Nicolas Mahut
Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 1 in men's doubles, holding the top ranking for a total of 39 weeks. Mahut is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at the 2015 US Open, 2016 Wimbledon Championships, 2018 French Open, and 2019 Australian Open, all partnering Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
The pair also won the 2021 French Open and finished runners-up at the 2015 Australian Open, and Mahut was runner-up at the 2013 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon Championships, with Michaël Llodra and Édouard Roger-Vasselin respectively. Mahut won 37 doubles titles overall, including the 2019 and 2021 ATP Finals. He also won seven Masters 1000 titles in doubles.
In singles, Mahut reached a career-high ATP ranking of world No. 37 in May 2014, and won four tour-level titles, all on grass courts. His best major result in singles was at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, where he reached the fourth round. At the 2010 Championships, Mahut was part of the longest match in professional tennis history, against John Isner in the first round. Isner defeated him 70–68 in the fifth set after over 11 hours of play.
Early and personal life
Nicolas Mahut was born in 1982 in Angers, France. He first trained at the Beaucouzé tennis club when he was five years old. He joined a tennis club in Paris when he was 11. He currently lives in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris near the grounds of Roland Garros. He met his wife Virginie in 2007 and she gave birth to their son Natanel on 18 August 2011. Mahut became good friends with the American tennis player John Isner, after they played together in the longest professional tennis match ever at Wimbledon 2010, which lasted over 11 hours. He was coached by former professional players Gabriel Urpí and Jérôme Haehnel. He is currently coached by Nicolas Copain and Nicolas Renavand.Career
Mahut had excellent junior results, winning the Orange Bowl in 1999 and the Wimbledon Boys' Singles in 2000, turning professional the same year. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 37, achieved in July 2014. Mahut was runner-up to Andy Roddick at the 2007 Queen's Club Championships, and runner-up that same year at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, in Newport, Rhode Island. In June 2013, he won his first ATP singles title, winning the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in the Netherlands, and he followed it up in July by winning the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.Mahut is known for being part of the longest match in professional tennis history against John Isner in the first round of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships. He holds a number of tennis records and awards for the match, including the most points won in a single match and most games won by a losing player.
Mahut is also a prolific doubles player, reaching a career high of world No. 1 on 6 June 2016. He has won doubles titles with countrymen Julien Benneteau, Arnaud Clément, and Édouard Roger-Vasselin, before his most successful and current partnership with Pierre-Hugues Herbert. In 2013, he and Michaël Llodra lost the final of the French Open. In 2015, Mahut, with Pierre-Hugues Herbert,
lost the final of the Australian Open but won the US Open doubles title. In 2016, with Pierre-Hugues Herbert, he won the Wimbledon doubles title.
1998–99: Juniors years
In 1998, Mahut was champion of France for 15- and 16-year-olds and the 17- and 18-year-olds. 1999 saw Mahut win the Orange Bowl doubles title. In addition, Mahut was the winner of the Sunshine Cup, the 35th Coffee Bowl, and the Coupe Galéa-Valério. In Grand Slams, he won the 2000 Wimbledon Championships Boys' Singles, the 2000 Australian Open Boys' Doubles and the 1999 US Open Boys' Doubles.As a junior Mahut posted a 93–33 record in singles and a 76–21 record in doubles. He reached as high as No. 3 in singles and No. 1 in doubles.
