Nathalie Tauziat

Nathalie Tauziat (; born 17 October 1967) is a French tennis coach and former professional player. She was the runner-up in women's singles at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships and runner-up in the women's doubles at the 2001 US Open partnering Kimberly Po-Messerli. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in both singles and doubles.

She previously coached Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu and compatriot Harmony Tan, and currently coaches Victoria Mboko.

Early life Tauziat was born in Bangui, Central African Republic, where she lived for the first eight years of her life. She is a first cousin of Didier Deschamps, former captain and current manager of the French football team. About a week after Tauziat reached the Wimbledon final on 4 July 1998, Deschamps led France to win the World Cup on 12 July 1998.

Career Tauziat turned professional in 1984. She won her first singles title in 1990. She reached her only Grand Slam singles final at the 1998 Wimbledon Championships, beating Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals and Natasha Zvereva in the semifinals before losing to Jana Novotná. Her appearance in this final was the first by a Frenchwoman since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925.

Tauziat was runner-up with partner Kimberly Po in the 2001 US Open women's doubles final, losing to the team of Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs. She and partner Alexandra Fusai were doubles runners-up at the 1997 and 1998 Chase Championships. She was also part of the 1997 French Fed Cup team, which won its first title in the history of the competition.

Tauziat reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 3 at the age of 32 years and 6 months in the spring of 2000, making her the oldest woman to debut in the top three and the fourth oldest to be ranked in the top three. She retired from the WTA Tour after the 2003 French Open, after having played only doubles in 2002 and 2003. Tauziat won 8 singles titles and 25 doubles titles on the WTA Tour in her career.

She wrote a book with the title "Les Dessous du tennis féminin" (published in 2001 in French) in which she gave her insights about life on the women's professional tennis circuit. In 2004 Tauziat received a state honour – le chevalier de la Légion d'honneur – from French President Jacques Chirac for her contributions to international tennis. She was an official WTA Tour mentor to French tennis player Marion Bartoli, beginning in 2003.

Career statistics

Grand Slam performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 runner-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfaceOpponentScoreLoss 1998 Wimbledon Grass Jana Novotná 4–6, 6–7(2–7)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 2001US Open Hard Kimberly Po-Messerli Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs 2–6, 7–5, 5–7

Year-end championships Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ResultYearChampionshipSurfacePartnerOpponentsScoreLoss 1997 New York Carpet (i) Alexandra Fusai Lindsay Davenport Jana Novotná 7–6(7–5), 3–6, 2–6Loss 1998 New York Carpet (i) Alexandra Fusai Lindsay Davenport Natasha Zvereva 7–6(8–6), 5–7, 3–6