Personal

Coached by Arnaud Decugis beginning in 1989...Began playing tennis at age 7...Strengths included strong serve and forehand and good mobility...Married Decugis on September 22, 1995...Decugis is a distant relative of eight-time French Nationals winner Max Decugis...Father, Jacques, is a doctor; mother, Nicole, is a housewife; has two older brothers, Sebastien, an officer in the army, and Matthieu, an engineer; both play tennis...Likes alpine skiing, trekking, mountaineering, and climbing (reached the summit of Mont Blanc, the highest in Europe at 4,807 meters), reading and listening to classical music, especially Beethoven...Also enjoys painting, and took art lessons in Paris while off the tour due to injuries; painted fellow pros and gave them the paintings as gifts; grandmother was a sculptor; also did television commentary and conducted tennis clinics while out of action...Restored an 1834 chalet in the French Alps...Favorite cuisine is French and Japanese; also enjoys dark chocolates...Was instrumental in getting Yannick Noah named as French Fed Cup captain in 1997-98.

Career Highlights

SINGLES
Winner (12): 2000 - Eastbourne, Tokyo [Japan Open]; 1999 - Auckland, Birmingham; 1998 - Rosmalen, Pattaya City; 1996 - Hobart, Paris [Indoors]; 1995 - Prague; 1994 - San Juan; 1992 - Taranto; 1991 - San Juan.
Finalist (9): 2000 - Tokyo [Toyota]; 1999 - Bol, Berlin, Los Angeles; 1998 - Strasbourg; 1996 - Linz; 1994 - Paris [Indoors]; 1991 - Albuquerque; 1987 - Athens.

DOUBLES
Winner (15): 2000 - U.S. Open, Sydney, Miami, New Haven, Tokyo [Toyota], Moscow (all w/Sugiyama), Gold Coast (w/Kournikova), Paris [Indoors] (w/Testud), Bol (w/Morariu), Tokyo [Japan Open] (w/Morariu); 1998 - Birmingham, Pattaya City (both w/Callens); 1996 - Auckland; (w/Callens); 1994 - Los Angeles (w/Tauziat), Tokyo [Nichirei] (w/Sanchez-Vicario).
Finalist (10): 2000 - Wimbledon, Montreal (both w/Sugiyama), 1999 - Moscow (w/Huber), 1998 - Auckland, Hobart (both w/Husarova), 1997 - Tokyo [Toyota] (w/Rubin); 1996 - Paris [Indoors], Indian Wells (both w/Tauziat); 1994 - Barcelona (w/Tauziat); 1991 - Paris [Clarins]

ADDITIONAL
French Fed Cup Team 1990, 1993-96, 1998, 2000. French Olympic Team 1992, 2000.

Career in Review

1991 - Captured first WTA Tour title at 1991 Puerto Rico by defeating Amanda Coetzer in final 1992 - Shocked Sanchez-Vicario in 2r of 1992 Wimbledon; had other wins over Rajchrtova and Sukova before K. Maleeva stopped her in 4r 1994 - Upset Lindsay Davenport and Natasha Zvereva en route to QF of 1994 Roland Garros; lost to eventual tournament champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 1996 - Unseeded, upset top seed Iva Majoli, second seed Anke Huber and eighth seed Helena Sukova to win 1996 Paris Indoors; first time to defeat two Top 5 players (No. 4 Majoli and No. 5 Huber) in same week; also reached doubles final; upset world No. 3 Sanchez-Vicario in July 1996 Fed Cup SF match to prevent Spain from clinching a win, but retired during the decisive doubles match after suffering a partial tear of the ligaments in her right wrist; played just one match the remainder of the year, but finished 1996 as the No. 1 player in France and No. 15 in the world, her then-highest ranking 1998 - Started year without a ranking due to being off the tour with wrist and knee injuries for more than a year, but finished ranked No. 22 after a successful comeback; won first singles title in two years at 1998 Rosmalen, and with the grass court title became the 20th player to have won titles on all four surfaces in the Open Era; ended year by winning both the singles and doubles titles in Pattaya City, the first time in her 12-year career to sweep both titles at the same tournament 1999 - Broke into world Top 10 for first time on August 23, and reached five finals, winning two titles; recorded wins over Graf, Davenport, Pierce and Tauziat; seeded No. 3, won singles title at first event of season in Auckland with wins over No. 2 seed Farina in SF and top seed Van Roost in the final; 10-match winning streak dating back to title run in last tournament of 1998; reached SF of second event and had to withdraw with a strained stomach muscle, ending winning streak at 13; finalist at 1999 Bol; reached third final of year, and career-first Tier I final, at German Open, collecting first win over Graf in QF; is last person to d. Graf in Germany and handed Graf just her sixth loss on home soil in the 1990s; became the ninth unseeded player to reach a Tier I tournament final; reached 4r at Roland Garros, her best showing there in five years, and enjoyed a career-best showing at the 1999 US Open, reaching 4r; won 10th career title at Birmingham, her second grass court title, d. 1998 Wimbledon finalist Tauziat in the all-French final; d. world No. 2 Davenport at 1999 Los Angeles en route to fifth final of year; came back from a 2-5 deficit in the second set against Davenport to win 63 75; also upset Top 10 player Pierce; fell to S. Williams in the final; capped off a successful season by qualifying for the season-ending championships as one of the Top 16 players of the year for the first time since 1994, when she upset world No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 1r; also qualified in 1991 and 2000 and in doubles in 1994 and 20002000 - Retired from WTA Tour after 2000 season ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles; one of two married women to reach QF at Australian Open, a first at that tournament since Evert and Goolagong in 1981; reentered the world's Top 10 rankings at No. 8; reached a career-high ranking of No. 7 just before 2000 Oklahoma City in Feb. where she was top seed, but had to withdraw due to an abdominal strain; at Eastbourne, captured third grass court title in three years and second Tier II title, including wins over second seed Tauziat and No. 5 seed Van Roost; enjoyed a tremendous two weeks in Tokyo in Oct., reaching second final of the year at Tokyo [Princess Cup] after leading former world No. 1 (current No. 5) Seles in SF when Seles ret., before falling in final to No. 2 seed S. Williams, and winning the doubles title with Sugiyama; the following week, won singles and doubles titles at Tokyo [Japan Open], saving 3mp in the final to d. defending champion Frazier; replaced injured teammate Testud in Olympic singles event and reached 3r; also reached doubles QF w/Mauresmo; won US Open doubles title w/Sugiyama, her first Grand Slam title; won doubles titles at three of the first five events of 2000, at Gold Coast, Sydney, and Paris [Indoors], with three different partners; won fourth doubles title in first three months of season at Miami, her fifth of the year in May in Bol, her sixth in August at New Haven, seventh at the US Open, eighth and ninth in Tokyo [Princess Cup] and Tokyo {Japan Open], and 10th in Moscow; also had a strong Grand Slam year in doubles in addition to winning the US Open, reaching the final at Wimbledon, SF at Roland Garros and QF at the Australian Open, all with partner Sugiyama