Olivier Rochus

Summary

Olivier Rochus (French pronunciation: [ɔlivje ʁɔkys]; born 18 January 1981) is a retired Belgian tennis player. He is the younger brother of Christophe Rochus, also a former top-40 tennis player.

Olivier Rochus
Country (sports) Belgium
ResidenceDion-Valmont, Belgium
Born (1981-01-18) 18 January 1981 (age 43)
Namur, Belgium
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Turned pro1999
Retired2014
PlaysRight-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money$4,809,475
Singles
Career record238–276
Career titles2
Highest rankingNo. 24 (17 October 2005)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open4R (2005)
French Open3R (2001, 2006)
Wimbledon4R (2003)
US Open4R (2004)
Doubles
Career record98–121
Career titles2
Highest rankingNo. 29 (5 July 2004)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open2R (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)
French OpenW (2004)
Wimbledon3R (2005)
US Open3R (2006, 2009)

Rochus won two singles titles in his career and in 2004 won the French Open doubles title, partnering fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 24.

At 1.68 metres (5 ft 6 in) tall, he was the shortest player on the ATP World Tour.[1]

Career edit

Juniors edit

Rochus was a partner of Roger Federer on the junior circuit, winning the boys' doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998.

As a junior, he compiled a singles win–loss record of 81–30 (42–20 in doubles), reaching as high as No. 11 in the world in 1997 (and No. 16 in doubles the following year). Rochus reached at least the quarterfinals of all four junior Grand Slam tournaments (including the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon).

1999–2008 edit

He won his first title in Palermo in 2000, defeating his brother in the semifinals and Diego Nargiso in the final. In 2003, he achieved his greatest Master Series result, reaching the quarter-finals of the Hamburg Masters.[2]

He has represented Belgium at two Olympic Games in both the singles and the doubles competitions at Athens and Beijing.[3]

In May 2006, he reached the final of the ATP tournament in Munich, setting up the first ever all-Belgian men's singles final against Kristof Vliegen. He won that final in straight sets.

In June, Rochus faced world No. 1, Roger Federer, in the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open. Rochus held four match points in the second set at 5–6 and in the tie-break. He could not close out the match and eventually lost in three tiebreaks.

2009 edit

He reached the final of the Stockholm Open, after winning to Swede Andreas Vinciguerra in the first round, eighth seed Feliciano López, and Jarkko Nieminen. In the semifinals, he beat best Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. In the final, he met former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, but lost in two sets.

One week later at the Grand Prix de Lyon, he won his first match against French qualifier Vincent Millot. He faced world No. 8, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but lost in two short sets.

His next tournament was the Swiss Indoors, where he first won his three qualifying matches. In the first round of the tournament, he lost to his former double partner and world No. 1, Roger Federer.

The last tournament of his tennis season was the AXA Belgian Masters (Challenger), where he met compatriot Steve Darcis in the semifinal.

2010 edit

At the Sony Ericsson Open he defeated Richard Gasquet and the 2007 titlist and second seed Novak Djokovic.

In the Nice tournament, one week prior to Roland Garros, he pulled off another upset, defeating 2009 French Open finalist Robin Söderling.

He defeated Raven Klaasen of South Africa at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship, but lost to Mardy Fish in the final in three sets.

2011 edit

In March, Rochus lost in the fourth round in Miami to Federer, after defeating Blaž Kavčič, Marcos Baghdatis, and Mikhail Youzhny in the first three rounds. In July, he made it to the final in Newport, where he was defeated by John Isner in straight sets.

2012–13 edit

Rochus had his best success earlier in 2012, reaching the final in Auckland. He lost to Nicolás Almagro in the first round of Wimbledon.[4]

In 2013, he played mostly on the Challenger Tour, never advancing beyond the second round of an ATP event.

ATP career finals edit

Singles: 10 (2 wins, 8 losses) edit

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 series (2–8)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–6)
Clay (2–0)
Grass (0–2)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Win 1. Sep 2000 Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, Italy Clay   Diego Nargiso 7–6(16–14), 6–1
Loss 1. Feb 2002 Copenhagen Open, Denmark Hard (i)   Lars Burgsmüller 3–6, 3–6
Loss 2. Mar 2003 Copenhagen Open, Denmark Hard (i)   Karol Kučera 6–7(4–7), 4–6
Loss 3. Jan 2005 Heineken Open, New Zealand Hard   Fernando González 4–6, 2–6
Win 2. May 2006 BMW Open, Germany Clay   Kristof Vliegen 6–4, 6–2
Loss 4. Sep 2007 Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open, India Hard   Richard Gasquet 3–6, 4–6
Loss 5. Oct 2009 Stockholm Open, Sweden Hard (i)   Marcos Baghdatis 1–6, 5–7
Loss 6. Jul 2010 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S. Grass   Mardy Fish 7–5, 3–6, 4–6
Loss 7. Jul 2011 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S. Grass   John Isner 3–6, 6–7(6–8)
Loss 8. Jan 2012 Heineken Open, New Zealand Hard   David Ferrer 3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 7 (2 wins, 5 losses) edit

