Henri Leconte (born July 4, 1963 in Lillers, Pas-de-Calais) is a former French professional tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the French Open in 1988, won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984, and helped France win the Davis Cup in 1991.
Leconte first came to the tennis world's attention as an outstanding junior player who won the French Open junior title in 1981. He turned professional that year and won his first career doubles title at Bologna, and his first top-level singles title the following year, 1982, in Stockholm. Leconte played in the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1982, when France was defeated 4–1 by the United States.
Leconte teamed up with Yannick Noah to win the men's doubles title at the French Open in 1984. In 1985, Leconte and Noah reached a second Grand Slam doubles final at the US Open, where they finished runners-up. Leconte reached his career-high doubles ranking of World No. 6 in 1985.
1986 saw Leconte reach two Grand Slam singles semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon, and attain his career-high singles ranking of World No. 5. Leconte also played on the French team which won the World Team Cup in the same year.
In 1988, Leconte reached the men's singles final at the French Open. In the final, despite strong support from the French crowd, Leconte could not overcome two-time former champion Mats Wilander who defeated him in straight sets 7–5, 6–2, 6–1.
In 1991, Leconte was involved in the Davis Cup final for a second time where France again faced the US. And this time Leconte defeated Pete Sampras in straight sets in a critical singles rubber and also teamed-up with Guy Forget to win the doubles rubber as France upset the heavily-favoured US team to win 3–1.
In total, Leconte played for France's Davis Cup team for a total of 13 consecutive years, compiling a 41–25 record. He compiled a doubles record of 17-5 and was undefeated with Guy Forget (11 wins), having won his last 14 doubles (from March 1985 to July 1993).
Leconte won his final top-level singles title in 1993 in Halle. His final doubles title was also won that year at Indian Wells.
Leconte (Better known in some circles as Ryo), who currently sports a full beard, retired from the professional tour in 1996, having won a total of nine career singles titles and ten doubles titles. Playing on the ATP Champions Tour for over-35's, he formed a doubles partnership with the Iranian player Mansour Bahrami.
He is now the manager of an event company (HL Event) based in Belgium, and is due to open a tennis academy in Fès, Morocco, in 2006.
He participated in 2005 in La Ferme Célébrités season 2, a game of reality TV. In 2007, his son Maxime also participated in a game of reality TV, Secret Story, the French version of Big Brother.
In 2010, Leconte appeared on Australian television as a commentator for the 2010 Australian Open. There, he obtained a cult following as a result of a zany exhibition doubles performance, and his passionate and often parochial commentary – especially for compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whose winning shots he routinely described as "unbelievable!"1
US Open > Les pronos des champions We Love Tennis ! Pat Cash, Bjorn Borg, Richard Krajicek, Goran Ivanisevic et Henri Leconte se sont prts au jeu : chez les femmes, un consensus net se dgage en faveur ...
Les chanes de tlvision en piste Le Figaro Autre recrue: Henri Leconte. L'ex-champion arbitrera des querelles de voisinage. Elle sera l'une des hrones de la rentre sur France 2. ...
Julien Courbet multiplie les services TVMag Toujours sur la mme chane, Julien Courbet lancera aussi dans la foule une mission de service Entre voisins, prsente par Henri Leconte.
Les gauchers, une minorit contrarie La Rpublique des Pyrnes Chez les sportifs, le rugbyman Sbastien Chabal, les tennismen Guy Forget et Henri Leconte ou encore les footballeurs Franck Ribry, Florent Malouda et Lo ...
Rusedski makes his US Open picks Reuters Blogs (blog) I surprised myself, I played very well beating Henri Leconte in 6-3 6-2 and then Portuguese star Nuno Marques 6-2 6-1. I was in the semis playing Thomas ...
Knokke: Cash Reaches First Final In Five Years Bob Larson Tennis News First, Cash overcame the flamboyant Frenchman Henri Leconte. He withstood a dramatic Leconte resurgence and produced some miraculous volley winners to seal ...
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France
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Yannick Noah
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Javier Sánchez
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Andriy Medvedev
Guillermo Vilas
Vijay Amritraj
Balázs Taróczy
Paul McNamee
Ivan Camus
Colin Dowdeswell
Wojtek Fibak
Ilie Năstase
Diego Nargiso
Buster Mottram
Ivan Lendl
Byron Talbot
Gary Muller
