Francisco Clavet

Full name	Francisco Javier Clavet
Country (sports)	Spain
Residence	Aranjuez, Spain
Born	(1968-10-24)24 October 1968 (age 57) Madrid, Spain
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Turned pro	1988
Retired	2003
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$4,278,632
Singles
Career record	388–340
Career titles	8
Highest ranking	No. 18 (13 July 1992)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	3R (1996,1998,2000,2002)
French Open	4R (1991,1996,1998)
Wimbledon	4R (1998)
US Open	3R (1991,1995)
Doubles
Career record	53–84
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 89 (1 January 1990)
Team competitions
Davis Cup	W (2000)

Francisco Javier Clavet González de Castejón (Spanish pronunciation:[fɾanˈθiskoxaˈβjeɾklaˈβetɣonˈθaleθðekasteˈxon];^[a] born 24 October 1968), known asPato Clavet (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈpato]), is a former professionaltennis player from Spain. He won eight singles titles, reached the semifinals of the1992 Indian Wells Masters and the1999 Miami Masters, and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 18 in July 1992. He reached No. 16 at the Champions Race (now called ATP Race), after winning inScottsdale in 2001.

During his career, he defeated some contemporary, future and past number-one-ranked players, includingJohn McEnroe,Mats Wilander,Andre Agassi,Lleyton Hewitt, andRoger Federer. In his only meeting with Federer, at the2000 Cincinnati Masters, Clavet won and told Swiss newspaperBlick his defeat of Federer was one of his most important wins as he considers Federer "the greatest tennis player of all time".^[1]

Clavet was coached by his brother,José Clavet, until 1999. From 2001 until his retirement in 2003, he was coached by Uruguayan Bebe Pérez.

Clavet turned pro in 1988 and won his first ATP singles title two years later at theDutch Open in Hilversum. He won five consecutive matches to capture the title. He is one of the few people to accomplish this since 1978.^[2] (Leonardo Mayer was the last player to win five matches in a row, doing so at the2017 German Open in Hamburg.)

In 1991, he was among the top 30 players, and reached the semifinals in five different tournaments.^[3]

Despite not winning a tournament, his best year was 1992, and resulted in his best ranking (No. 18). That year he reached the finals inGstaad andSan Marino, the semifinals inPhiladelphia,Indian Wells, inMadrid, inPalermo andAthens, and the quarterfinals inIndianapolis, and inSchenectady.In 1993, his best result saw him reach the semifinals inGenoa. He lost to the eventual championThomas Muster. He reached the quarterfinals three times in clay-court tournaments.

He played two finals, losing toAlberto Berasategui in 1994. In addition, he reached two semifinals inAthens andBuenos Aires, losing, again to the eventual winners (Àlex Corretja and Alberto Berasategui). He also reached the quarterfinals in four clay-court tournaments.

In 1995, he won the tournament ofSicilia (now played in the city of Palermo) and reached the semifinals inMexico City,Porto,Umag andMontevideo.

He won theAmsterdam Open in 1996 (defeatingYounes El Aynaoui), and reached the semifinals inMexico andBologna. He also reached the quarterfinals in:Antwerp,Estoril,St. Pölten, Gstaad,Stuttgart,Bucharest, and Palermo. He had won in Sicilia the year before, but this time lost toKarim Alami.

In 1997, he won two consecutive titles,Acapulco andBogotá, which gave him a record of 19 wins/four losses from the US Open. He also played the final inEstoril losing to countryman Àlex Corretja. The same year he also reached two semifinals,Tashkent andBucharest, but lost toTim Henman andRichard Fromberg, respectively. The Tashkent tournament was played on a carpet surface, and his was the best performance of a Spanish male tennis player on this surface in 1997.

He won two other titles in 1998:Santiago andBucharest. He managed to reach two other semifinals: Mexico andKitzbühel. He also performed well in Grand Slams tournaments. He repeated his best achievements atRoland Garros and theAustralian Open (fourth and third round, respectively) and reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, delivering a surprise upset by defeating the second-seeded, and world No. 2, Marcelo Ríos, in a five-set match in the first round. Rios underestimated Clavet and lamented the lost match by attacking the grass surface^[4]

In 1999, after the success of the previous past two years and winning at least one tournament during the past four years, he ended the year without winning a title. He reached the semifinals of theMiami Masters andBarcelona Open, which were his best performances. He also reached the quarterfinals inDubai (losing to eventual finalistNicolas Kiefer; he defeated hard-court specialists includingWayne Ferreira andGreg Rusedski), atSt. Pölten, Gstaad,Umag and theMallorca Open. Clavet began improving his hard-court game and was called to play for the Davis Cup for the first time, facing a difficult qualifying round but playing well.

