Thierry Champion (born 31 August 1966) is a former professional tennis player from France.
Tennis career
Champion was born in
Bagnols-sur-Cèze
Bagnols-sur-Cèze (, literally ''Bagnols on Cèze''; oc, Banhòus de Céser) is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie région in southern France.
History
A small regional center, Bagnols-sur-Cèze was quite certainly a Roman town ( ...
, 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
The 1993 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 24 May until 6 June. It was the 97th staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...
, by eventual winner
Sergi Bruguerabr>
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
Nicolas Jean-Christophe Escudé (born 3 April 1976) is a former professional tennis player from France, who turned professional in 1995. He won four singles titles and two doubles titles during his career.
Escudé is best remembered for the vi ...
and
Paul-Henri Mathieu. At the
2008 Wimbledon Championships
The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 122nd edition of the The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon C ...
he was seen to be coaching French player
Richard Gasquet for a short stint.
ATP career finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 3 (2–1)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Champion, Thierry
1966 births
Living people
People from Bagnols-sur-Cèze
French male tennis players
French tennis coaches
Sportspeople from Gard