Stéphane Robert (; born 17 May 1980) is a French

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 ...

coach and a former professional player.

Professional career

2007–2008

Robert missed 16 months of tennis action in 2007–2008 because he was infected with the Hepatitis A virus in February 2007. In early June 2008, he returned to tennis action at the

ITF Men's Circuit The ITF Men's World Tennis Tour (formerly ''ITF Men's Circuit'') is a series of professional tennis tournaments held around the world that are organized by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The tour represents the lowest rung of the me ...

tournament in

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

, without an ATP singles ranking, reaching the final as a qualifier.Stéphane Robert's biography
ATP World Tour official website.

2010

On 1 February 2010, Robert broke into Top 100 of the ATP singles rankings for the first time at No. 100. Within one week of his singles rankings breakthrough and seeded no. 8, he defeated for the first time in his career a player (

David Ferrer David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in July 2013. Ferrer won 27 ATP Tour singles titles, including a ...

) ranked in the top 20 of the ATP singles rankings in the semifinals before reaching his first ATP World Tour singles final at the 2010 SA Tennis Open, falling to 3rd-seeded

Feliciano López Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ATP rankings, ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016. ...

5–7, 1–6. Robert rose to a career-high of No. 61 of the ATP singles rankings on 22 February 2010 one day after winning the

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour (known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series) is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

singles title in Tangier.

2011

Robert rose to international prominence in 2011 when, as a qualifier, he beat the 2010 Wimbledon singles finalist and sixth seed

Tomáš Berdych Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in May 2015. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, i ...

3–6, 3–6, 6–2, 6–2, 9–7 in the first round of the 2011 French Open to register the biggest singles win of his career, having saved a match point at 4–5 in the deciding set. It was the first time that he had beaten a player ranked in the top 10 of the ATP singles rankings – Berdych was ranked no. 6. Robert lost his second round match to

Fabio Fognini Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. Fognini's most successful surface is Clay court#Red clay, ...

in straight sets.

2014: Reached Australian Open fourth round as lucky loser

Robert reached the singles 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the 2014 Australian Open, where he lost to 4th seeded

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. 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 Professio ...

. He was only one of 2

lucky loser A lucky loser is a sports competitor (player or team) who loses a match in a knockout tournament or loses in qualifying, but who then enters the main draw. This can occur when another competitor withdraws during the tournament because of illness ...

s to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament since Dick Norman achieved the feat at the 1995 Wimbledon Championships,

David Goffin David Goffin (; born 7 December 1990) is a Belgian professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ATP rankings, ranking of world No. 7, making him the highest ranked male player from Belgium in tennis history. He is also the first ...

(at the 2012 French Open) being the other. Robert and Jesse Huta Galung became only the third

doubles team to clinch an ATP World Tour doubles title by defeating

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 ...

and

Nenad Zimonjić Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2008 and 2009 Wimbledon Ch ...

in the final of the 2014 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. That was Robert's first ATP World Tour doubles final appearance. After losing in the 1st round of the

2014 Wimbledon Championships The 2014 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 128th edition of the The Championships, Wimbledon, Wimbledon C ...

Nick Kyrgios Nicholas Hilmy Kyrgios ( ; ; born 27 April 1995) is an Australian professional tennis player. Kyrgios has been ranked as high as world No. 13 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved on 24 October 2016. He has won se ...

, Robert missed the rest of the year because of leg injury.

2016: Top 50 debut

Robert qualified for the singles main draw of the

2016 Australian Open The 2016 Australian Open was a List of tennis tournaments, tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 18 and 31 January 2016. It was the 104th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam tourname ...

by winning three qualifying matches, and he lost in the third round of the main draw to

Gaël Monfils Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in November 2016. Mon ...

. That was only the second time Robert had progressed to the third round of the singles main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. On July 15, 2016, Robert, who was unseeded and had an ATP singles ranking of No. 83 coming into the tournament, reached the semi-final at the 2016 German Open, where he lost to Martin Kližan. It was Robert's first ATP World Tour semi-final since February 2010, when he was defeated in the final in Johannesburg. Robert's ATP singles ranking reached a career-high of No. 59 on July 18, 2016, right after his semifinal appearance in Hamburg, which was a massive improvement over his ATP singles ranking of No. 558 on 25 May 2015.

Coaching career

From 2001 to March 2010, Ronan Lafaix was Robert's coach. In May 2016, Lafaix, who is 12 years older than Robert, became Robert's coach for the second time. Lafaix joined the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy and has coached several professional tennis players, including Hamad Medjedovic.Robert-Lafaix, l'addition magique
L'Équipe, 26 May 2016.

ATP World Tour career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Men's Circuit career finals

Singles: 39 (23–16)

Doubles: 33 (14–19)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robert, Stephane 1980 births Living people People from Montargis French male tennis players Sportspeople from Loiret 21st-century French sportsmen