Ronald Jean-Martin Agénor (born November 13, 1964) is a former professional
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 racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player who represented Haiti during his playing career. He is the only
Haitian to have ever earned a Top 25 world ranking in singles, reaching a highest singles ranking of world No. 22 in May 1989. During his career he won three ATP tour singles titles.
Early life and junior tennis
Agénor was born on November 13, 1964 in Rabat, Morocco, the son of Frédéric Agénor, a former Haitian Diplomat at the United Nations and Minister of Agriculture of Haiti.
He is the youngest of a family of six children and learned how to play tennis in
Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi (former names: ( French), (Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and principal city of the Haut-Katang ...
, Zaire (current Congo) in 1974 and discovered competitive tennis in Bordeaux, France in 1978 under the wing of his brother, Lionel.
He was ranked No. 8 junior player in the world in 1982 and won 2 Junior titles Charleroi, Belgium and Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Pro tennis career
Agénor joined the professional tennis circuit in 1983. In 1989 He reached the quarterfinals of the
French Open where he was defeated by eventual-champion
Michael Chang
Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...
in four sets, and won his first top-level singles title at
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
. In 1990, Agénor won two further tour singles titles at Berlin and
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
.
He competed in three
Summer Olympic Games, in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
(a demonstration event),
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
and
1996.
In 1999, Agénor finished the year ranked World No. 98 and became the first player aged over 35 to finish in the top-100 since
Jimmy Connors in 1992.
Agénor competed in his penultimate ATP-sanctioned tour event in July 2006 at the
Aptos Futures
Futures may mean:
Finance
*Futures contract, a tradable financial derivatives contract
*Futures exchange, a financial market where futures contracts are traded
* ''Futures'' (magazine), an American finance magazine
Music
* ''Futures'' (album), a ...
event after a four-year layoff from tour tennis, losing 3–6, 4–6 in the first round.
In a career spanning 19 years, he reached the quarter finals at the French Open in 1989 by beating
Carl Limberger,
Tim Mayotte
Timothy Mayotte (born August 3, 1960) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
Professional career
A tall serve-and-volleyer, Mayotte learned to play the game on the public courts of Forest Park in his hometown of Springfi ...
,
Claudio Pistolesi and
Sergi Bruguera
Sergi Bruguera i Torner (; born 16 January 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He won consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994, a silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in men's singles and reache ...
before losing to champion
Michael Chang
Michael Te-pei Chang (born February 22, 1972) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. He is the youngest man in history to win a singles major, winning the 1989 French Open at 17 years and 109 days old. Chang won a total of ...
. He also got to the fourth round of both the US Open and French Open in 1988. He represented Haiti in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, in Seoul in 1988, and in Atlanta in 1996 and won 3 ATP Tour World titles in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
,
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. At the French Open in 1994, he defeated David Prinosil, 14/12 in the fifth set and broke the previous record of the longest match in the number of games in the history of the French Open since the open era previously held by Emilio Sanchez. In 1987, his final at the
Swiss Indoors against Yannick Noah from France, was the first ATP World Tour tennis final between two players of color in men's professional tennis history. After a break from the pro circuit, Agénor made a comeback in 1999 becoming, at 35 years of age, the oldest player to reach top 100 (ATP ranked #88) in the world since Jimmy Connors did it in 1991. In 2000, he represented and led the Lido Luzern Tennis Club in Switzerland to its first Swiss National title in 100 years. In 2001, at 37 years of age, he finished the year ATP ranked #186 appearing in a final against David Nalbandian from Argentina.
Agénor retired from professional tennis in 2002 and opened the Ronald Agenor Tennis Academy in Los Angeles, California.
In 2009, he entered qualifying for the
Genova Challenger in singles, but retired in the first round.
In 2012, Agénor entered the doubles draw of Futures events in Casablanca, Innisbrook, and Edwardsville. Partnering
Takanyi Garanganga, he came up short in his final match.
ATP career finals
Singles: 8 (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)
Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 15 (9–6)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
After tennis
Agénor has also recorded music as a rock musicia
Agenor was once Honorary Consul of Haiti in Bordeaux, France (1989) and speaks several languages fluently. He is a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of high level sportsmen personally committed to the peace through sport movement, which is part of
Peace and Sport
Peace and Sport, also known as "L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport" is a neutral and independent organization based in the Principality of Monaco and under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco.
Peace and Sport work in areas acros ...
, an organization under the patronage of Prince
Albert II of Monaco. In 1989, he was Honorary Consul of Haiti in Bordeaux, France. In 2006, the city of
Castelnau de Médoc, in wine country region of
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
in France, named its newly built tennis facility after Ronald "Salle Ronald Agénor". In 2018, he was inducted into the Black Tennis Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
, in Washington DC,
and the tennis court “Court Ronald Agénor” was inaugurated in the Bordeaux Wine region, at Sainte Terre Tennis Club, France.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Agenor, Ronald
1964 births
Living people
Haitian expatriate sportspeople in France
Haitian emigrants to the United States
Haitian male tennis players
Olympic tennis players of Haiti
Sportspeople from Beverly Hills, California
Tennis players from Bordeaux
Sportspeople from Rabat
Tennis people from California
Tennis players at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in tennis
Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Haiti
Tennis players at the 1983 Pan American Games
Pan American Games competitors for Haiti