Thierry Champion (; born 31 August 1966) is a former professional tennis player from France.

Tennis career

Champion was born in

Bagnols-sur-Cèze Bagnols-sur-Cèze (, "Bagnols-on-Cèze"; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania Regions of France, region in Southern France. History A small regiona ...

, Gard. During his career, he reached the quarter-finals at the French Open in 1990 and at

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 ...

in 1991. A clay court specialist, Champion gained notoriety on the men's ATP tour as a wild card player with the ability to inflict defeat on seeded players well above his ranking. His play style was characterised by fast court coverage and strong baseline play with measured heavily spun passing shots, particularly from an unorthodox backhand stroke. Reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 44 on the men's ATP rankings in 1991, subsequent years saw a dwindling career riddled with injury. One of the worst Grand Slam defeats in tennis history came when Champion was triple bageled, losing 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 in the 2nd round of the 1993 French Open, by eventual winner

Sergi Bruguera Sergi Bruguera i Torner (; born 16 January 1971) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player . He won consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994, a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in men's singl ...

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Champion was the coach of French tennis player

Gaël Monfils Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), achieved in November 2016. Mon ...

starting in September 2004, but they parted ways in September 2006. He was also the coach of

Hicham Arazi Hicham Arazi (; born 19 October 1973) is a Moroccan former professional tennis player. He played professionally from 1993 to the end of 2007. The left-hander reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 22 on November 5, 2001. Duri ...

, Nicolas Escudé and

Paul-Henri Mathieu Paul-Henri Mathieu (; born 12 January 1982) is a French former professional tennis player. He won four singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best singles performance in an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament was reaching the semifinals of the 2 ...

. At the

2008 Wimbledon Championships The 2008 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 122nd edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...

he was seen to be coaching French player

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 7 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, attained in July 2007. Gasquet won 16 singles ...

for a short stint.

ATP career finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 3 (2–1)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Champion, Thierry 1966 births Living people Sportspeople from Bagnols-sur-Cèze French male tennis players French tennis coaches 20th-century French sportsmen