He came close to defeating his nemesisPete Sampras, who was top-ranked for most of Clavet's career, in the1999 Paris Open. Sampras finished the match injured and was forced to withdraw from the tournament after winning at the tie-break of the final set in a very tough match.

He was considered (along withSergi Bruguera) the best male Spanish player on hard and indoor courts in the early 1990s,^[5] and also the best male Spanish player on grass courts during the 1990s and the early years of the 2000s.^[6] He was the best male Spanish player atWimbledon during the 90s, reaching the fourth round in 1998, with victories over second-seededMarcelo Ríos in the first round in five sets andThomas Johansson in the third round. He also reached the third round in Wimbledon 1999 and played an excellent match in 2001 against Pete Sampras, losing the second set due to a controversial point that Clavet saw out, but was awarded to Sampras.^[6]

Of his eight ATP singles titles, seven were won on clay. But he showed, especially in his last years of career, that he could also play well on hard surface and grass courts.

In 2000, Clavet's best result was reaching the final of theEstoril Open, which he lost to Carlos Moyá. He also reached the semifinal in Kitzbühel and the quarterfinals at theHamburg Masters (Tennis Master Series) and atRosmalen.

2001 was the year with his best performances on hard courts. He reached the final at theAuckland Open losing toDominik Hrbatý. He won in Scottsdale, defeatingAgassi in the first round,Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals andMagnus Norman in the final (ranked No. 4, 6 and 5 respectively by this date in the ATP Tour). After winning in Scottsdale he declared: "I think this is the happiest day of my life as a tennis player. I am living a dream. I am a clay court player, and I have won all I have could in that surface, so winning a tournament at hard court aged 32, and winning over three top ten during this, is something very special. I will save this moment in my heart for all the rest of my life".^[7] That year, on hard courts, he also reached the semifinal inShanghai and the quarterfinals inJapan losing both to the eventual champions. Clavet holds the record for thefastest ever ATP Tour victory when he beat Shan Jiang 6–0, 6–0 in only 25 minutes at theShanghai Open.^[8]

In 2002, Clavet's career began to decline. Even though he had a good start to the year reaching third round at the Australian Open defeating No. 5 seedSébastien Grosjean, he only reached the quarterfinals at three minor tournaments for his best results of this year.

At age 34, Clavet decided to retire at the end of the 2003 season. He lost all of his matches that year. But atKey Biscayne, entering at the tournament as a qualifier ranked 178th, and the oldest player in the draw, he defeated then-current number-one-ranked Lleyton Hewitt, who suffered from food poisoning the previous day.^[9] Clavet established the record for the lowest-ranked man to defeat a number-one-ranked player untilThanasi Kokkinakis defeated Roger Federer in 2018.^[10] He lost the next round toLee Hyung-taik. Finally, his official retirement came at the second round of the Spanish Challenger tournament ofOpen Castilla y León, one of his favourite tournaments due to his relationship with the organization.

Following his retirement, he worked as a coach withThomaz Bellucci,Feliciano López,Alejandro Falla andSantiago Giraldo. He occasionally works as a commentator for Spanish television, including the broadcast of the 10thFrench Open won byRafael Nadal. He continues playing tennis at senior levels. December 2019, he won the singles title at USTA National 40 Hard Court Championships defeating American Samuel Schroerlucke.^[11]

His Davis Cup debut came in 1999 in New Zealand in a playoff that Spain had to win to stay in the World Group. That year, due to several injuries and some refuses, the top Spanish players did not participate in the Davis Cup andManolo Santana calledFélix Mantilla and Clavet to play the singles matches on a difficult surface than Spanish tennis: hard indoor. Clavet won easily overBrett Steven in three sets, showing a powerful and accurate style, and had favourable results in the playoff (4–0) defeatingMark Nielsen in straight sets, losing only four games.^[12]

In2000, Clavet played for theSpanish Davis Cup Team in the first round of the Davis Cup against Italy in Murcia. He gave Spain a 4–1 definitive result with a victory overVincenzo Santopadre.^[12] Eventually, Spain was the winner of the championship. This was Clavet's last Davis Cup match, finishing his contribution with a 3–0 careerDavis Cup record and two ties.

