Pierre-Ludovic Duclos-Lasnier, commonly referred to as Pierre-Ludovic Duclos, (born January 8, 1986) is a Canadian former professional tour tennis player. In 2014 he was sentenced to six-years in prison for attempting to have a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl.
Duclos has appeared in six ATP World Tour main draw matches, winning one of two singles matches and one of three in doubles. He has also captured four ATP Challenger events, all in doubles.
Personal life Duclos was born in Quebec City, Quebec. He is 1.78 metres tall, 77 kg in weight, and plays right-handed with a two handed backhand. He has indicated that his favourite surface is hard court. Duclos was coached by Italian Donato Campagnoli.
Attempted sexual encounter and conviction On 9 or 10 February 2013, Duclos and a 13-year-old girl met when they were playing on adjacent courts, according to the arrest report by the Manatee County Sheriff’s office. The girl was looking for a tennis coach when she met Duclos. According to the Manatee County documents, Duclos was aware of the girl's age. Duclos proceeded to text the girl with sexual advances, as well as sending two photos of his penis.
On 21 February 2013, in Bradenton, Florida, Duclos was arrested in a sting operation after the girl's mother gave her cellphone to police. Duclos had agreed to meet the girl at a Starbucks and bring her back to his home for sexual intercourse. At a trial in May 2014, Duclos was convicted and sentenced to six years in a Florida prison and four years probation, for attempting to have a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl.
Tennis career 2003 – 2005 Duclos played in his first professional tour tournament in August 2003, reaching the second round of the Brazil F5 Futures tournament. The following year he played in ten futures and one challenger tournament (all but one in and from August) and finished 2004 World No. 1170. He played in 18 Futures in 2005, reaching the final in one, Mexico F16 in October, and the quarter-finals in four others. He finished his year losing in the first round of the Puebla challenger to Mexican No. 1 Bruno Echagaray in three sets and as the World No. 723.
2006 – 2007 For 2006, Duclos played 13 Futures and 6 challengers. He reached the semi-finals of Mexico F7 and Mexico F19, and the quarters of Mexico F17. He finished the World No.~640 and without yet having won a match at the challenger level. The story was different in doubles however, as Duclos reached the semi-finals in consecutive challengers in April played in Mexico and then, partnering André Ghem, won a third. He won Mexico F7, partnering Echagaray, reached the semis of the Yuba City challenger, won Mexico F17 with Raphael Durek, and reached the semis of the Maui.
Duclos began 2007 by winning his first Futures in doubles, Mexico F2, and then reaching the finals of his second tournament, Portugal F1 in both singles and doubles. He won the doubles of Portugal F2 and F3 partnering Niels Desein and Franko Škugor respectively. In April Duclos reached consecutive quarterfinals at two Futures in the U.A.E. as well as the tourney's finals in doubles. He then in May reached consecutive semis in two Futures in Belarus in singles and his ranking then stood at World No. 526. Duclos won Ireland F1 in doubles with Durek and followed this up with his first challenger level win, in Dublin, over Slovak Igor Zelenay.
Following a first round loss at the Granby Challenger, where he reached the semis in doubles, Duclos scored his most impressive victory to date, a comeback three-set win over Spaniard Feliciano López in qualifying for the 2007 Rogers Cup. Unfortunately, the Quebecer failed to qualify losing soundly in the qualifying round to Italian Fabio Fognini, 2–6, 2–6. In doubles partnering compatriot Philip Bester he lost in his first ATP Tour-level main draw match, 4–6, 4–6 to Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal. Duclos then reached three straight Futures quarterfinals, at France F12, Spain F34, and Spain F35. He had won his first tour title in the following week, winning Spain F36 by defeating World No. 369 Guillermo Alcaide in the semis and World No. 359 Miguel Ángel López Jaén in the final in straight sets. He also won the doubles partnering Daniel Lustig. Luclos's singles ranking jumped to World No. 388, his second highest to date. He finished the year though losing in the first round of three straight challengers in singles, but reached the finals in consecutive tournaments in doubles and a world ranking of No. 208, also a career high.
2008 Duclos's 2008 season picked up in June as he won doubles at the Belarus F2, where he also reached the quarters in singles. In July he reached the semis of Turkey F7, losing to eventual champion Marsel İlhan. Duclos then won Syria F1, where he won all his matches handily, 2 and 2 over his first round opponent, 2 and 2 again in the second round, 5 and 1 in the quarters, 2 and love in the semis and 4 and 1 in the final, a win over Riccardo Ghedin. He reached the quarters of Syria F2 and won Senegal F1, as the top seed, at the end of July / first of August, defeating No. 2 seed Niels Desein in the final. He also teamed with Desein to form the top seeded doubles tandem and won the tournament. He lost in the final of Senegal F2 to Desein, retiring at 3–3 in the first set, and the pair, for a second consecutive event, won doubles. With this success, Duclos reached a career high singles ATP entry ranking of World No. 337.
