Paul-Henri Mathieu

Country	France
Residence	Geneva, Switzerland
Born	12 January 1982 (1982-01-12) (age 29) Strasbourg, France
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	USD$4,077,472
Singles
Career record	214–208
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 12 (7 April 2008)
Current ranking	No. 186 (8 August 2011)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4R (2006, 2008)
French Open	4R (2002, 2008)
Wimbledon	4R (2007, 2010)
US Open	3R (2004, 2010)
Doubles
Career record	26–68
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 103 (15 September 2008)
Last updated on: 31 August 2010.

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

Tennis career

Mathieu was born in Strasbourg, France. 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, 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 14 October 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 Àlex 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.

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 González of Chile along the way, before bowing out to Andy Murray in 3 sets.

On 29 April 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 Gstaad, 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 Ančić 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.

Career finals

Singles: 8 (4–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	6 October 2002	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Sjeng Schalken	4–6, 6–2, 6–0
Winner	2.	13 October 2002	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Gustavo Kuerten	4–6, 6–3, 6–1
Runner-up	1.	28 September 2003	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Nicolás Massú	6–1, 2–6, 6–7(0)
Winner	3.	29 April 2007	Casablanca, Morocco	Clay	Álbert Montañés	6–1, 6–1
Winner	4.	15 July 2007	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Andreas Seppi	6–7(1), 6–4, 7–5
Runner-up	2.	14 October 2007	Moscow, Russia	Hard (i)	Nikolay Davydenko	5–7, 6–7(9)
Runner-up	3.	5 October 2008	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Dmitry Tursunov	6–7(6), 6–1, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	26 July 2009	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Nikolay Davydenko	4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 1 (1–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	13 September 2008	Bucharest, Romania	Clay	Nicolas Devilder	Mariusz Fyrstenberg Marcin Matkowski	7–6(4), 6–7(9), [22–20]

Singles performance timeline

Key

Won tournament, or reached Final, Semifinal, Quarterfinal, Round 4, 3, 2, 1, lost in Qualification Round 3, Round 2, Round 1 or Round Robin, Absent from a tournament or Participated in a team event, played in a Davis Cup Zonal Group (with its number indication) or Play-Off, won a bronze or silver match at the Olympics. The last is for a Masters Series/1000 tournament that was relegated (Not a Masters Series).

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only after a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through 2010 ATP World Tour.

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)