Paul-Henri Mathieu (French pronunciation:[pɔlɑ̃ʁimatjø]; born 12 January 1982) is a French former professionaltennis player. He won four singles titles on theATP Tour. His best singles performance in anATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament was reaching the semifinals of the2005 Canadian Open. He achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 12 in April 2008.
Paul-Henri Mathieu was born inStrasbourg, France. He first began playing tennis when he was three and a half years old with his older brother Pierre-Yves. From 1997 to 2000, Paul-Henri trained at theIMG Bollettieri Tennis Academy inBradenton, Florida before moving back to Paris.[1]
As ajunior, Mathieu posted a singles record of 42–15 and a doubles record of 34–12, reaching as high as world no. 6 in singles and world no. 19 in doubles in January 2000. Mathieu won the boys' singles title at the2000 French Open, defeatingTommy Robredo 3–6, 7–6(7–3), 6–2 in the final.
Mathieu made hisATP World Tour singles main draw debut in July 2000 in the Austrian town ofKitzbühel.
2002 was Mathieu's breakthrough year. He made the fourth round of the French Open, losing toAndre Agassi in five sets, despite having a two-set lead. Later on in the year, he confirmed his potential by winning back-to-back tournaments in Moscow andLyon. He holds the distinction of being the last player to beatPete Sampras before his retirement, which he did at the 2002 TD Waterhouse Cup. On 14 October, he became world no. 36, and his progress won him theATP Newcomer of the Year award for 2002. He also nearly won theDavis Cup in 2002 with the French Davis Cup team, but lost the deciding rubber of the final toMikhail Youzhny of Russia, once more after relinquishing a two-set advantage.
2006 saw him equal his best result at aGrand Slam tournament by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open. In May a career-high ranking of no. 32 was attained. In the third round of the French Open, he lost to eventual championRafael Nadal in a grueling encounter which lasted 4 hours and 53 minutes, but 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. The score was only 1–1 in the second set after just over 2 hours of play). Many tennis players and commentators, including two-time French Open runner-upÀlex Corretja, hailed it as a classic.
2007 started poorly for Mathieu when he injured himself at the Australian Open during a 1st round encounter against SpaniardFernando 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 inMiami, beating then world number 5Fernando González ofChile along the way, before bowing out toAndy Murray in 3 sets.
On 29 April 2007, Mathieu won his 3rd career title, theGrand Prix Hassan II inCasablanca defeatingÁlbert Montañés 6–1, 6–1. At Wimbledon, he reached round 4 for the first time, defeatingRadek Štěpánek, No. 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 ItalianAndreas Seppi 6–7, 6–3, 7–5 in a difficult final to claim his fourth ATP Tour title inGstaad, Switzerland. He rose to No. 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 seedGuillermo 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 overMario Ančić in round 2. In round 3, he ran intoRafael Nadal, and actually won the first set 6–3 before losing the next two 6–3, 6–2.
He then made the semi-finals ofNew Haven losing to world number 6James Blake in a 3rd set tiebreak. This result projected him in the world's top 20 for the 1st time, at the 20th rank.
At the 2012 French Open, Mathieu won his first round match from two sets down before defeatingJohn Isner in five sets, 18–16 in the decider in what proved to be the second longest match in French Open history and fourth longest in Grand Slam history.[2] He lost in the third round to the SpaniardMarcel Granollers.[3]Mathieu defeatedIgor Andreev of Russia in theSwiss Open [6–3, 7–6(4)].[4]
Paul-Henri Mathieu's father (Patrick) and mother (Yveline) are a dentist and a housewife respectively. Paul-Henri has a sister named Aude and a brother named Pierre-Yves. A relatively popular, well-liked player despite his inconsistent career results, Mathieu is nicknamed "Paulo" and often affectionately known by his initials, PHM. His favourite surfaces are clay and hard, and he admiredBoris Becker while growing up. His brother Pierre-Yves is now a tennis coach inStrasbourg.[1]
On 11 March 2012, Paul-Henri Mathieu became a father for the first time when his girlfriend, Quiterie Camus, gave birth to the couple's first child, a son named Gabriel. On 10 September 2016, Mathieu and Camus married inBourron-Marlotte's town hall. It was the mother of Camus, being the deputy mayor of Bourron-Marlotte, who performed the wedding ceremony. Mathieu and Quiterie Camus had been living together as a couple for nearly 13 years before their marriage. Quiterie Camus was diagnosed withHodgkin's lymphoma in January 2013 and she recovered from it before their marriage. Their second child, a daughter named Inès, was born on 6 March 2017.[5][6][7][8][9]
France
Sjeng Schalken
Gustavo Kuerten
Nicolás Massú
Álbert Montañés
Andreas Seppi
Nikolay Davydenko
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Damián Furmanski
Jarkko Nieminen
Dick Norman
Filip Krajinović
Andy Roddick