After a few weeks off, Duclos has resumed where he left off, defeating World No. 283 Thomas Oger in the finals 6–3, 6–0, to win Italy F28 and reach a career ranking of World No. 302, which he has since bettered. He and Desein again won the doubles, as the top seeded pair. Duclos then withdrew, during the first week of September, from his second round match of France F13, as the tournament No. 6 seed. After a near two-month lay-off he rolled to the final of Spain F42 as the No. 3 seed, not losing more than 4 games in any set. He dropped the final however to Yannick Mertens, the No. 6 seed, 6–4, 2–6, 3–6. Then after losing in the first round of Spain F43 Duclos, as the tournament No. 3 seed, lost in the quarterfinals twice in consecutive tournaments, Israel F4 and F5.
2009 Duclos began his 2009 in early February playing Ivory Coast F1 and F2, winning one match and losing two. He fared far better in the doubles as he and partner Andreas Haider-Maurer won F1 and lost the final of F2. In late February he qualified for the Wolfsburg challenger, and lost the second round of the main draw to Alex Bogdanovic 3–6, 6–4, 5–7. The following week he qualified for the Bergamo challenger and lost in the first round of the main draw. In mid-March he failed to qualify for the Marrakech challenger. The following week he lost in the first round of the main draw of the Sarajevo challenger. In doubles, partnering Nicholas Monroe, Duclos lost in the semi-finals.
In early April, the No. 2 seed Duclos reached the quarterfinals of Russia F1 in singles while in doubles he and partner Denis Matsukevich lost in the semis. After reaching the second round of Russia F2, he qualified for the main draw of the Aegean Tennis Cup, losing in the first round to Prakash Amritraj. Duclos next qualified for the main draw of the Israel Open, but again lost in the first round. In doubles there he and partner Thiago Alves also succumbed in their first main draw match. Duclos next lost in singles in the final round of qualifying for the Türk Telecom İzmir Cup.
Duclos saw his ranking rise to a career best in May as he reached the quarter-finals of the Fergana Challenger, defeating tournament No. 7 seed and World No. 275 Kamil Čapkovič in straight sets in the first round before falling to No. 4 seed Illya Marchenko in 3 sets in the quarters. This result saw him move one place past long-time Canada No. 2 Peter Polansky in the ATP rankings to a career high World No. 278. He showed well in Fergana in doubles too, as he and partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached the final. The following week Duclos failed to qualify for the main draw of Alessandria Challenger in singles and in doubles reached the quarter-finals partnering Jacopo Marchegiani.
In June, Duclos reached the second round in singles at the Sunset Moulding YCRC Challenger, scoring a first-round win of veteran and No. 1 seed Vince Spadea before falling in his next match to another veteran, Cecil Mamiit. This allowed him to reach a new career high singles ranking of World No. 270, but he has been displaced by Polanksy as the number two singles player in Canada thanks to the latter's good showing in qualifying for the main draw of the French Open. Duclos continued his fine doubles play, reaching the semi-finals in Yuba City partnering Alex Kuznetsov.
Duclos lost in the first round of the Lines Trophy to Thomas Fabbiano in late June, and then again, the following week, to World No. 227 Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium, in the opening round of the Open Diputación challenger. He received his career highest singles record this week too, of World No. 259. In doubles, Duclos lost in the first round in Reggio Emilia and the second round in Pozoblanco, partnering Mario Torres and Lukáš Lacko respectively. The week after, he reached the second round of the Manchester Trophy, defeating World No. 1766 Ashley Hewitt 6–2, 6–0 before falling to No. 7 seed Lacko 4–6, 4–6. He dropped in the rankings, however, some 23 spots because of the ATP ranking points he had last year for winning the Futures event in Damascus last July became more than a year old this week. In doubles in Manchester, Duclos and partner Lacko reached the semi-finals.
The week after, Duclos lost to Izak van der Merwe in the first round of the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships, 4–6, 6–3, 0–6. In doubles, he and partner Nick Monroe lost in the first round. The following week at the Granby Challenger he eked out a three set win over No. 3 seed Brendan Evans in the first round, 6–2, 1–6, 7–5, before falling in the second round to Ryler DeHeart 5–7, 5–7. In doubles Duclos played with Alexander Kudryavtsev and reached the second round. Last week Duclos defeated No. 6 seed Kevin Anderson in the first round of the main draw of the Odlum Brown Vancouver Open, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4. In the second round he fell to eventual finalist Xavier Malisse 6–3, 0–6, 4–6. In doubles he and partner Vasek Pospisil lost in the first round.
Duclos received a wild card into qualifying for the Rogers Cup being played last week in Montreal. He lost to No. 3 seed Andrey Golubev 2–6, 2–6. In doubles, Duclos and compatriot Frank Dancevic, a wild card pairing, lost in the second round of the main draw. The following week Duclos lost in three sets to No. 2 seed Illya Marchenko in the first round of the Karsi Challenger in Uzbekistan. In doubles, he and partner Denis Molchanov, the top-seeded doubles entry, lost in the second round. The week after Duclos reached the semi-finals of the Southern Capital Cup in Astana, knocking off top seed Michail Elgin in the first round, James McGee in the second, and No. 7 seed Greg Jones in the quarters, 6–2, 7–5, before falling to No. 3 seed and eventual champion Ivan Sergeyev in two tie-breaks. In doubles, Duclos and partner Alexey Kedryuk are the top seeds lost in the finals.