Dick Norman (born 1 March 1971) is a Belgian former professional
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player. He achieved a degree of folk popularity among tennis fans due to his height (6 feet 8 inches), his left-handed power game and, in the last few years of his career, his age (between late 2006 and his retirement in June 2013 he was the oldest player on the
ATP Tour).
After retirement Norman became involved in coaching and organizing local tennis events. In March 2018, he became the tournament director of the
European Open in Antwerp.
Career
Turning professional in 1991, Norman notched up only his 14th
Grand Slam appearance at the 2006
Wimbledon, where, at 35, he was the second oldest male competitor, to
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
. With Agassi's retirement immediately following the 2006
US Open, Norman succeeded him as the oldest active player on the
ATP tour.
In 1995, he made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon, despite qualifying out of the
lucky loser's draw. He defeated successive but aging former Wimbledon Champions
Pat Cash
Patrick Hart Cash (born 27 May 1965) is an Australian former professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 4 in May 1988 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 6 in August 1988. Upo ...
and
Stefan Edberg
Jan Stefan Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), one of two players in the ...
in the first and second rounds respectively, then doubles guru
Todd Woodbridge in the third round, before falling to another former champion
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...
in the fourth round. At the time, it was the furthest that any player had ever advanced in a Grand Slam Tournament as a lucky loser.
He disappeared from the tennis scene after a few unimpressive seasons, but made a resurgence starting in 2003, at the age of 32, a common retirement age. He qualified for three of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments in 2003, 2005, and 2006. Nine of his 14 Grand Slam appearances have come after his 32nd birthday, although except for a surprise run in doubles at the French Open in 2009, none as successful as his 1995 Wimbledon run. He mostly lost in the first or second round. Still he has exceeded $1 million in career earnings, in large part due to his Grand Slam successes.
In November 2006, at the age of 35 years and eight months, Norman attained his career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 85.
In July 2007, at Newport, Norman made it to his very first ATP semifinal, defeating eighth seed
Michael Berrer along the way. His first round win was over fellow "giant", 6'9" wild card
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers ...
, who was playing in his first-ever ATP match.
As of February 2008, he remained the oldest active player on the ATP Tour at 36 years and 11 months; and although his ranking had dropped back to world No. 169, partly as a result of his having taken a break of several months from the tour over the preceding autumn and winter following the birth of his first child, he appeared to remain committed to continuing his career on the circuit.
While Norman was the oldest player on the tour,
Jimmy Connors
James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...
continued to compete regularly until the week of 10 May 1993, when he was 40 years and 8 months of age and played another six isolated tournaments over the three years to follow, the last of which took place in the week of 29 April 1996, when he was 43 years and 7 months old.
He has won over ten titles on the Challenger circuit, the most recent being at Mexico City in April 2009, at the age of 38. In January 2007, he teamed with countryman
Xavier Malisse to win the doubles title at the ATP event in Chennai. In early 2009, he made the conscious decision to focus more on doubles than singles, and in February he joined forces with American
James Cerretani to win the doubles title at the ATP World Tour event in Johannesburg.
In 2009, Norman teamed with South African
Wesley Moodie and advanced to the final of the French Open. They lost 6–3, 3–6, 2–6 to the third seeded pair of
Lukáš Dlouhý and
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player and the first Asian man to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players of all-tim ...
. It is by far the furthest Norman has advanced in a Grand Slam tournament. It was the first time in his 19-year career that Norman had played doubles at the French Open, and only the third tournament in which Moodie (who with
Stephen Huss won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2005) and Norman played together.
In the semifinals, Norman-Moodie saved three match points in a come-from-behind 0–6, 7–6, 6–4 victory over the defending champions,
Bob and Mike Bryan, the second seeds. The Bryans had won the previous two Grand Slam titles, the 2008 US Open and the 2009 Australian Open. On their way to the final, Norman-Moodie had in the first round upset the seventh seed team of
Max Mirnyi and
Andy Ram.
In finishing runner-up for the 2009 French Open title, Norman earned 78,000 euros. The finish moved him to a career-high No. 32 in the ATP doubles rankings.
At 38 years and 3 months, Norman became the oldest male to reach a French Open final in the
Open Era (since surpassed by
Jean-Julien Rojer
Jean-Julien Rojer ( "John Julian" , ; born 25 August 1981) is a Dutch professional tennis player from Curaçao, who specializes in doubles. He reached his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 in November 2015.
He is a four-time Grand Sla ...
in winning the title at the
2022 French Open). He became the fifth player aged 38 or older to play in a men's doubles Grand Slam title match: Neale Fraser (39) was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1973,
Ken Rosewall (38) lost the US Open final in 1973, Sherwood Stewart (38) won the Australian Open in 1984, and
Bob Hewitt (38) won Wimbledon in 1978.
Two weeks later, he won the Ordina Open with his partner
Wesley Moodie. It was his first grass-court title.
In November, he won the AXA Belgian Masters, as oldest man in the field.
In another career highlight, Dick (along with partner Moodie) qualified for the
2010 ATP World Tour Finals. This was the first time in his career that Dick qualified for the
ATP World Tour Finals. Dick and Wesley entered the final tournament of the season, the
2010 BNP Paribas Masters, seeded eighth. Because
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian tennis coach and former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a youn ...
and
Philipp Petzschner won
2010 Wimbledon, only the top seven ranked pairs qualified for the finals. Due to Dick and Wesley reaching the quarterfinals in Paris and
František Čermák and
Michal Mertiňák failing to reach the finals in Paris, Dick and Wesley were able to secure qualification.
Norman retired in June 2013, following a first-round defeat in the
Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, having enjoyed a tennis career of 22 years.
Grand Slam finals
Doubles: 1 (0–1)
ATP career finals
Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 30 (19–11)
Doubles: 26 (11–15)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
Mixed doubles
External links
*
*
*
Norman world ranking historyDick Norman's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Dick
1971 births
Living people
Belgian male tennis players
Sportspeople from Waregem