Michaël Llodra

Country	France
Residence	Rueil-Malmaison, France
Born	May 18, 1980 (1980-05-18) (age 31) Paris, France
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$5,310,246
Singles
Career record	133–159
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 21 (May 9, 2011)
Current ranking	No. 30 (July 11, 2011)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2R (2000, 2010, 2011)
French Open	4R (2004, 2008)
Wimbledon	4R (2011)
US Open	4R (2004)
Doubles
Career record	270–167
Career titles	20
Highest ranking	No. 7 (July 4, 2011)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (2003, 2004)
French Open	F (2004)
Wimbledon	W (2007)
US Open	SF (2003)
Last updated on: August 30, 2010.

Michaël Llodra (born May 18, 1980) is a French professional tennis player. He is a prolific doubles player with three Grand Slam championships, and has also had success in singles.

Life and career

Llodra was born in Paris, where his father Michel played for football club Paris Saint-Germain. A left-hander, his serve-and-volley style is modelled on that of his idol, Stefan Edberg.

Llodra and his wife Camille married on September 9, 2003, and have two children, a daughter, Manon (born March 23, 2004) and a son, Teo (born September 5, 2007). He is a well-known supporter of French football club Paris Saint-Germain, and has often been seen wearing the club's shirt prior to tennis games.

2002

Llodra reached his first Grand Slam final, the Australian Open Men's Doubles, with Fabrice Santoro. Unseeded, they lost to Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor. During the semifinals, Llodra inadvertently hit a bird.

2003

Llodra won his first Grand Slam title, the Australian Open Men's Doubles, with Fabrice Santoro. Their opponents in the final were once again Knowles and Nestor.

2004

On winning the men's doubles again for the second time at the Australian Open in 2004, Llodra and his tennis partner Fabrice Santoro made headlines by stripping off their shirts, shoes, socks and shorts. Dressed in a pair of white briefs only, Llodra threw his clothes into the crowd, to the cheers of many onlookers.

Llodra made his first appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles tournament at that year's French Open. In the fourth round he led eventual semi-finalist Tim Henman by two sets to love and had a match point in the fifth set before Henman prevailed. Llodra also won his first ATP singles title two weeks later at 's-Hertogenbosch.

2005

On November 20, 2005, Llodra teamed up with French compatriot Fabrice Santoro to win the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, a competition which pitted the top 8 doubles teams in the world against one another.

2007

In July, Llodra won the men's doubles title at Wimbledon partnering Arnaud Clément, beating Bob and Mike Bryan, thus winning his third Grand Slam doubles title. He and Clément were ecstatic and Llodra once again celebrated by throwing his shirt, racket and towel into the crowd.

At the 2007 US Open, he and Clément were seeded 7th, but were upset in the second round by Jesse Levine and Alex Kuznetsov, 7–6, 6–4.

2008

Llodra and Clément reached a second slam final at the Australian Open, only to lose to the Israeli paring of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 7–5, 7–6.

In singles, Llodra won two tournaments in the course of two months, the first being in Adelaide, where he defeated Jarkko Nieminen in the final, and the other in Rotterdam, where he edged out Robin Söderling in a third-set tiebreak.

Llodra and his doubles partner Clément then defeated the Bryan Brothers again in four sets at the Davis Cup quarterfinals tie against USA. They are one of two teams to defeat the Bryans in Davis Cup.

He then entered the 2008 French Open, where he upset Tomáš Berdych in the second round and went on to reach the fourth round, losing to Latvian Ernests Gulbis in straight sets.

2009

Llodra at the 2009 French Open.

He made two finals in singles; the 2009 Open 13 in Marseille (l. to Tsonga) and the 2009 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon in Metz (l. to Ljubicic). He also had a poor season in doubles.

2010

Michael started off the season with opening round losses in Brisbane and Sydney; both Australian Open series tournaments. He made the 2nd round at the 2010 Australian Open, losing to Juan Mónaco 6–3, 6–3, 6–7, 1–6, 3–6.

He lost to Marco Chiudinelli in the opening round in Rotterdam. The following week, he impressively won the 2010 Open 13 tournament in Marseille. He beat two well-known players on the rise; no.7 seed Marcos Baghdatis (in the 2nd round) and top seed Robin Söderling (in the quarters). In the final, he went on to crush Julien Benneteau 6–3, 6–4 in their first ever meeting on the ATP tour. Llodra and Benneteau also teamed up to win the doubles title in Marsielle, thus making him the singles and doubles champion of the 2010 tournament. Llodra also won at Eastbourne, beating Guillermo García-López 7–5, 6–2 in the final.

