Paul-Henri Mathieu

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**Paul-Henri Mathieu**

Country	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Date of birth	January 12, 1982
Place of birth	Strasbourg, France
Height	6'1" (185 cm)
Weight	163 lbs (74 kg)
Turned Pro	1999
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$1,704,099
Singles
Career record:	96-106
Career titles:	2
Highest ranking:	32 (May 22, 2006)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4th (2006)
French Open	4th (2002)
Wimbledon	2nd (2002)
U.S. Open	3rd (2004)
Doubles
Career record:	7-27
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	248 (July 31, 2006)

Paul-Henri Mathieu (pronounced: on-REE mat-YEU) (born January 12, 1982) is a French tennis player.

1 Career
2 ATP Tour titles (2)
- 2.1 Singles (2)
- 2.2 Singles Finalist (1)
3 External link

[edit] Career

Mathieu was born in Strasbourg. He first began playing tennis at age 3, with his older brother Pierre-Yves. Between 1997 and 2000 he trained at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. After having won the Junior title at the French Open (defeating Tommy Robredo), he made his ATP tour debut in July 2000, in Kitzbühel.

2002 was Mathieu's breakthrough year. He made the 4th round of the French Open, only losing to Andre Agassi in 5 sets, despite having a 2 set lead. Later on in the year, he confirmed his potential by winning back to back tournaments in Moscow and Lyon. On October 14 he became world no. 36 and his progess won him the ATP Newcomer of the Year award for 2002. He also nearly won the Davis Cup in 2002 with the French Davis Cup team, but lost the deciding rubber of the final to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, once more after relinquishing a 2 set advantage.

In 2005 he achieved his best ever result in an ATP Masters Series event, knocking out Andy Roddick on his way to the semi-finals at Montreal. He had a record of 2-2 in the 4 Davis Cup matches he played that year. He won both his matches against the Swedish opponents Thomas Johansson and Joachim Johansson, but lost to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev in the quarter final tie.

2006 saw him equal his best result at a Grand Slam tournament by reaching the 4th round of the Australian Open. In May a career-high ranking of 32 was attained.

In 2007, he injured himself at the Australian Open during a 1st round match against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. This was unfortunate as Mathieu was up 2 sets and 3-0 in the 3rd set tiebreak at the time.

His favourite surfaces are clay and hard, and he admired Boris Becker while growing up. His brother Pierre-Yves is now a tennis coach in Strasbourg.

[edit] ATP Tour titles (2)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (2)

[edit] Singles (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	6 October 2002	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (I)	Sjeng Schalken	4-6 6-2 6-0
2.	13 October 2002	Lyon, France	Carpet (I)	Gustavo Kuerten	4-6 6-3 6-1