Nicolas Jean-Christophe Escudé (; born 3 April 1976) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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 vital role he played in the 2001 Davis Cup final against Australia on the grass-courts of Melbourne. Escudé beat the recently crowned World No. 1,

Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) fo ...

in the first rubber with a win in five sets, repeating what he did to Hewitt earlier that year in the fourth round of

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 * W ...

. Two days later, Escudé won the decisive fifth rubber for France against Wayne Arthurs in four sets. The right-hander reached his highest individual ranking on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

on 26 June 2000, when he became World No. 17. He's a natural left-hander who was trained since a child to play right-handed but does everything else lefty. His brother Julien Escudé is a professional football player. Escudé teamed up with

Roger Federer Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...

in the men's doubles at the French Open in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. However they were knocked out by

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 with his American partner Alex O'Brien. As a singles player ...

and

Daniel Nestor Daniel Mark Nestor ( ; ; born Danijel Nestorović, September 4, 1972) is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 108 weeks ( fifth-most ...

. In 2006, he announced his immediate retirement from the sport due to a persistent shoulder injury that had been keeping him out of the professional tennis circuit for the past 22 months. Escudé was the captain of the France Fed Cup team from 2009 to 2012. He was also the co-coach of

Nicolas Mahut Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles. He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at th ...

for the 2013 season with Thierry Ascione and from 2013 to 2015 of

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

. He is currently the technical director of the French tennis federation.

Career finals

Singles (4 wins, 2 losses)

Doubles (2 wins)

Singles performance timeline

Top 10 wins

References

External links

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Bio – file with Nicolas Escude
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escude, Nicolas 1976 births Living people French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French male tennis players French tennis coaches Olympic tennis players for France Sportspeople from Chartres Tennis players from Geneva Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics 20th-century French sportsmen