Paul-Henri Mathieu

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**Paul-Henri Mathieu**

Country	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Date of birth	January 12, 1982 (1982-01-12) (age 26)
Place of birth	Strasbourg, France
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	74 kg (160 lb/11.7 st)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$2,756,072
Singles
Career record:	163 - 147
Career titles:	4
Highest ranking:	12 (April 7, 2008)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4th (2006, 2008)
French Open	4th (2002, 2008)
Wimbledon	4th (2007)
US Open	3rd (2004)
Doubles
Career record:	15 - 48
Career titles:	0
Highest ranking:	185 (April 14, 2008)
Infobox last updated on: May 5, 2008.

Paul-Henri Mathieu (born January 12, 1982 in Strasbourg, France) is a French tennis player.

1 Tennis career
- 1.1 2007
2 ATP Tour titles (4)
- 2.1 Singles (4)
- 2.2 Singles Finalist (2)
3 External links

[edit] Tennis 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 the 3rd round of the French Open, he lost to eventual champion Rafael Nadal in a gruelling encounter which lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes, but amazingly only saw 42 games played (Nadal won the match 5–7, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4, with the first set lasting 93 minutes and each of the following sets longer than an hour). Many tennis players and commentators, including two-time French Open runner-up Alex Corretja, hailed it as a classic.

Mathieu is known for being able to hit heavy groundstrokes from both wings and his topspin forehand is probably his biggest weapon. A relatively popular, well-liked player despite his inconsistent career results, Mathieu is often affectionately known by his initials, "PHM". 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] 2007

2007 started poorly for Mathieu when he injured himself at the Australian Open during a 1st round encounter against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and was forced to retire from the match. This was unfortunate as Mathieu was up 2 sets and 3–0 in the 3rd set tiebreak at the time. After returning from his injury, he reached the 4th round in Miami, beating then world number 5 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile along the way, before bowing out to Andy Murray in 3 sets.

On April 29, 2007, Mathieu won his 3rd career title, the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca defeating Álbert Montañés 6–1 6–1. At Wimbledon, he reached round 4 for the first time, defeating Radek Štěpánek, #17 seed (15th-ranked) David Ferrer, and 15th seed (12th-ranked) Ivan Ljubičić. He attained a career high ranking of 28 in singles after this result, entering the world's top 30 for the first time. The week after Wimbledon, he beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6–7 (1), 6–3, 7–5 in a difficult final to claim his fourth ATP Tour title in Gtsaad, Switzerland. He rose to #23 in the rankings, making his top 25 breakthrough.

At the Montreal Masters, he produced one of the comebacks of the season to beat 15th seed Guillermo Cañas. Trailing 4–6 0–4, he managed to up his level of play to win 13 of the next 14 games and record a win by the score of 4–6 7–5 6–0. He followed that up with a win over Mario Ancic in round 2. In round 3, he ran into Rafael Nadal, and actually won the first set 6–3 before losing the next two 6–3 6–2.

He then made the semi-finals of New Haven losing to world number 6 James Blake in a 3rd set tiebreak. This result projected him in the world's top 20 for the 1st time, at the 20th rank.

[edit] ATP Tour titles (4)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (4)
Challengers (1)

[edit] Singles (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	6 October 2002	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Sjeng Schalken	4–6, 6–2, 6–0
2.	13 October 2002	Lyon, France	Carpet	Gustavo Kuerten	4–6, 6–3, 6–1
3.	July 26, 2004	Segovia, Spain	Hard	Nicolas Mahut	6–7(4), 6–4, 6–4
4.	29 April 2007	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Álbert Montañés	6–1, 6–1
5.	15 July 2007	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Andreas Seppi	6–7(1), 6–4, 7–5