Henri Leconte

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Henri Leconte (born July 4, 1963 in Lillers, Pas-de-Calais) is a former French professional tennis player. He is best remembered for reaching the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, for winning the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and for helping France win the Davis Cup in 1991.

Leconte first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player who won the French Open junior title in 1981.

As a professional, Leconte won his first career doubles title in 1981 at Bologna, and his first top-level singles title in 1982 in Stockholm.

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.

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.

In 1988, Leconte reached the men's singles final at the French Open. 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 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.

Leconte played in the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1982, when France was defeated 4-1 by the United States.

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

In total, Leconte played for France's Davis Cup team for a total of 13 consecutive years, compliling a 41-25 record.

Leconte also played on the French team which won the World Team Cup in 1986.

Leconte gave the French crowd something to cheer about one more time in 1992 when, for the third time in his career, he progressed all the way to the semi-finals of the French Open before finally being defeated by Petr Korda.

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

Leconte retired form the professional tour in 1996, having won a total of nine career singles titles and ten doubles titles. He is now the manager of an event company (HL Event) based in Belgium, and is due to open a tennis academy in Fès, Morocco, in 2006.