Llodra lost the first round at the French Open, the second round of Wimbledon to Andy Roddick in four sets, and made the third round at the US Open (including an impressive straight sets win over seventh seed Tomáš Berdych) before retiring against Tommy Robredo.

At the BNP Paribas Masters tournament in his town of birth, Paris-Bercy, he played his best tennis in a ATP Masters 1000 tournament where he defeated second seed Novak Djokovic and then eleventh seed Nikolay Davydenko in the quarterfinals. Llodra then held three match points against world no. 5 Robin Söderling but eventually lost 7–6, 5–7, 6–7. Had Llodra won, it would have been an all-French final with compatriot Gaël Monfils (Söderling went on to win the championship).

Playing style

Llodra is known for his skilled net play. The Guardian journalist Xan Brooks described Llodra as "one of those talented, maddening French players in the tradition of Henri Leconte, Guy Forget and Fabrice Santoro; at once supremely gifted and curiously brittle" and that he "plays like he's just flown in from the 20th-century. His game is all dinks and slices and sly changes of pace." Two-time French Open finalist Robin Söderling called Llodra's serve "unbelievable" and his volleys the "best on the tour". To aid his touch on volleys, Llodra is one of the few professionals to use all natural gut strings, which give him better feel at the expense of power at the baseline.

Llodra is one of the last remaining serve-and-volleyers in the top ranks of men's professional tennis, a tactic aided by his left-handed serve which allows him to create unusual angles. Llodra has been called the 'best serve and volleyer in the world' by the website Essential Tennis.

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 6 (3–3)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	2002	Australian Open	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–7(4–7), 3–6
Winner	2003	Australian Open	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	2004	Australian Open	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Runner-up	2004	French Open	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Xavier Malisse Olivier Rochus	5–7, 5–7
Winner	2007	Wimbledon	Grass	Arnaud Clément	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	2008	Australian Open	Hard	Arnaud Clément	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	5–7, 6–7(4–7)

Career finals

Singles: 9 (5–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1.	January 5, 2004	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Dominik Hrbatý	4–6, 0–6
Winner	1.	June 14, 2004	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Guillermo Coria	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	2.	June 13, 2005	's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Mario Ančić	5–7, 4–6
Winner	2.	January 5, 2008	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Jarkko Nieminen	6–3, 6–4
Winner	3.	February 18, 2008	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (i)	Robin Söderling	6–7(3–7), 6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Runner-up	3.	February 16, 2009	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	5–7, 6–7(3–7)
Runner-up	4.	November 1, 2009	Lyon, France	Hard (i)	Ivan Ljubičić	5–7, 3–6
Winner	4.	February 15, 2010	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Julien Benneteau	6–3, 6–4
Winner	5.	June 19, 2010	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Guillermo García-López	7–5, 6–2

