Arnaud Clément

Arnaud Clément

Country (sports)	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Born	(1977-12-17) 17 December 1977 Aix-en-Provence, France
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Turned pro	1996
Retired	5 July 2012
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	US$ 7,125,228
Singles
Career record	316–327 (at ATP Tour and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 10 (2 April 2001)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	F (2001)
French Open	4R (2003)
Wimbledon	QF (2008)
US Open	QF (2000)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	2R (2004, 2008)
Doubles
Career record	232–195 (at ATP Tour and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	12
Highest ranking	No. 8 (28 January 2008)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	F (2008)
French Open	SF (2001)
Wimbledon	W (2007)
US Open	QF (2006)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (2001)

Arnaud Clément (born 17 December 1977) is a retired professional tennis player and the current captain of the France Davis Cup team. He reached the final of the 2001 Australian Open and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 10 in April the same year.

Life and career

Clément was born in Aix-en-Provence, and currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland. He turned professional in 1996, and achieved his career highlight at the 2001 Australian Open, reaching the Men's Singles final, where he was defeated by Andre Agassi. En route, Clement defeated the then-unseeded future World No. 1 Roger Federer and former World No. 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

While playing he often wears a bandana and sunglasses. The sunglasses have been medically prescribed for Clement because of severe eye problems he has encountered through his life, which had nearly left him blind as a child. At only 13 months old he was diagnosed with unilateral coloboma, meaning the condition only affects one eye, at that time Clément was only given a 40/60% chance of having healthy eyesight for the rest of his life, throughout his tennis career Clément has worn sunglasses to protect his eyes.

Clément was selected to represent one of the world's best-known and most important fashion labels, Lacoste. He was seen from May 2004 onwards in a pan-European print and TV campaign alongside the Danish pop singer Natasha Thomas. The advert was directed and shot by Bruno Aveillan.

Clément has been ranked as high as World No. 10 in singles and as high as World No. 8 in doubles, where he has often partnered with fellow Frenchmen Sébastien Grosjean and Michaël Llodra. He has won four ATP singles titles (Lyon 2000, Metz 2003, Marseille 2006, Washington 2006), and twelve doubles titles including Wimbledon.

Throughout his career he has beaten top players such as Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Carlos Moyá and more recently Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Arnaud Clement 2012

Until 2010, Clément held the record for the longest match in the history of the Open Era. At Roland Garros 2004, Fabrice Santoro defeated Clément 6–4, 6–3, 6–7, 3–6, 16–14 in six hours and 33 minutes.^[1] John Isner and Nicolas Mahut would eventually beat this record six years later at Wimbledon.

In March 2006, Clément ended his two and a half-year period of not winning an ATP singles title by capturing the Marseille Open, defeating world number 2 Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and Mario Ančić in the finals.^[2] In August 2006, Clément won his first ATP title in the United States, defeating Murray in straight sets in the final of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.^[3]

In July 2007, Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra won the men's double title at Wimbledon, beating World No. 1 and number one seeds defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan,^[4] thus winning his first Grand Slam doubles title (Llodra had won two previous titles with Fabrice Santoro, making it his third Grand Slam title). He and Llodra were ecstatic, and celebrated by throwing their shirts, rackets, and towels into the crowd.

In July 2008, Arnaud Clément and Rainer Schüttler, both in their early 30s, played against each other in a Wimbledon quarterfinal singles match. Because of rain delays and darkness, play was suspended over a period of two days. Eventually, the match went in favour of Schüttler. The match went five sets and over five hours combined within the two playing days. The fifth set's score was 8–6. Finishing in five hours and twelve minutes, it was the third longest men's singles match in Wimbledon history.^[5]

In June 2012, Arnaud Clément formalized his retirement from professional tennis at the age of 34 after a 16-year career.^[6] He's the French Davis Cup captain since 2013.^[7]

Clément is in a relationship with French pop singer Nolwenn Leroy since January 2008.^[8]

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2001	Australian Open	Hard	Andre Agassi	4–6, 2–6, 2–6

Doubles: 2 (1–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	2007	Wimbledon	Grass	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	2008	Australian Open	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	5–7, 6–7(4–7)

Summer Olympics finals

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
4th place	2008	Beijing	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–3, 3–6, 4–6