In national competitions, Clavet played in singles finals from 1994 to 1997 at the National Tennis Masters competition in Spain (national version ofATP World Tour Finals), losing all of them. In 1999, in Madrid, the region where he was born, he defeatedÀlex Corretja, the previous champion, recovering from a 1–6 loss in the first set, to claim the trophy.^[13] He also won the National Championship of Spain twice—1995:Juan Antonio Marín and 1999:Juan Carlos Ferrero, and reached the final in 2000 losing to Àlex Corretja.

Clavet used to play in the back of the court behind thebaseline, but he often used his drive to move his opponent out wide with balls that took the opponent off the court. He used to finish the point by approaching the net and volleying or smashing. His best shot was his powerful, open stance forehand drive. His backhand was also quite good and consistent, but not as powerful as his drive. He was known as an exceptional fighter on the court. Former tennis player and commentator for Spanish public televisionAndrés Gimeno said about him: "Clavet never gives up, he reaches all the balls, you must beat him each point".^{[citation needed]}

It is said,^[who?] but this is not official, that Clavet was the inventor of the two-handed backhand while jumping in the air. While for some, this is considered only an aesthetic hit with no relevance, other people opine that, with the hip rotation, it can help the player hit with a wider angle, and therefore, it could be useful while attacking. This has been used by players like Sébastien Grosjean, Marcelo Ríos and Thomaz Bellucci.

Clavet is a reference^{[clarification needed]} in tennis in the capital of Spain, Madrid. Spanish playerDaniel Muñoz de la Nava sees in Clavet a reference to keep fighting in the ATP World tour: "Francisco Clavet has always been my idol. I practiced with him a lot when I was 20–23 and he was at the end of his career. He inspired me because he was always focused, professional and working hard. I have to work hard at every point and he really taught me a lot about how to be a professional player."^[14]

Result	W/L	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	1–0	Jul 1990	Hilversum, Netherlands	Clay	Eduardo Masso	3–6, 6–4, 6–2, 6–0
Loss	1–1	Jul 1992	Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Sergi Bruguera	6–1, 6–4
Loss	1–2	Jul 1992	Saint-Marin, San Marino	Clay	Karel Nováček	7–5, 6–2
Loss	1–3	Oct 1994	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	6–3, 6–4
Loss	1–4	Oct 1994	Montevideo, Uruguay	Clay	Alberto Berasategui	6–4, 6–0
Win	2–4	Sep 1995	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Jordi Burillo	6–7(3–7), 6–3, 7–6(7–1)
Win	3–4	Jul 1996	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	7–5, 6–1, 6–1
Loss	3–5	Apr 1997	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Àlex Corretja	6–3, 7–5
Win	4–5	Oct 1997	Acapulco, Mexico	Clay	Juan Albert Viloca	6–4, 7–6(9–7)
Win	5–5	Oct 1997	Bogotá, Colombia	Clay	Nicolás Lapentti	6–3, 6–3
Win	6–5	Sep 1998	Bucharest, Romania	Clay	Arnaud Di Pasquale	6–4, 2–6, 7–5
Win	7–5	Nov 1998	Santiago, Chile	Clay	Younes El Aynaoui	6–2, 6–4
Loss	7–6	Apr 2000	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	Carlos Moyá	6–3, 6–2
Loss	7–7	Jan 2001	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Dominik Hrbatý	6–4, 2–6, 6–3
Win	8–7	Mar 2001	Scottsdale, United States	Hard	Magnus Norman	6–4, 6–2

• These records were attained in theOpen Era of tennis.

¹This event was held in Stockholm through 1994, Essen in 1995, and Stuttgart from 1996 through 2001.

• Francisco Clavet at theAssociation of Tennis Professionals
• Francisco Clavet at theInternational Tennis Federation
• Francisco Clavet at theDavis Cup (archived)

• 1968 births
• Living people
• People from Aranjuez
• Spanish male tennis players
• Tennis players from the Community of Madrid
• 20th-century Spanish sportsmen

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