Julie Halard-Decugis (born 10 September 1970) is a French 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.

Tennis career

Halard-Decugis lived in

La Baule La Baule-Escoublac (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Écoubiâ'', , ), commonly referred to as La Baule, is a communes of France, commune in Loire-Atlantique, a departments of France, department in Pays de la Loire, western France. History Seaside re ...

, France, during the initial stages of her career and later moved to

Pully Pully () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Switzerland in the Vaud, canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron District, Lavaux-Oron. It is one of the eastern suburbs of the city of Lausanne, located on the shores ...

, Switzerland. She turned professional in 1986. She won the

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

junior singles title in 1988 and was the

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

junior singles runner-up in 1987. She retired from the

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

tennis circuit at the end of the 2000 season. Her highest WTA Tour singles and doubles rankings was number seven and number one respectively. She had been coached by Arnaud Decugis since 1989. Halard-Decugis won her first WTA Tour singles title in Puerto Rico. She enjoyed her best season in 1996, when she won her first WTA Tour Tier II singles title in Paris and finished the year with a career-high season-ending singles ranking of No. 15 and as the No. 1 singles player from France. This occurred despite the fact that her playing schedule in the second half of 1996 was curtailed because of a wrist injury sustained during the

Fed Cup The Billie Jean King Cup (or the BJK Cup) is the premier international team competition in women's tennis, launched as the Federation Cup in 1963 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The name was cha ...

semifinal match against Spain. She only played two tournaments in late 1997 because of injuries. By winning the singles title in Rosmalen in 1998, she became the 20th player to have won singles titles on all four surfaces in the Open Era. Halard also won the singles and doubles titles in

Pattaya Pattaya is a city in Eastern Thailand, the second-largest city in Chonburi province and the List of municipalities in Thailand, eighth-largest city in Thailand. It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about southeast of Bangkok, and h ...

that year, and broke into the top 10 singles ranking in August 1999, becoming the fifth Frenchwoman after Françoise Dürr,

Mary Pierce Mary Caroline Pierce (born 15 January 1975) is a French former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 3 in singles and in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Pierce won 18 singles titles on the WTA Tour, including two ...

, Nathalie Tauziat and

Amélie Mauresmo Amélie Simone Mauresmo (; born 5 July 1979) is a French former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tournament director. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 39 weeks. Maur ...

to do so. In 1999, she won WTA Tour singles titles in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and was runner-up on three other occasions. Between 15 November 1999 and 9 January 2000, Julie Halard, Nathalie Tauziat, Amélie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce were all ranked inside the singles top 10, the first time France had four players ranked among the singles top 10. 2000 was to be the final and perhaps the finest year of Halard's professional playing career. She reached the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

singles quarterfinal for the second time, captured the second WTA Tour Tier II title of her career in

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

and reached her career-high singles ranking of No. 7 in February. Halard was also runner-up in Tokyo's Princess Cup in October and won the doubles title with

Ai Sugiyama is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles ...

. The following week, she won both the singles and doubles titles at the Japan Open in Tokyo, saving three match points in the final to defeat the defending champion

Amy Frazier Amy Frazier (born September 19, 1972) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, whil ...

. On her 30th birthday, Halard won the 2000 US Open women's doubles title with Ai Sugiyama, her only Grand Slam title as a professional. The pair also reached the final at

, the semifinal at the

and the quarterfinal at the

that year. Halard-Decugis won nine other doubles titles in 2000, five of them with Sugiyama, and became the first Frenchwoman to attain the No. 1 doubles ranking in the Open Era. Halard-Decugis represented her country in the Federation Cup Fed Cup from 1990 to 2000 and in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

in 1992 and 2000.

Personal life

She married her coach, Arnaud Decugis, on 22 September 1995. Arnaud Decugis is the great nephew of

Max Decugis Maxime Omer Mathieu Decugis or Décugis (; 24 September 1882 – 6 September 1978) was a French tennis player. He won the French Championships eight times (a French club members-only tournament before 1925). He also won three Olympic medals at ...

, a leading tennis player from France during the early 20th century. The couple have three children

Grand Slam finals

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

WTA career finals

Singles: 21 (12 titles, 9 runner-ups)

Doubles: 25 (15 titles, 10 runner-ups)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 2 (2–0)

Doubles: 4 (2–2)

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Head-to-head records

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 12 weeks, as well as ...

4—8 *

Dominique Monami Dominique Monami (born 31 May 1973) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She is her country's first ever top-10 tennis professional. Monami was born in Verviers. In 1995, she married her coach Bart Van Roost, with whom she has a daug ...

2—2 *

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...

0—4 *

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, ; born 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 209 weeks ( fifth-most of all time) and as the world No. ...

0—5 *

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 11 wee ...

1—1 *

Anna Kournikova Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova Iglesias (née Kournikova; ; ; born 7 June 1981) is a Russian model and television personality, and former professional tennis player. Her appearance and celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis stars ...

1—1 *

Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...

1—0 * Jelena Dokic 1—0 *

Steffi Graf Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a r ...

1—9 *

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 98 weeks (including as the year-end No. 1 four ...

2—9 *

3-0

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Halard-Decugis, Julie 1970 births French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland French female tennis players French Open junior champions Hopman Cup competitors Living people Olympic tennis players for France Sportspeople from Loire-Atlantique People from Lavaux-Oron District Sportspeople from Versailles, Yvelines Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in women's doubles Grand Slam (tennis) champions in girls' singles WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players ITF World Champions 20th-century French sportswomen