Henri Leconte

Henri Leconte ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; born 4 July 1963) is a French former professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991. During his career, he won singles titles on all four major court surfaces: hard, clay, grass and carpet. Leconte's career-high singles ranking was world No. 5.

Biography and career

Leconte first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player who won the French Open junior title in 1981. He turned professional that year and won his first career doubles title at Bologna, and his first top-level singles title the following year, 1982, in Stockholm. Leconte played in the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1982, when France was defeated 4–1 by the United States.

Leconte teamed up with Yannick Noah to win the men's doubles title at the French Open in 1984. In 1985, Leconte and Noah reached a second Grand Slam doubles final at the US Open, where they finished runners-up. Leconte reached his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 6 in 1985. In singles in 1985, Leconte reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and Wimbledon, the latter run of which included a dazzling win over world no. 2, Ivan Lendl, in the fourth round.

1986 saw Leconte reach two Grand Slam singles semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, and attain his career-high singles ranking of world No. 5. Leconte also played on the French team that won the World Team Cup that year.

In 1988, Leconte reached the men's singles final at the French Open beating Simon Youl, Bruno Orešar, Horacio de la Peña, Boris Becker, Andrei Chesnokov and Jonas Svensson. In the final, despite strong support from the French crowd, Leconte could not overcome two-time former champion Mats Wilander who defeated him in straight sets.

In 1991, Leconte was involved in the Davis Cup final for a second time. France again faced the US, and this time Leconte defeated Pete Sampras in straight sets in a critical singles rubber, and also teamed with Guy Forget to win the doubles rubber, as France upset the heavily favoured U.S. team 3–1.

In total, Leconte played for France's Davis Cup team for a total of 13 consecutive years, compiling a 41–25 record. He compiled a doubles record of 17–5 and was undefeated with Guy Forget (11 wins), winning his last 14 doubles matches (from March 1985 to July 1993).

Leconte won his final top-level singles title in 1993 in Halle. He also won his final doubles title that year at Indian Wells.

Leconte retired from the professional tour in 1996, having won a total of nine career singles titles and ten doubles titles. Playing on the ATP Champions Tour for over-35's, he formed a doubles partnership with the Iranian player Mansour Bahrami.

He is now the manager of an event company (HL Event) based in Belgium and opened a tennis academy in Fès, Morocco, in 2006.

Since 2010, Leconte has appeared on Australian television as a commentator on the Seven Network's coverage of the Australian Open. There, he obtained a cult following as a result of a zany exhibition doubles performance, and his passionate and often parochial commentary, especially for compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose winning shots he routinely described as "unbelievable!"<ref>"Henri Leconte in Fine Form in the Commentary Box During the Australian Open". Herald Sun. Published and accessed January 27, 2010.</ref>

In 2014, Leconte appeared as a commentator for the 2014 Australian Open. One match he commentated was the third-round match between Frenchmen Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He has since appeared regularly as a commentator for matches involving French players in the men's draw.Template:Citation needed

Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	SR	W–L
Australian Open	A	LQ	A	A	A	4R	NH	3R	3R	1R	3R	A	1R	A	2R	A	A	0 / 7	8–7
French Open	1R	1R	1R	2R	2R	QF	SF	1R	F	A	QF	2R	SF	1R	1R	A	1R	0 / 15	27–15
Wimbledon	Q	2R	1R	2R	A	QF	SF	QF	4R	A	2R	3R	3R	4R	1R	1R	A	0 / 13	26–13
US Open	A	A	1R	A	3R	4R	QF	4R	3R	A	2R	A	3R	1R	A	A	A	0 / 9	17–9
Win–loss	0–1	1–2	0–3	2–2	3–2	13–4	14–3	8–4	13–4	0–1	8–4	3–2	9–4	3–3	1–3	0–1	0–1	0 / 44	78–44

Trivia

He participated in 2005 in the second season of La Ferme Célébrités, a TV reality game show. In 2007, his son Maxime also participated in the TV reality game show Secret Story, the French version of Big Brother. He also appeared as a contestant on BBC Celebrity Masterchef 2017, reaching the semifinals.

Major finals

File:Australian Open 2015 (16191787877) (cropped).jpg

Leconte at the 2015 Australian Open

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	1988	French Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Mats Wilander	5–7, 2–6, 1–6

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1984	French Open	Clay	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Pavel Složil Template:Flagicon Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Loss	1985	US Open	Hard	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Ken Flach Template:Flagicon Robert Seguso	7–6(7–5), 6–7(1–7), 6–7(6–8), 0–6

Masters Series finals

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Result	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	1991	Indian Wells	Hard	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Jim Courier Template:Flagicon Javier Sánchez	6–7(1–7), 6–3, 3–6
Win	1993	Indian Wells	Hard	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Luke Jensen Template:Flagicon Scott Melville	6–4, 7–5

Career finals

Singles: 16 (9 titles, 7 runners-up)

