Thierry Guardiola (born 7 August 1971) 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 from France.
ITF Tennis Profile
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Career
Guardiola, aged 15, broke a thigh bone playing in the juniors and was told that he would never play tennis again. He however went on to win the Under-18 French National Championships in 1989.[ATP World Tour Profile]
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In 1994 he upset world number 11 Magnus Gustafsson
Magnus Nils Gustafsson (born 3 January 1967) is a tennis coach and former top ten professional tennis player from Sweden. Gustafsson won 14 tour singles titles during his career and finished 15 consecutive seasons within the world's top 100, re ...
at the Philips Open in Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
, en route to the quarter-finals, where he lost to Slava Doseděl
Slava may refer to:
Ships
* ''Slava'' class cruiser, a modern Russian warship
** Soviet cruiser Slava (1979), now Russian cruiser ''Moskva'', a ''Slava'' class guided missile cruiser sunk during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
* Russian ba ...
.[ The biggest win however was over four-time ]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 ...
champion Jim Courier
James Spencer "Jim" Courier (born August 17, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals ...
in the first round of the 1995 Italian Open, one of that year's ATP Super 9
The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...
tournaments.[ The Frenchman was a quarter-finalist on one further occasion during his tour career, in the Marseille Open 13.][
His first three Grand Slam appearances were all in his home event, the French Open, where he made the second round in 1992 and lost five set opening round matches in 1994 and 1995, to ]Bernd Karbacher
Bernd Karbacher (born 3 April 1968) is a German retired professional tennis player. His highest ATP singles ranking is world No. 22, which he reached on 17 April 1995. His career-high doubles ranking was world No. 163, achieved on 6 June 1994.
D ...
and rising star Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Kafelnikov ( rus, Евгений Александрович Кафельников, , jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈkafʲɪlʲnʲɪkəf, a=Ru-Yevgeny-Kafelnikov.ogg; born 18 February 1974) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis p ...
.[ Guardiola reached the second 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 ...
, defeating Jason Stoltenberg
Jason Stoltenberg (born 4 April 1970) is an Australian former professional tennis player.
Tennis career
Stoltenberg began playing tennis at age ten on an antbed (crushed termite mound) court where his father owned a cotton farm in the Far Wes ...
, the world number 20.[ He managed to make the second round again in the ]1995 French Open
The 1995 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 29 May until 11 June. It was the 99th staging of the French Open, and the second Gran ...
but never won another Grand Slam match.[ In his remaining three Grand Slams he had the misfortune of having to start the tournaments against two third seeds (]Thomas Muster
Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967) is an Austrian former world No. 1 tennis player. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, he won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was called "The King of Clay". In addition, he won eig ...
and Magnus Norman
Magnus Norman (born 30 May 1976) is a Swedish tennis coach and retired professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 2 singles ranking on June 12, 2000. His career highlights include re ...
) and at the 2000 US Open had to play eventual champion Marat Safin
Marat Mubinovich Safin ( rus, Мара́т Муби́нович Са́фин, , mɐˈrat ˈsafʲɪn, Ru-Marat-Safin.ogg; tt-Cyrl, Марат Мөбин улы Сафин; born 27 January 1980) is a Russian retired world No. 1 tennis player an ...
.[
]
Challenger titles
Singles: (2)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guardiola, Thierry
1971 births
Living people
French male tennis players
Sportspeople from Toulouse