The 21st century
France · born Saint-Nazaire, 1970 · right-handed · three times Wimbledon doubles champion
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4
Major singles titles, 2012 to 2017
2014
First calendar Grand Slam in men's wheelchair doubles
3
Paralympic doubles gold medals, 2008 to 2020
60
Career doubles titles
Born in Saint-Nazaire in 1970, Houdet trained as a veterinarian and was injured in a motorbike accident in 1996. He played golf on the World Golf Tour for the Disabled before turning to tennis, and became a professional in 2005. He reached world No. 1 in doubles in January 2009 and in singles in June 2012, and was ITF world champion that year. He won four major singles titles, Roland Garros in 2012 and 2013 and the US Open in 2013 and 2017, and 20 in doubles, with Paralympic doubles gold in 2008, 2016 and 2020 and singles silver in 2012. In June 2022 an independent tribunal found that he had missed three tests in 12 months and banned him for 15 months; he returned to win the US Open doubles in 2023.
| Major doubles titles | 3: Wimbledon (2009, 2013, 2014) |
|---|---|
| Wimbledon doubles partners | 2009 with Michaël Jérémiasz; 2013 and 2014 with Shingo Kunieda |
| Wimbledon singles | Semi-finals 2016, 2019 and 2021 |
| 2014 | Wimbledon was the third leg of the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men's wheelchair doubles |
| Wimbledon | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Michaël Jérémiasz |
| 2013 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Shingo Kunieda |
| 2014 | Men's wheelchair doubles | with Shingo Kunieda |
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
"When you fall so far down, as I did, you have only two options: you go back or you die."
The person behind the player.
Rural France, 1990s
Before tennis he trained as a veterinarian to earn a living, and he has described performing caesarean sections on cows at night in rural France. A ball player from childhood, he had played tennis as a boy and later had what he called an episode with the white ball of golf.
Source: Circle SportswearEurope, 1996
After qualifying, he and a fellow student set off on a motorbike tour of Europe's capitals, and he was injured in a crash. He says the accident "allowed me to return to my first loves, my childhood dreams", and he names Yannick Noah as his mentor.
Source: Circle SportswearPro-am, 2003
He first rebuilt his sporting life on the World Golf Tour for the Disabled. A meeting with Johan Cruyff at a pro-am in 2003 pointed him towards tennis, and when golf was left off the programme for the 2012 Paralympics he made the switch. "[Tennis] became my new dream," he said.
Source: The Irish TimesThe workshop
With a team of engineers, biomechanists and manufacturers he set out to build what he called "the lightest wheelchair in the world for playing tennis", aiming to go below the record of 6.2 kg. The point, he said, was to move better "on difficult surfaces like grass or clay at Roland Garros".
Source: Circle SportswearWimbledon 2014
In 2014 he won the doubles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, the first man to complete the calendar-year Grand Slam in wheelchair doubles. The Wimbledon title that summer, with Shingo Kunieda, was the pair's second in succession on the grass.
Source: WikipediaOn court
His motto is "Chaque désavantage à son avantage": turn every disadvantage to advantage. He applied it to his own chair, devising a kneeling position in which, he says, he feels best, and working with engineers on a custom frame and very light wheels.
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