The Open Era
France · born Bangui, Central African Republic, 1967 · Wimbledon finalist 1998 and three times a grass champion
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1998
Wimbledon finalist, the first Frenchwoman in the final since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925
3
Grass singles titles: Eastbourne 1995, Birmingham 1997 and 2001
40-16
Wimbledon singles record; 106 matches there in all events
3
Career-high WTA singles ranking, May 2000, at 32
25
WTA doubles titles
Nathalie Tauziat was born in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, in 1967 and lived there until she was eight before moving to France. She turned professional in 1984 and played until 2003, winning eight WTA singles titles and 25 in doubles.
She played in three Olympic Games, from 1988 to 1996, and was part of the French team that won the Fed Cup in 1997. Her best singles came late: she reached the Wimbledon final in 1998, aged 30, entered the top 10 and stayed there until 2001, reaching No. 3 in May 2000. She was also runner-up in the 2001 US Open doubles with Kimberly Po-Messerli.
In 2000 she published Les Dessous du tennis féminin, a book attacking the marketing of the women's tour that caused anger among her rivals. She founded a tennis academy at Capbreton in 1994 and later coached for Tennis Canada.
| Wimbledon 1998 | Seeded 16th, beat the second seed Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals and Natasha Zvereva 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals, then lost the final to Jana Novotná 6-4, 7-6. It was the first Wimbledon final of the Open Era between two players seeking a first Grand Slam title |
|---|---|
| Grass titles | Eastbourne 1995: beat Chanda Rubin 3-6, 6-0, 7-5. Birmingham 1997: beat Yayuk Basuki 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. Birmingham 2001: beat Miriam Oremans 6-3, 7-5 |
| Grass finals lost | Birmingham 1996 to Meredith McGrath 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Birmingham 1999 to Julie Halard-Decugis 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. Eastbourne 1999 to Natasha Zvereva 0-6, 7-5, 6-3 |
| Grass doubles | Won Eastbourne in 2000 with Ai Sugiyama, beating Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs 2-6, 6-3, 7-6. Runner-up in the Birmingham doubles four times, 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2002; Wimbledon doubles semi-finalist in 2001 |
| Wimbledon record | 106 matches in all events, 40-16 in singles; runner-up in the ladies' invitation doubles in 2006 with Tracy Austin |
| Eastbourne | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Women's singles | |
| 2000 | Women's doubles | with Ai Sugiyama |
| Birmingham | ||
| 1997 | Women's singles | |
| 2001 | Women's singles | |
Leading grass titles only: the grass majors, tour-level grass events since 1968 and the leading grass championships before 1968. †single source; ‡ sources disagree. Roll of champions
"Aesthetics and charisma are winning out over sporting performance."
The person behind the player.
Bangui, 1967 to 1975
She was born in the Central African Republic and lived there until she was eight. Her father sold bathroom fittings. On her WTA biography she listed her interests as golf, the music of Whitney Houston and the Bordeaux football team.
Source: WTAStyle
Her attacking game was something she had worked on for only a few years before 1998, after deciding that her lack of power from the back of the court was limiting her results.
Source: We Are Tennis, BNP ParibasWimbledon, July 1998
The 1998 final was the first at Wimbledon in the Open Era between two women seeking their first Grand Slam title. Novotná served for it at 5-4 in the second set and was broken, but won the tiebreak 7-2 with a return winner down the line.
Source: Tennis.comParis, 2000
Her book Les Dessous du tennis féminin sold 25,000 copies within weeks in France. In it she recalled complaining to the WTA about a crowd that had turned on Lindsay Davenport during a match against Anna Kournikova, and asking: "What do you think tennis is? A casting ground for the next James Bond?"
Source: Mail & Guardian1998
Her cousin Didier Deschamps was the captain of France's World Cup-winning football team; the Mail & Guardian noted that she had long been among the game's supporting cast until her Wimbledon final in 1998.
Source: Mail & GuardianFree membership: player news, the grass court Atlas, the rankings and the grass season calendar.
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