Doubles: 39 (20–18)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	May 1, 2000	Mallorca, Spain	Clay	Diego Nargiso	Alberto Martín Fernando Vicente	7–6(7–2), 7–6(7–3)
Runner-up	1.	January 14, 2002	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–7(4–7), 3–6
Runner-up	2.	July 22, 2002	Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Justin Gimelstob	Sébastien Grosjean Nicolas Kiefer	4–6, 4–6
Winner	2.	January 13, 2003	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Runner-up	3.	April 14, 2003	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Mahesh Bhupathi Max Mirnyi	4–6, 6–3, 6–7(6–8)
Runner-up	4.	May 5, 2003	Rome, Italy	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Wayne Arthurs Paul Hanley	1–6, 3–6
Runner-up	5.	September 29, 2003	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Fabrice Santoro	Julien Benneteau Nicolas Mahut	6–7(2–7), 3–6
Runner-up	6.	October 27, 2003	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Fabrice Santoro	Wayne Arthurs Paul Hanley	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
Runner-up	7.	November 8, 2003	Tennis Masters Cup, Houston, United States	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(8–6), 3–6, 6–3, 6–7(3–7), 4–6
Runner-up	8.	January 5, 2004	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Arnaud Clément	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	5–7, 3–6
Winner	3.	January 19, 2004	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Fabrice Santoro	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Runner-up	9.	May 24, 2004	French Open, Paris	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Xavier Malisse Olivier Rochus	5–7, 5–7
Winner	4.	August 23, 2004	Long Island, United States	Hard	Antony Dupuis	Yves Allegro Michael Kohlmann	6–2, 6–4
Winner	5.	October 25, 2004	Saint Petersburg, Russia	Carpet (i)	Arnaud Clément	Dominik Hrbatý Jaroslav Levinský	6–3, 6–2
Runner-up	10.	January 10, 2005	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Arnaud Clément	Mahesh Bhupathi Todd Woodbridge	3–6, 3–6
Winner	6.	May 2, 2005	Rome, Italy	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	11.	May 9, 2005	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Fabrice Santoro	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	6–4, 6–7(2–7), 6–7(3–7)
Winner	7.	October 3, 2005	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Fabrice Santoro	José Acasuso Sebastián Prieto	5–2, 3–5, 5–4(6–4)
Winner	8.	October 24, 2005	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Fabrice Santoro	Jeff Coetzee Rogier Wassen	6–3, 6–1
Winner	9.	November 13, 2005	Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai, China	Carpet (i)	Fabrice Santoro	Leander Paes Nenad Zimonjić	6–7(6–8), 6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Winner	10.	October 30, 2006	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Arnaud Clément	Fabrice Santoro Nenad Zimonjić	6–4, 6–2
Winner	11.	February 12, 2007	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	7–5, 4–6, [10–8]
Winner	12.	June 25, 2007	Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom	Grass	Arnaud Clément	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–7(5–7), 6–3, 6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	12.	September 25, 2007	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Nicolas Mahut	Sonchat Ratiwatana Sanchai Ratiwatana	6–3, 5–7, [7–10]
Winner	13.	October 1, 2007	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	6–1, 6–4
Runner-up	13.	October 7, 2007	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	4–6, 4–6
Runner-up	14.	January 14, 2008	Australian Open, Melbourne	Hard	Arnaud Clément	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	5–7, 6–7(4–7)
Winner	14.	March 3, 2008	Las Vegas, United States	Hard (i)	Julien Benneteau	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 4–6, [10–8]
Winner	15.	September 29, 2008	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	5–7, 6–3, [10–8]
Winner	16.	October 20, 2008	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Andy Ram	Stephen Huss Ross Hutchins	6–3, 5–7, [10–8]
Winner	17.	February 16, 2009	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Julian Knowle Andy Ram	3–6, 6–3, [10–8]
Runner-up	15.	September 21, 2009	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	Colin Fleming Ken Skupski	6–2, 4–6, [5–10]
Winner	18.	February 15, 2010	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Julien Benneteau	Julian Knowle Robert Lindstedt	6–4, 6–3
Runner-up	16.	August 9, 2010	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Julien Benneteau	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	5–7, 3–6
Runner-up	17.	February 13, 2011	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Hard (i)	Nenad Zimonjić	Jürgen Melzer Philipp Petzschner	4–6, 6–3, [5–10]
Runner-up	18.	May 8, 2011	Madrid, Spain	Clay	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–3, 6–3
Winner	19.	August 7, 2011	Washington, United States	Hard	Nenad Zimonjic	Robert Lindstedt Horia Tecau	6–7(7–9), 7–6(10–8), [10–7]
Winner	20.	August 14, 2011	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–7(5–7), [10–5]
Runner-up	19	August 21, 2011	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	Mahesh Buphathi Leander Paes	6–7(4–7), 6–7(2–7)

Doubles Performance Timeline

Bird incident

In the 2002 Australian Open Men's Doubles semifinal against Julien Boutter and Arnaud Clément, a small bird (identified as a house martin) flew into the court chasing a moth. It flew into the path of a hard hit volley by Llodra. After an impromptu funeral ceremony led by Boutter, the match continued, with Llodra and Santoro eventually winning 6–3, 3–6, 12–10. Llodra remarked afterwards, "I didn't do it deliberately. But at least I saved the moth."

1. ^ "Current ATP Rankings (singles)". atpworldtour.com. Association of Tennis Professionals. http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/Singles.aspx. 
2. ^ Celebrations end with a striptease, CNN.com World Sport. Accessed May 19, 2007.
3. ^ French duo retain title, BBC News Online. Accessed May 19, 2007.
4. ^ ^{a b c} Llodra's Strong Net Play to Match His Sense of Humor The New York Times. Accessed November 20, 2010.
5. ^ Wimbledon 2010 live blog, The Guardian. Accessed October 6, 2010.
6. ^ Robin Soderling halts Michael Llodra's run in Paris Masters, The Guardian. Accessed November 20, 2010.
7. ^ Best Serve and Volleyer in the World, Essential Tennis. Accessed October 6, 2010.
8. ^ "Llodra gets the bird". BBC News. January 24, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/australian_open/1779136.stm. 

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten French male singles tennis players as of August 29, 2011 1. Gaël Monfils (7 ) · 2. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (11 ) · 3. Gilles Simon (12 ) · 4. Richard Gasquet (13 ) · 5. Michaël Llodra (30 ) 6. Adrian Mannarino (58 1) · 7. Julien Benneteau (81 32) · 8. Éric Prodon (88 5) · 9. Jérémy Chardy (91 ) · 10. Marc Gicquel (97 1)