Xavier Malisse

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Xavier Malisse

Country	Belgium
Residence	Bradenton, FL
Date of birth	19 July 1980 (1980-07-19) (age 29)
Place of birth	Kortrijk
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Turned pro	1998
Plays	Right-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$3,375,607
Singles
Career record	204–168
Career titles	3
Highest ranking	No. 19 (12 August 2002)
Current ranking	No. 92 (23 November 2009)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	3R (2003)
French Open	4R (2002, 2004)
Wimbledon	SF (2002)
US Open	4R (2003, 2005)
Doubles
Career record	63–57
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 28 (7 July 2004)
Last updated on: 1 February 2008.

Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a Belgian tennis player. Born in Kortrijk, Belgium, he is considered the biggest Belgian tennis talent on the ATP tour.^{[citation needed]} He is sponsored by Prince and Lotto.

Career

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Malisse turned professional in 1998. In his professional career, Malisse has reached ten finals in which he has won three: Delray Beach, 2005 and most recently, Chennai and again, Delray Beach in 2007. Malisse and Olivier Rochus won the French Open doubles championship in 2004. His best performance in Grand Slam singles competition was at the 2002 Wimbledon championships, where he reached the semifinal, beating Britain's Greg Rusedski in five sets en route. He eventually lost to runner-up David Nalbandian. Malisse started the 2006 tennis season in good form, reaching the finals in Adelaide and the second round of the Australian Open beating Mikhail Youzhny in the first round and losing a five-set match to Thomas Johansson in the second round.

One of Malisse's most notable matches occurred at the 2005 U.S. Open. In the fourth round, he was down two sets to Andre Agassi and was two points from elimination (down 5–3) in the third-set tiebreaker when he fought back to take that set. In the next set, he dominated Agassi. Agassi later remarked that Malisse was "hitting winners off of both sides." CBS Announcer Mary Carillo remarked that Malisse is "oozing with talent." Just as it looked that Andre Agassi was tiring, Agassi came firing back, managing to take the final set 6–2. On match point, Malisse was at the net preparing for a volley and Agassi struck backhand down the line to Malisse's forehand side. Malisse spun through the air in an attempt to get to the volley, but the ball bounced off the frame of his racket and landed way out of bounds. Had Malisse won the match, it would have bettered his previous best performance at the U.S. Open in 2003 when he lost in three tight sets to eventual champion Andy Roddick, also in the fourth round.

Another notable match occurred in the quarterfinals of the 2006 Rogers Cup in a three-set thriller against the world number one, Roger Federer. Federer took the first set in a tiebreaker but Malisse charged back, winning the second set in another tiebreaker. The third set was decided by one break of service, which Federer took and served out the set 6–3. Malisse had not lost a set in the tournament prior to playing Federer and pushed the world number one throughout the match with some unbelievable shot-making along with great hustle.

2009

After a bad year, Malisse was just no. 205 of the world. In his first tournament of the year in Brisbane he lost in the last qualifying round to American Bobby Reynolds. A week later, in Medibank International Sydney he reached the main draw but lost to Mario Ancic in three straight sets in the first round. At the Australian Open he first won his qualifying matches. In the first round of the main draw he won to ATP 38 Michaël Llodra. But in the next round he met world number six Andy Roddick. He won the first set but lost the three following sets: 4-6, 6-2, 7-6, 6-2. Afterwards Roddick said that it was one of his most difficult matches of the tournament^{[citation needed]}.In October he won a challenger tournament in Lyon and this pushed him back into the worlds top 100 for the first time in nearly two years

Career finals

Singles: 11 (3-8)

Wins (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	31 January 2005	Delray Beach, United States	Hard	Jiri Novak	7–6, 6–2
2.	1 January 2007	Chennai, India	Hard	Stefan Koubek	6–1, 6–3
3.	28 January 2007	Delray Beach, U.S.	Hard	James Blake	5–7, 6–4, 6–4

Runner-ups (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
1.	2 November 1998	Mexico City, Mexico	Clay	Jiri Novak	6–3, 6–3
2.	10 May 1999	Delray Beach, United States	Clay	Lleyton Hewitt	6–4, 6–7, 6–1
3.	12 March 2001	Delray Beach, U.S.	Hard	Jan-Michael Gambill	7–5, 6–4
4.	30 April 2001	Atlanta, U.S.	Clay	Andy Roddick	6–2, 6–4
5.	24 May 2004	St. Pölten, Austria	Clay	Filippo Volandri	6–1, 6–4
6.	11 October 2004	Lyon, France	Carpet	Robin Söderling	6–2, 3–6, 6–4
7.	9 January 2006	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Florent Serra	6–3, 6–4
8.	6 February 2006	Delray Beach, U.S.	Hard	Tommy Haas	6–3, 3–6, 7–6

Doubles: 4 (4-0)

Wins (4)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in final	Score in final
1.	24 May 2004	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Olivier Rochus	Michaël Llodra Fabrice Santoro	7–5, 7–5
2.	3 January 2005	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Olivier Rochus	Simon Aspelin Todd Perry	7–6, 6–4
3.	1 January 2007	Chennai, India	Hard	Dick Norman	Rafael Nadal Bartolomé Salvá	7–6, 7–6
4.	28 January 2007	Delray Beach, USA	Hard	Hugo Armando	James Auckland Stephen Huss	6–3, 6–7, [10–5]

Performance timeline

External links

• Xavier Malisse at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Malisse arguing on the call