Legend
Grand Slam tournament (1–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–2)
ATP World Tour 250 series (1–3)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (1–2)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1. Jun 2004 French Open, Paris Clay   Xavier Malisse   Michaël Llodra
  Fabrice Santoro
7–5, 7–5
Win 2. Jan 2005 Adelaide International, Australia Hard   Xavier Malisse   Simon Aspelin
  Todd Perry
7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss 1. Jul 2005 Generali Open, Austria Clay   Christophe Rochus   Leoš Friedl
  Andrei Pavel
2–6, 7–6(7–5), 0–6
Loss 2. Jan 2006 Qatar Open, Doha Hard   Christophe Rochus   Jonas Björkman
  Max Mirnyi
6–2, 3–6, [8–10]
Loss 3. Oct 2006 Stockholm Open, Sweden Hard (i)   Kristof Vliegen   Paul Hanley
  Kevin Ullyett
6–7(2–7), 4–6
Loss 4. Jul 2008 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay   Lucas Arnold Ker   James Cerretani
  Victor Hănescu
3–6, 5–7
Loss 5. Feb 2010 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, Croatia Hard (i)   Arnaud Clément   Jürgen Melzer
  Philipp Petzschner
6–3, 3–6, [8–10]

Performance timelines edit

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# DNQ A NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

Singles edit

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A 1R 1R 2R 1R 4R 2R 2R 1R A 1R A 2R 1R A 7–11
French Open LQ 3R 2R 1R 1R 2R 3R 1R 1R Q3 2R 1R 1R A A 7–11
Wimbledon 3R 2R 3R 4R 1R 2R 3R 1R 2R Q1 1R 2R 1R 1R A 13–13
US Open 1R 1R 1R 1R 4R 3R 3R 1R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R Q2 A 8–13
Win–loss 2–2 3–4 3–4 4–4 3–4 7–4 7–4 1–4 1–4 1–1 1–4 1–3 1–4 0–2 0–0 35–48
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A 1R 3R 1R 2R 3R 3R 2R A 1R A 1R Q2 A 6–9
Miami A A 1R 2R 2R 2R 4R 3R 1R Q1 3R 4R 1R 2R A 12–10
Monte Carlo A A A 1R 1R 3R 2R 1R 2R Q1 1R 2R 1R A A 5–9
Madrid1 A A 1R QF 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R A A 1R 1R A A 5–9
Rome A A A 1R A 1R 1R 2R A A A A A A A 1–4
Toronto / Montreal A A A A A 3R A A A A A A A A A 2–1
Cincinnati A A A A A 3R A 1R A A A Q1 Q2 A A 2–2
Shanghai2 A 1R A 1R A 3R 1R A 1R A A A A A A 2–5
Paris A A 2R A A 1R 2R Q1 Q2 A A A A A A 2–3
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 1–4 6–6 2–4 10–9 5–7 3–5 3–5 0–0 2–3 4–3 0–4 1–1 0–0 37–52
Career statistics
Titles / Finals 1–1 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–1 1–1 0–1 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–0 2–10
Year-end ranking 68 114 64 48 66 27 36 48 122 57 113 67 90 200 580

1Held as Hamburg Masters (outdoor clay) until 2008, Madrid Masters (outdoor clay) 2009–present.
2Held as Stuttgart Masters (indoor hard) until 2001, Madrid Masters (indoor hard) from 2002 to 2008, and Shanghai Masters (outdoor hard) 2009–present.

Doubles edit

Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open 1R 2R 2R 2R 2R 1R A A A 2R 1R 5–8
French Open 1R W 3R 3R 3R QF A 1R 1R 1R A 15–8
Wimbledon A 2R 3R 2R 2R A A 1R A 3R A 7–6
US Open 2R 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R A A 5–9
Win–loss 1–3 8–3 5–4 6–4 4–4 3–3 2–1 0–3 0–2 3–3 0–1 32–31

Top 10 wins edit

Season 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total
Wins 1 0 1 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 13
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score
2000
1.   Magnus Norman 2 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 2R 6–4, 2–6, 6–4, 6–7(4–7), 6–1
2002
2.   Marat Safin 2 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 2R 6–2, 6–4, 3–6, 7–6(7–1)
2003
3.   Albert Costa 9 Indian Wells, United States Hard 2R 5–7, 6–4, 6–4
4.   Albert Costa 8 Hamburg, Germany Clay 2R 3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–3)
5.   Guillermo Coria 7 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 1R 7–5, 7–6(7–4), 6–3
2004
6.   Mark Philippoussis 10 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard 1R 6–2, 7–6(10–8)
7.   Carlos Moyá 4 US Open, New York Hard 3R 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
2005
8.   Guillermo Coria 6 Auckland, New Zealand Hard QF 6–4, 6–4
9.   Mariano Puerta 9 Lyon, France Carpet (i) 1R 4–6, 7–5, 6–3
2006
10.   Guillermo Coria 7 Miami Open, United States Hard 3R 6–4, 6–3
2007
11.   Nikolay Davydenko 4 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard 2R 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
2010
12.   Novak Djokovic 2 Miami Open, United States Hard 2R 6–2, 6–7(7–9), 6–4
13.   Robin Söderling 7 Nice, France Clay 2R 2–6, 6–4, 6–4

References edit

  1. ^ "Isner, Raonic on Track for Memphis Finals; Almagro, Ferrer Alive in Buenos Aires". tennis-x.com. 24 February 2012. Archived from the original on 30 April 2012.
  2. ^ "Hewitt defeated in Hamburg". upi.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011.
  3. ^ "Olivier Rochus Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Wimbledon 2012". Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2012.

External links edit

Preceded by ATP Newcomer of the Year
2000
Succeeded by