Fabrice Santoro

Juniors

After having lost in the early rounds of the 1988 Jr French Open and 1988 Jr US Open, Santoro won the 1989 Jr French Open. He also had a semifinal appearance in the 1989 Jr US Open.

Pro tour

Fabrice Santoro Volleys at US Open

When Santoro successfully defended his 2007 title by winning the 2008 Newport tournament at the age of 35, he became the oldest tennis player to win back-to-back championships at an ATP singles event.

In addition, Santoro won what was, at the time, the longest singles match in the open era: at the 2004 French Open, he beat fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clément in a 6-hour 33 minute first-round match (6–4, 6–3, 6–7(5), 3–6, 16–14). The record stood until John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, but still remains the French Open record.

As a singles tennis player, the 2006 Australian Open was Santoro's only Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance.

In singles play, Santoro defeated 18 players who were ranked world no. 1 at some time during their careers: Novak Djokovic, Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Thomas Muster, Marcelo Ríos, Gustavo Kuerten, Carlos Moyá, Pat Rafter, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and Roger Federer (against whom he has a 2–9 record). Against other former world no. 1 players, Santoro is 0–6 against Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 0–1 against Ivan Lendl, 0–1 against Rafael Nadal, and 0-2 against Andy Murray. Santoro is famous for his winning record against Marat Safin (7–2); Safin himself has said, "Being told I would play Santoro was being told I was to die."

Santoro won the 2003 and 2004 Australian Opens doubles titles, partnering Michaël Llodra, a French compatriot, and was runner-up at the 2002 Australian Open, 2004 French Open and 2006 Wimbledon Championships. He also won the 2005 French Open mixed doubles title with Daniela Hantuchová. Santoro teamed with Michaël Llodra again to win the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, a competition that included the top eight doubles teams in the world.

In addition to his doubles prowess, Fabrice is noted for his cheery attitude on court and his vast arsenal of trick shots, making him a crowd favorite and gaining him the admiration of his peers. In recognition of Santoro's varied and innovative style of play, Pete Sampras has nicknamed him The Magician.

Santoro plays with two hands on forehand and backhand, and though he is right-handed, often slices his forehand with his left hand. He attributes this to having used racquets of the same weight throughout his career, which were too heavy for a six-year-old starting off a career to hold with one hand. Santoro was fast around the court and was a skilled defensive player.

With his participation in the 2008 Australian Open, he broke Andre Agassi's record in Grand Slam appearances over his career with a total of 62. Santoro retired at the end of the 2009 season at his hometown tournament at the 2009 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris (Bercy), losing his final singles match against James Blake and final doubles match against Johan Brunström and Jean-Julien Rojer while partnering compatriot Sébastien Grosjean.

Santoro came out of retirement for one tournament at the 2010 Australian Open in order to obtain the record for having played in Grand Slams in four different decades, logging a total of 70 appearances in Grand Slam tournaments. At 37, he was the oldest player in the ATP Top 100, being ranked 68 when he entered this last tournament.^[1] He lost in the first round of the tournament – to Marin Čilić – ending his professional tennis career.

He was the first leader of the ATP Champions Race, winning the first tournament of the year in Doha in the year the race was introduced (2000).

According to ATPworldtour.com after the 2010 Australian Open, Santoro has lost more singles matches (444) than any other professional player (active or not). Overall, however, Santoro has won more than half of his matches, with a career record of 470–444.

Men's doubles: 5 (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	2002	Australian Open	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–7(4–7), 3–6
Winner	2003	Australian Open (1)	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	2004	Australian Open (2)	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(7–4), 6–3
Runner-up	2004	French Open	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Xavier Malisse Olivier Rochus	5–7, 5–7
Runner-up	2006	Wimbledon	Grass	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	3–6, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6

Mixed doubles: 1 title

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	2005	French Open	Clay	Daniela Hantuchová	Martina Navratilova Leander Paes	3–6, 6–3, 6–2

Singles (6 titles, 6 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in final	Score in final
Runner-up	1.	8 October 1990	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Jonas Svensson	6–7(5–7), 2–6
Runner-up	2.	8 February 1993	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Karel Nováček	4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	3.	7 August 1994	Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Goran Ivanišević	2–6, 6–4, 6–4, 3–6, 2–6
Winner	4.	13 October 1997	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Tommy Haas	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	5.	12 January 1998	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Petr Korda	0–6, 3–6
Winner	6.	1 February 1999	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Arnaud Clément	6–3, 4–6, 6–4
Runner-up	7.	7 March 1999	Copenhagen, Denmark	Hard (i)	Magnus Gustafsson	4–6, 1–6
Winner	8.	3 January 2000	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Rainer Schüttler	3–6, 7–5, 3–0, retired
Runner-up	9.	17 June 2001	Halle, Germany	Grass	Thomas Johansson	3–6, 7–6(7–5), 2–6
Winner	10.	25 February 2002	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Hard	Younes El Aynaoui	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	11.	9 July 2007	Newport, United States	Grass	Nicolas Mahut	6–4, 6–4
Winner	12.	13 July 2008	Newport, United States	Grass	Prakash Amritraj	6–3, 7–5

