Arnaud Clement

Arnaud Clément comes from a family of sportsmen. Father Henri used to play football in France while his mother was a former handball player. His younger brother Bruno is also studying sports in university.

Born on Dec. 17, 1977, Arnaud Clément started to play the sport at the young age of 7 with his brother at the Aix-en-Provence Country Club. He made his pro debut at the age of 17, despite the discouragement of his coach who at that time did not think that the young boy from Provence, France had what it takes to make a successful career in professional tennis. The young Frenchman rallied on, however, beating Mat Patchey for his against first victory at the Reunion Islands Challenger. He progressed a year later by advancing to the third round at Wimbledon and made it to the finals at the Reunion Island Challenger as well as the QF at Touleuse. It was also in 1997 that he defeated Pat Rafter in the first round in Lyon during the 1997 Grand Prix of Tennis.

1999 was a year for more improvements for Clément. He made it to the finals in Marseille but lost to Andre Agassi in Roland Garros. He later made it to the QF of the US Open where he finally defeated Agassi at the second round, placing himself at 56th place in the ATP rankings.

Clément reached the semifinals in his first Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open in 2001, where he defeated friend and fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean after a grueling match that lasted more than four hours. He competed for the Hoffman Cup in 2002 along with Virgine Razzano, and bagged his second doubles title when he won in Marseille with Nicolas Escude. He again faced Grosjean at the US Open and defeated his friend in the second match. Clément eventually bowed to Fernando Gonzales in the fourth round.

He most recently advanced to the QF at the 2008 Wimbledon championship and competed in doubles at the Beijing Olympics with Llodra as his doubles partner.