Nicolas Jean-Christophe Escudé (; born 3 April 1976) is a former professional tennis player from France, who turned professional in 1995. He won four singles titles and two doubles titles during his career.
Escudé is best remembered for the vital role he played in the 2001 Davis Cup final against Australia on the grass-courts of Melbourne. Escudé beat the recently crowned World No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt in the first rubber with a win in five sets, repeating what he did to Hewitt earlier that year in the fourth round of Wimbledon. Two days later, Escudé won the decisive fifth rubber for France against Wayne Arthurs in four sets.
The right-hander reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour on 26 June 2000, when he became World No. 17. He's a natural left-hander who was trained since a child to play right-handed but does everything else lefty. His brother Julien Escudé is a professional football player.
Escudé teamed up with Roger Federer in the men's doubles at the French Open in 2000. However they were knocked out by Sébastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor.
In 2006, he announced his immediate retirement from the sport due to a persistent shoulder injury that had been keeping him out of the professional tennis circuit for the past 22 months.
Escudé was the captain of the France Fed Cup team from 2009 to 2012. He was also the co-coach of Nicolas Mahut for the 2013 season with Thierry Ascione and from 2013 to 2015 of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
He is currently the technical director of the French tennis federation.
Career finals
Singles: 6 (4 wins / 2 losses) Legend Grand Slam (0) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (0) ATP International Series Gold (2) ATP Tour (2) ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScoreWin 1–0 Sep 1999 Toulouse, France Hard (i) Daniel Vacek 7–5, 6–1Loss 1–1 Jun 2000 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands Grass Patrick Rafter 1–6, 3–6Win 2–1 Feb 2001Rotterdam, Netherlands Hard (i) Roger Federer 7–5, 3–6, 7–6(7–5)Loss 2–2 Feb 2002 Marseille, France Hard (i) Thomas Enqvist 7–6(7–4), 3–6, 1–6Win 3–2 Feb 2002Rotterdam, Netherlands Hard (i) Tim Henman 3–6, 7–6(9–7), 6–4Win 4–2 Jan 2004 Doha, Qatar Hard Ivan Ljubičić 6–3, 7–6(7–4)
Doubles (2 wins)
Legend Grand Slam (0) Tennis Masters Cup (0) ATP Masters Series (1) ATP Tour (1) ResultW/L DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreWin 1–0 Feb 2002 Marseille, France Hard (i) Arnaud Clément Julien Boutter Max Mirnyi 6–4, 6–3Win 2–0 Oct 2002Paris, France Hard (i) Fabrice Santoro Gustavo Kuerten Cédric Pioline 6–3, 7–6(8–6)
Singles performance timeline
Tournament 199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004 SR W–L Grand Slam tournamentsAustralian OpenQ1Q2AAASFA4R2R3R3R3R0 / 615–6French Open1RQ1Q1A3R2R2R1R1R1R1R4R0 / 97–9WimbledonAAAAQ22RA2RQF3R2RA0 / 59–5US OpenAAAA2R1RQFA2RAAA0 / 46–4Win–loss0–10–00–00–03–27–45–24–36–44–33–35–20 / 2437–24Year-end championshipsGrand Slam CupAAAAA1RANot Held0 / 10–1ATP Masters SeriesIndian WellsAAAAAA1R3RQF2RA4R0 / 59–5MiamiAAAAA2R2R3R2R3R4R1R0 / 77–7Monte CarloAAAAAAA2R1R1R1R2R0 / 52–5HamburgAAAAA2RA1R3R1RAA0 / 43–4RomeAAAAA2RQ11R1RAAA0 / 31–3CanadaAAAAA1RA3R3RAA1R0 / 44–4CincinnatiAAAAA1RAA2RAAA0 / 21–2MadridAAAAAAA2R1RQ1AA0 / 21–2ParisAAAA3R2R1R1R1RQFAA0 / 66–6Win–loss0–00–00–00–02–14–61–37–88–95–53–24–40 / 3834–38 Career statisticsTitles0000001011014Finals0000001112016Year-end ranking67064618941393373748273411464
Top 10 wins Season1995199619971998199920002001200220032004TotalWins000133652020
#PlayerRankEventSurfaceRdScore19981. Àlex Corretja9Halle, GermanyGrass1R6–2, 7–53419992. Carlos Moyá9US Open, New York, United StatesHard2R6–1, 6–4, 0–1, ret.1363. Marcelo Ríos10US Open, New York, United StatesHard4R6–2, 6–3, 7–51364. Tim Henman7Toulouse, FranceHard (i)2R6–4, 6–28020005. Richard Krajicek10Australian Open, Melbourne, AustraliaHard2R2–6, 6–3, 6–1, 6–3346. Gustavo Kuerten5Davis Cup, Florianopolis, BrazilClayRR6–2, 7–6(7–3)307. Marat Safin2Vienna, AustriaHard (i)1R5–7, 6–3, 7–6(7–5)3720018. Tim Henman10Rotterdam, NetherlandsHard (i)2R6–3, 7–5609. Yevgeny Kafelnikov5Hamburg, GermanyClay1R7–5, 7–53610. Sébastien Grosjean8Wimbledon, London, United KingdomGrass3R5–7, 6–4, 6–3, 6–43811. Lleyton Hewitt5Wimbledon, London, United KingdomGrass4R4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 4–6, 6–43812. Marat Safin3Montreal, CanadaHard1R6–4, 5–2, ret.2813. Lleyton Hewitt1Davis Cup, Melbourne, AustraliaGrassRR4–6, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, 6–427200214. Juan Carlos Ferrero3Rotterdam, NetherlandsHard (i)1R5–7, 6–1, 6–02215. Sébastien Grosjean10Rotterdam, NetherlandsHard (i)SF4–6, 7–6(7–1), 7–52216. Albert Costa8Moscow, RussiaCarpet (i)1R7–5, 3–6, 6–14817. Yevgeny Kafelnikov10Lyon, FranceCarpet (i)2R7–6(7–5), 6–44118. Tim Henman9Paris, FranceCarpet (i)3R6–4, 6–241200319. Jiří Novák10Marseille, FranceHard (i)1R6–2, 6–14020. Albert Costa8Rotterdam, NetherlandsHard (i)1R6–3, 6–341
References
External links
Bio – file with Nicolas Escude