Wins (24)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	25 September 1995	Palermo, Italy	Clay	Álex Corretja	Hendrik Jan Davids Piet Norval	6–7, 6–4, 6–3
2.	20 July 1998	Stuttgart, Germany	Clay	Olivier Delaître	Joshua Eagle Jim Grabb	6–1, 3–6, 6–3
3.	28 September 1998	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Olivier Delaître	Paul Haarhuis Jan Siemerink	6–2, 6–4
4.	5 October 1998	Basel, Switzerland	Hard (i)	Olivier Delaître	Piet Norval Kevin Ullyett	6–3, 7–6
5.	19 October 1998	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Olivier Delaître	Tomás Carbonell Francisco Roig	6–2, 6–2
6.	23 August 1999	Long Island, United States	Hard	Olivier Delaître	Jan-Michael Gambill Scott Humphries	7–5, 6–4
7.	16 October 2000	Toulouse, France	Hard (i)	Julien Boutter	Donald Johnson Piet Norval	7–6(10–8), 4–6, 7–6(7–5)
8.	12 February 2001	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Julien Boutter	Michael Hill Jeff Tarango	7–6(9–7), 7–5
9.	28 October 2002	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Nicolas Escudé	Gustavo Kuerten Cédric Pioline	6–3, 7–6(8–6)
10.	13 January 2003	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–4, 3–6, 6–3
11.	10 February 2003	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Sébastien Grosjean	Tomáš Cibulec Pavel Vízner	6–1, 6–4
12.	12 January 2004	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Jiří Novák Radek Štěpánek	4–6, 7–5, 6–3
13.	19 January 2004	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(7–4), 6–3
14.	1 March 2004	Dubai, UAE	Hard	Mahesh Bhupathi	Jonas Björkman Leander Paes	6–2, 4–6, 6–4
15.	2 May 2005	Rome, Italy	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–2
16.	3 October 2005	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	José Acasuso Sebastián Prieto	5–2, 3–5, 5–4
17.	24 October 2005	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Michaël Llodra	Jeff Coetzee Rogier Wassen	6–3, 6–1
18.	7 November 2005	Shanghai, China	Carpet (i)	Michaël Llodra	Leander Paes Nenad Zimonjić	6–7(6–8), 6–3, 7–6(7–4)
19.	9 January 2006	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	František Čermák Leoš Friedl	6–1, 6–4
20.	12 June 2006	Halle, Germany	Grass	Nenad Zimonjić	Michael Kohlmann Rainer Schüttler	6–0, 6–4
21.	2 October 2006	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Richard Gasquet	Julian Knowle Jürgen Melzer	3–6, 6–1, [11–9]
22.	9 October 2006	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Nenad Zimonjić	František Čermák Jaroslav Levinský	6–1, 7–5
23.	26 February 2007	Dubai, UAE	Hard	Nenad Zimonjić	Mahesh Bhupathi Radek Štěpánek	7–5, 6–7(3–7), [10–7]
24.	7 May 2007	Rome, Italy	Clay	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–4, 6–7(4–7), [10–7]

Runners-up (18)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	10 February 1997	Marseille, France	Hard (i)	Olivier Delaître	Thomas Enqvist Magnus Larsson	3–6, 4–6
2.	13 October 1997	Lyon, France	Carpet (i)	Olivier Delaître	Ellis Ferreira Patrick Galbraith	6–3, 2–6, 4–6
3.	3 November 1997	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	David Adams	Martin Damm Cyril Suk	4–6, 3–6
4.	5 January 1998	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Olivier Delaître	Mahesh Bhupathi Leander Paes	4–6, 6–3, 4–6
5.	10 August 1998	Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Olivier Delaître	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	1–6, 1–2 retired
6.	14 January 2002	Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Mark Knowles Daniel Nestor	6–7(4–7), 3–6
7.	14 April 2003	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Mahesh Bhupathi Max Mirnyi	4–6, 6–3, 6–7(6–8)
8.	5 May 2003	Rome, Italy	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Wayne Arthurs Paul Hanley	1–6, 3–6
9.	29 September 2003	Metz, France	Hard (i)	Michaël Llodra	Julien Benneteau Nicolas Mahut	6–7(2–7), 3–6
10.	27 October 2003	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Michaël Llodra	Wayne Arthurs Paul Hanley	3–6, 6–1, 3–6
11.	8 November 2003	Houston, United States	Hard	Michaël Llodra	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	7–6(8–6), 3–6, 6–3, 6–7(3–7), 4–6
12.	24 May 2004	French Open, France	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Xavier Malisse Olivier Rochus	5–7, 5–7
13.	21 February 2005	Dubai, UAE	Hard	Jonas Björkman	Martin Damm Radek Štěpánek	2–6, 4–6
14.	9 May 2005	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Michaël Llodra	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	6–4, 6–7(2–7), 6–7(3–7)
15.	17 April 2006	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Clay	Nenad Zimonjić	Jonas Björkman Max Mirnyi	2–6, 6–7(2–7)
16.	26 June 2006	Wimbledon, UK	Grass	Nenad Zimonjić	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	3–6, 6–4, 4–6, 2–6
17.	30 October 2006	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Nenad Zimonjić	Arnaud Clément Michaël Llodra	6–7(4–7), 2–6
18.	11 June 2007	Halle, Germany	Grass	Nenad Zimonjić	Simon Aspelin Julian Knowle	4–6, 6–7(5–7)

Singles

Doubles