Career finals

Singles: 11 (4 titles – 7 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
Runner-up	1.	8 February 1999	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Fabrice Santoro	3–6, 6–4, 4–6
Winner	2.	6 November 2000	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Patrick Rafter	7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	3.	29 January 2001	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Andre Agassi	4–6, 2–6, 2–6
Runner-up	4.	24 June 2002	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Sjeng Schalken	6–3, 3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	5.	23 June 2003	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Sjeng Schalken	3–6, 4–6
Winner	6.	29 September 2003	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Fernando González	6–3, 1–6, 6–3
Runner-up	7.	13 October 2003	Lyon, France	Carpet	Rainer Schüttler	5–7, 3–6
Winner	8.	13 February 2006	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Mario Ančić	6–4, 6–2
Winner	9.	31 July 2006	Washington, D.C., USA	Hard	Andy Murray	7–6(7–3), 6–2
Runner-up	10.	23 June 2007	Nottingham, UK	Grass	Ivo Karlović	6–3, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	11.	16 January 2010	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	John Isner	3–6, 7–5, 6–7(2–7)

Singles Performance Timeline

Doubles

Wins (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
1.	10 April 2000	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Sébastien Grosjean	Lars Burgsmüller Andrew Painter	7–6(7–4), 6–2
2.	11 February 2002	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Nicolas Escudé	Julien Boutter Max Mirnyi	6–4, 6–3
3.	8 March 2004	Indian Wells USA	Hard	Sébastien Grosjean	Wayne Black Kevin Ullyett	6–3, 4–6, 7–5
4.	11 October 2004	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Nicolas Mahut	Ivan Ljubičić Uros Vico	6–2, 7–6(10–8)
5.	25 October 2004	St. Petersburg, Russia	Carpet (i)	Michaël Llodra	Dominik Hrbatý Jaroslav Levinský	6–3, 6–2
6.	23 October 2006	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Julien Benneteau	František Čermák Jaroslav Levinský	6–2, 6–7(3–7), [10–7]
7.	30 October 2006	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Michaël Llodra	Fabrice Santoro Nenad Zimonjić	7–6(7–4), 6–2
8.	12 February 2007	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	7–5, 4–6, [10–8]
9.	25 June 2007	Wimbledon, London, UK	Grass	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
10.	1 October 2007	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	6–1, 6–4
11.	5 October 2008	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	5–7, 6–3, [10–8]
12.	22 February 2009	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	Julian Knowle Andy Ram	3–6, 6–3, [10–8]

Doubles Performance Timeline

Top 10 wins

#	Player	Rank	Event	Surface	Rd	Score
1997
1.	Sergi Bruguera	7	Vienna, Austria	Carpet (i)	1R	6–2, 7–6(8–6)
2.	Patrick Rafter	3	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	1R	6–3, 7–6(7–5)
2000
3.	Nicolás Lapentti	7	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	2R	3–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–2, 4–1, ret.
4.	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	5	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	3R	6–4, 6–1
5.	Andre Agassi	1	US Open, New York, United States	Hard	2R	6–3, 6–2, 6–4
6.	Andre Agassi	7	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	SF	6–3, ret.
2001
7.	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	5	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	QF	6–4, 5–7, 7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–3)
8.	Yevgeny Kafelnikov	7	World Team Cup, Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	RR	6–3, 6–0
2002
9.	Thomas Johansson	9	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (i)	2R	6–2, 6–3
10.	Thomas Johansson	8	Rome, Italy	Clay	1R	6–4, 6–4
11.	Thomas Johansson	9	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	2R	7–6(7–4), 6–1, 6–3
12.	Sébastien Grosjean	10	US Open, New York, United States	Hard	2R	6–3, 3–6, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4
13.	Sébastien Grosjean	8	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	QF	6–3, 7–6(7–3)
2003
14.	Carlos Moyá	4	Montreal, Canada	Hard	1R	7–6(7–4), 4–6, 6–3
2006
15.	Rafael Nadal	2	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	SF	2–6, 6–3, 7–5
2007
16.	Novak Djokovic	4	Queen's Club, London, United Kingdom	Grass	3R	2–6, 6–3, 6–4
2009
17.	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	8	Lyon, France	Hard (i)	QF	5–7, 6–4, 7–6(10–8)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arnaud Clément.

• Arnaud Clément at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Arnaud Clément at the International Tennis Federation
• Arnaud Clément at the Davis Cup
• Clément World Ranking History
• Arnaud Clement (Fan Club, news, biography, photos...