2000–02: Grand Slam debut
Mahut made his grand slam debut at the 2000 French Open. He won three minor titles on the ITF Men's Circuit.2003: Breaking the 100 and first doubles title
2003 saw Mahut leapfrog in the rankings to breaking the top 100. September saw him collect his first doubles title at the Open de Moselle.2004: US open doubles semifinal & second doubles title
The highlight of his season was making the doubles semifinal at the 2004 US open, losing to eventual champions Mark Knowles & Daniel Nestor.2005: Breaking the doubles top 25
January saw him break the top 25 in doubles. In February, at the Cherbourg challenger in Cherbourg, France he defeated future 23 time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic in 3 sets.2006: Return to top singles 100
Three challenger titles & making the third round at Wimbledon saw him return to the top 100 in the singles rankings.2007: First ATP final
In June, at the Queen's Club Championships, he was awarded runner-up losing to Andy Roddick 6–4, 6–7, 6–7. He repeated that solid form the following month, making the final at the Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships. losing to Fabrice Santoro 4–6, 4–6.2008: 50 career singles wins
At the Rome masters, he collected his 50th career singles victory.2009: Third doubles title
October saw Mahut collect his third doubles title at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon2010: Longest match in tennis history
Mahut reached the 2010 Wimbledon Singles Championship via the qualifiers, during which he beat Alex Bogdanovic in a marathon match, winning 6–3, 3–6, 24–22. A week later, he was beaten in the first round of the championship proper by John Isner in the longest match in tennis history, Isner winning 6–4, 3–6, 6–7, 7–6, 70–68. Mahut also reached the qualifiers for the 2010 US Open but lost to Júlio Silva in the third qualifying round.2011: First doubles masters 1000 final
His continued success with Julien Benneteau saw them reach new heights at the Paris masters, collecting the runner-up to Rohan Bopanna & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.2012: Three doubles titles
Partnering with Édouard Roger-Vasselin, together the collected titles at the Open Sud de France, the Open 13 & the Moselle Open.2013: First ATP singles titles; French Open doubles runner-up
Teaming up with doubles veteran Michaël Llodra, Mahut made his first doubles grand slam final at the French Open. They lost to the Bryan brothers in three sets.Mahut received a wildcard for the men's singles at Wimbledon and therefore did not have to play the qualifying tournament. He therefore decided to play at the 's-Hertogenbosch ATP tournament in Holland which ran at the same time. Mahut had to qualify for the event but went on to win his first ATP singles title, with a straight sets victory over Stanislas Wawrinka in the final. Mahut did not lose a set and his serve was only broken once during the tournament. As a result of his win, his ranking increased by more than 100 places, and he entered the top 125. Mahut received a wildcard for the 2013 Wimbledon tournament, and reached the second round where he lost to Tommy Robredo.
After Wimbledon, Mahut received a wildcard for the 2013 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. He went on to win the title, his second ATP tour championship in the space of a month, after defeating Lleyton Hewitt in three sets in the final, despite Hewitt serving for the match at 5–4 in the second set. Mahut's victory saw him enter the top 100 in the singles rankings, reaching number 75. As a result of rain delays, Mahut had played both the singles semi-final and final and the doubles semi-final with partner Édouard Roger-Vasselin on 14 July, and the doubles final was postponed to the following day as a result. The following day, Mahut and Roger-Vasselin won the doubles tournament by defeating Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams.
2014: Career-high singles ranking
After quite a successful 2013 season, especially in singles, Mahut didn't enjoy much success in 2014. For the majority of the year in singles, Mahut did not need to play through qualifying to advance to the main draw thanks to the good results he compiled from 2013, but only won 38% of the tour-level matches he played. He failed to advance past the first round in every Grand Slam, which was the first time in his career. Mahut did not reach a tour-level semifinals throughout the entire season. During the season Mahut reached 3 tour-level quarterfinals as well as two Challenger finals.However, Mahut enjoyed success in doubles. He reached the semifinals of Brisbane partnering Roger Federer to start off the season. The following week Mahut and Llodra lost in the first round at Sydney in the deciding tiebreak. The week after at the Australian Open, Mahut and Llodra were seeded 13th and reached the semifinals for the first time in his career without dropping a set, including wins against 2nd seeds Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares in the 3rd round and 5th seeds Leander Paes and Radek Štěpánek in the quarterfinals. Mahut then participated at Montepeiller partnering Marc Gicquel, where they reached the final without dropping a set, losing in 3 sets to another unseeded pair Nikolay Davydenko and Denis Istomin. Mahut's good form continued into next week, where he participated in Rotterdam with Llodra, and won the tournament while only dropping a set. Mahut then reached the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Masters partnering Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, losing to world No. 1s the Bryan brothers in 2 tiebreaks. The next week at the Miami Masters, Mahut and Llodra reached the semifinals, again they were defeated by the Bryan Brothers, also in straight sets.
Mahut then lost 4 consecutive matches before the French Open. At the French Open, Mahut and Llodra were seeded 5th, but were forced to retire during the third round after only playing 3 games. The next week, Mahut and Tsonga fell in the first round of the Queen's Club, after winning the first set in a tiebreaker and losing the second set in another tiebreak, and lost 12–14 in the decider tiebreak. At Wimbledon, he and Llodra were seeded 12th, and reached the semifinals for the first time in his career while only dropping one set en route, and was once more denied by the Bryan Brothers, also in straight sets. The week after Wimbledon, he partnered Sergiy Stakhovsky at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, and reached the semifinals where they were defeated in straight sets.
For the remainder of the season Mahut failed to win consecutive tour-level doubles matches, but won 2 Challengers near the end of the season, at Mons, Belgium, partnering Gicquel, without dropping a set in the process, and at Mouilleron Le Captif, France, partnering Pierre-Hugues Herbert and did not drop a set en route either. It was also his last tournament of the year during the last week of the regular season.