Result	No	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1.	1982	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon Mats Wilander	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Loss	1.	1983	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Template:Flagicon Guillermo Vilas	6–7(4–7), 6–4, 4–6
Loss	2.	1983	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon John McEnroe	1–6, 4–6, 5–7
Loss	3.	1984	Memphis, United States	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Jimmy Connors	3–6, 6–4, 5–7
Win	2.	1984	Stuttgart Outdoor, West Germany	Clay	Template:Flagicon Gene Mayer	7–6(11–9), 6–0, 1–6, 6–1
Win	3.	1985	Nice, France	Clay	Template:Flagicon Víctor Pecci	6–4, 6–4
Loss	4.	1985	Sydney Indoor, Australia	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon Ivan Lendl	4–6, 4–6, 6–7(6–8)
Win	4.	1985	Sydney Outdoor, Australia	Grass	Template:Flagicon Kelly Evernden	6–7(6–8), 6–2, 6–3
Loss	5.	1986	Bristol, United Kingdom	Grass	Template:Flagicon Vijay Amritraj	6–7(6–8), 6–1, 6–8
Win	5.	1986	Geneva, Switzerland	Clay	Template:Flagicon Thierry Tulasne	7–5, 6–3
Win	6.	1986	Hamburg, West Germany	Clay	Template:Flagicon Miloslav Mečíř	6–2, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2
Win	7.	1988	Nice, France	Clay	Template:Flagicon Jérôme Potier	6–2, 6–2
Loss	6.	1988	Hamburg, West Germany	Clay	Template:Flagicon Kent Carlsson	2–6, 1–6, 4–6
Loss	7.	1988	French Open, Paris	Clay	Template:Flagicon Mats Wilander	5–7, 2–6, 1–6
Win	8.	1988	Brussels, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Jakob Hlasek	7–6(7–3), 7–6(8–6), 6–4
Win	9.	1993	Halle, Germany	Grass	Template:Flagicon Andriy Medvedev	6–2, 6–3

Doubles: 19 (10–9)

Result	No	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Win	1.	1981	Bologna, Italy	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Sammy Giammalva Jr.	Template:Flagicon Tomáš Šmíd Template:Flagicon Balázs Taróczy	7–6, 6–4
Win	2.	1982	Nice, France	Clay	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Paul McNamee Template:Flagicon Balázs Taróczy	5–7, 6–4, 6–3
Loss	1.	1982	Bournemouth, England	Clay	Template:Flagicon Ilie Năstase	Template:Flagicon Paul McNamee Template:Flagicon Buster Mottram	6–3, 6–7, 3–6
Win	3.	1982	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Fritz Buehning Template:Flagicon Pavel Složil	6–2, 6–2
Win	4.	1982	Vienna, Austria	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Pavel Složil	Template:Flagicon Mark Dickson Template:Flagicon Terry Moor	6–1, 7–6
Loss	2.	1983	Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco	Clay	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Heinz Günthardt Template:Flagicon Balázs Taróczy	2–6, 4–6
Win	5.	1983	Aix-en-Provence, France	Clay	Template:Flagicon Gilles Moretton	Template:Flagicon Iván Camus Template:Flagicon Sergio Casal	2–6, 6–1, 6–2
Loss	3.	1984	Philadelphia, United States	Carpet (i)	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Peter Fleming Template:Flagicon John McEnroe	2–6, 3–6
Win	6.	1984	French Open, Paris	Clay	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Pavel Složil Template:Flagicon Tomáš Šmíd	6–4, 2–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–2
Win	7.	1984	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Template:Flagicon Pascal Portes	Template:Flagicon Colin Dowdeswell Template:Flagicon Wojtek Fibak	2–6, 7–6, 7–6
Win	8.	1984	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon Tomáš Šmíd	Template:Flagicon Vijay Amritraj Template:Flagicon Ilie Năstase	3–6, 7–6, 6–4
Loss	4.	1985	US Open, New York	Hard	Template:Flagicon Yannick Noah	Template:Flagicon Ken Flach Template:Flagicon Robert Seguso	7–6, 6–7, 6–7, 0–6
Win	9.	1988	Nice, France	Clay	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Heinz Günthardt Template:Flagicon Diego Nargiso	4–6, 6–3, 6–4
Loss	5.	1988	Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco	Clay	Template:Flagicon Ivan Lendl	Template:Flagicon Sergio Casal Template:Flagicon Emilio Sánchez	0–6, 3–6
Loss	6.	1990	Queen's Club, England	Grass	Template:Flagicon Ivan Lendl	Template:Flagicon Jeremy Bates Template:Flagicon Kevin Curren	2–6, 6–7
Loss	7.	1991	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Jim Courier Template:Flagicon Javier Sánchez	6–7, 6–3, 3–6
Loss	8.	1992	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Brad Pearce Template:Flagicon Byron Talbot	1–6, 6–3, 3–6
Win	10.	1993	Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	Template:Flagicon Luke Jensen Template:Flagicon Scott Melville	6–4, 7–5
Loss	9.	1994	Halle, Germany	Grass	Template:Flagicon Gary Muller	Template:Flagicon Olivier Delaître Template:Flagicon Guy Forget	4–6, 7–6, 4–6

External links

• Template:ATP
• Template:ITF
• Template:Davis Cup player
• H Talent Management Henri Leconte client biography