ...
and
Jan Siemerink
Johannes Martinus ("Jan") Siemerink (born 14 April 1970) is a retired tennis player from the Netherlands. The former Dutch Davis Cup captain reached a career-high ATP ranking of 14.
Career Tennis
As a junior player, Siemerink was the Dutch 18- ...
.
As for singles, the highlights of Rochibaud's time on tour were winning his first senior-level match, at age 18, to World No. 627
Sergio Gómez-Barrio 6–3, 6–4 while taking Quebec tennis star and World No. 160
Sébastien Lareau
Sébastien Lareau (; born April 27, 1973) is a former professional tennis player. He became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title by winning the 1999 US Open – Men's doubles, 1999 US Open men's doubles with his American partner Ale ...
in his second match to a second set tie-break, at the 1994
Montebello Challenger; reaching the final of Canada F1 in June, 1998 followed by the semi-final of Canada F2 the following week; reaching the final of Greece F2 in May, 2001; and reaching the semi-final of Canada F3, in June, 2001. The sole ATP Tour event he competed in over the years, in a main draw, was the Canadian Open, in which he made 3 appearances, going 0 and 3. In Challengers, he had 1 match win (the one over Gómez-Barrio) and 7 defeats, including going 0–5 at the
Granby Challenger
The Championnats de Granby, currently sponsored as Championnats Banque Nationale de Granby, is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It is currently part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Tour ...
, while in Futures events he had a winning record of 39 and 33. His career-high singles ATP ranking was World No. 384, which he reached in October, 1997.
Davis Cup
Robichaud appeared in rubbers in 4 Canadian Davis Cup ties, all of which Canada lost. He got his first match action winning a dead singles rubber in a tie lost away to
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
, 2–3, in April 1998 American Group I semifinal action. He defeated a young
Giovanni Lapentti
Giovanni Lapentti Gómez (; born 25 January 1983) is retired Ecuadorian tennis player. His brother is Nicolás Lapentti, another professional tennis player, while a third brother, Leonardo, has also been active at the lower levels of professiona ...
6–3, 7–6
(2). In February 1999, in the quarter-finals of American Group I, Robichaud won his second Davis Cup match, teaming with star Canadian doubles player
Daniel Nestor
Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; sr, Данијел Нестор, Danijel Nestor; born September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player.
Nestor won 91 men's doubles titles (with 11 different partners), including an Olympic gold medal
...
to defeat the
Colombian duo of
Mauricio Hadad
Mauricio Hadad (born 7 December 1971) is a former tennis player from Colombia and former captain of the Colombia Davis Cup Team.
Hadad is of Lebanese background. The right-hander turned pro in 1988 and reached his highest individual ranking on ...
and
Miguel Tobon 7–6
(5), 6–7
(4), 6–7
(3), 6–0, 6–4. Canada lost this away tie too, 2–3.
The following year, Canada again faced a South American opponent away in the zonal group I quarter-finals and lost, this time to
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, 1–4. Robichaud again played the doubles tie, this time partnering
Sébastien Lareau
Sébastien Lareau (; born April 27, 1973) is a former professional tennis player. He became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title by winning the 1999 US Open – Men's doubles, 1999 US Open men's doubles with his American partner Ale ...
– they lost to
Fernando González
Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...
and
Nicolás Massú
Nicolás Alejandro Massú Fried (; born 10 October 1979), nicknamed ''El Vampiro'' (Spanish, 'the vampire'), is a Chilean former professional tennis player. A former world No. 9 in singles, he won the singles and doubles gold medals at the 200 ...
, 4–6, 4–6, 6–2, 2–6. Then his fourth and final Davis Cup rubber was a doubles lose with
Fred Niemeyer, to the
Argentine Davis Cup team of
Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is ''Gordo'' which means ''Fat'' in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay.
Calleri served as ...
and
Mariano Puerta
Mariano Rubén Puerta (; born 19 September 1978) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high ATP world No. 9 singles ranking in August 2005. His career highlight of reaching the final of the French Open in 2005 ...
, 6–7
(5), 3–6, 4–6, in a 2001 American Group I semifinal match-up.
Post-playing career
In 2008, Robichaud captained Canada's youth Davis Cup team, and was a youth coach for
Tennis Canada
Tennis Canada is the national governing body of tennis within Canada. It works together with the provincial associations to organize tournaments and rules. They also oversee the Canada Davis Cup team and the Canada Fed Cup team. Tennis Canada w ...
at its national training centre at
Uniprix Stadium
IGA Stadium (French: Stade IGA) (formerly Stade Du Maurier and Stade Uniprix) is the main tennis court at the Canadian Open tournament in Montreal, Quebec. Built in 1996, the centre court stadium currently holds 11,815 spectators.Stade UniprixR ...
.
Junior Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 4 (3 titles, 1 runner-up)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 2 (0–2)
Doubles: 14 (8–6)
References
Sources
ITF Junior profile pageITF Junior activity page(adjust filter to between 1993 and 1997)
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robichaud, Jocelyn
1978 births
Living people
Australian Open (tennis) junior champions
Canadian male tennis players
French Quebecers
People from Joliette
Racket sportspeople from Quebec
US Open (tennis) junior champions
Wimbledon junior champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' doubles