XAVIER MALISSE

'Xavier Malisse' (born July 19 1980) is a Belgian tennis player known mostly for his enormous right-handed forehand, great power and bad temper. Born in Kortrijk, Belgium, Malisse is considered the biggest Belgian tennis talent on the ATP tour. Malisse was at one time romantically linked to former world number one female tennis player Jennifer Capriati.

Contents

Career

Career ATP finals (15)

Singles

Wins (4)

Rrunner-ups (8)

Doubles

Wins (4)

Performance timeline

External links

Career

Xavier Malisse turned pro 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. Xavier 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 semi-final, 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 thriller 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." This unanticipated comeback led CBS Announcer Mary Carillo to remark 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 quarter-finals 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.

Career ATP finals (15)

Singles

Wins (4)

'Legend (Singles)'

Grand Slam (0)

Tennis Masters Cup (0)

ATP Masters Series (0)

ATP Tour (3)

Challengers (1)

'No.'	'Date'	'Tournament'	'Surface'	'Opponent in the final'	'Score'
1.	September 25, 2000	San Antonio	Hard	Ronald Agenor	7-6 6-3
2.	January 31, 2005	Delray Beach	Hard	Jiri Novak	7-6 6-2
3.	January 1, 2007	Chennai	Hard	Stefan Koubek	6-1 6-3
4.	January 28, 2007	Delray Beach	Hard	James Blake	5-7 6-4 6-4

Rrunner-ups (8)

★ 1998: Mexico City (lost to Jiří Novák)

★ 1999: Delray Beach

★ 2001: Atlanta

★ 2001: Delray Beach

★ 2004: St. Poelten

★ 2004: Lyon

★ 2006: Adelaide (lost to Florent Serra)

★ 2006: Delray Beach (lost to Tommy Haas)

Doubles

Wins (4)

★ 2004: 'French Open' (w/Olivier Rochus)

★ 2005: Adelaide (w/Olivier Rochus)

★ 2007: Chennai (w/Dick Norman)

★ 2007: Delray Beach (w/Hugo Armando)

Performance timeline

Tournament	Career	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Australian Open		-	-	-	2R	3R	1R	1R	2R	1R
French Open		1R	-	3R	4R	3R	4R	2R	1R	-
Wimbledon		1R	-	2R	SF	1R	4R	2R	2R	-
US Open		3R	2R	4R	3R	4R	1R	4R	3R

External links

★

★ Malisse Arguing on the Call