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Olivier Rochus
Olivier Rochus.jpg
Country (sports)  Belgium
Residence Dion-Valmont, Belgium
Born (1981-01-18) 18 January 1981 (age 44)
Namur, Belgium
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Turned pro 1999
Retired 2014
Plays Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Prize money $4,809,475
Singles
Career record 238–276
Career titles 2
Highest ranking No. 24 (17 October 2005)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open 4R (2005)
French Open 3R (2001, 2006)
Wimbledon 4R (2003)
US Open 4R (2004)
Doubles
Career record 98–121
Career titles 2
Highest ranking No. 29 (5 July 2004)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open 2R (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007)
French Open W (2004)
Wimbledon 3R (2005)
US Open 3R (2006, 2009)

Olivier Rochus (born 18 January 1981) is a former professional tennis player from Belgium. He was known for his quickness on the court.

Olivier won two singles titles during his career. In 2004, he won the French Open doubles title. He teamed up with his fellow Belgian player, Xavier Malisse, for this big win. His highest ranking in singles was world No. 24.

Standing at about 1.68 meters (5 feet 6 inches) tall, he was the shortest player on the ATP World Tour. This made his success even more impressive! Olivier is also the younger brother of Christophe Rochus, who was also a top tennis player.

Olivier Rochus's Tennis Journey

Early Days in Tennis: Junior Career

Olivier Rochus played tennis from a young age. He even partnered with the famous Roger Federer when they were juniors. Together, they won the boys' doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998.

As a junior player, Olivier had a great record. He won 81 singles matches and lost 30. In doubles, he won 42 matches and lost 20. He reached a high ranking of No. 11 in the world for juniors in 1997. He also made it to at least the quarterfinals in all four junior Grand Slam tournaments. This included reaching the semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Becoming a Pro: 1999-2008

Olivier Rochus turned professional in 1999. He won his first singles title in Palermo, Italy, in 2000. In that tournament, he beat his own brother in the semifinals before winning the final match. In 2003, he had a great result at the Hamburg Masters, reaching the quarterfinals. This was one of his best performances in a major ATP tournament.

He proudly represented Belgium at the Olympic Games twice. He played in both singles and doubles at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

In May 2006, Olivier reached the final of the ATP tournament in Munich. This was a special match because he played against another Belgian, Kristof Vliegen. Olivier won the final in two straight sets. A month later, he played against the world No. 1, Roger Federer, at the Gerry Weber Open. Olivier had chances to win but eventually lost in a very close match.

Later Career Highlights: 2009-2013

In 2009, Olivier Rochus made it to the final of the Stockholm Open. He beat several good players, including Feliciano López and Thomaz Bellucci. In the final, he played against Marcos Baghdatis but lost. A week later, he faced world No. 8, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in Lyon, France, but lost that match. He also played against Roger Federer again at the Swiss Indoors, losing in the first round.

In 2010, Olivier had some big wins. At the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, he defeated Richard Gasquet and even the former champion and second-ranked player, Novak Djokovic. Before the French Open, he also upset Robin Söderling, who had been a finalist at the French Open the year before. He reached another final in July at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship but lost to Mardy Fish.

In March 2011, Olivier had a strong run in Miami, reaching the fourth round. He beat players like Marcos Baghdatis and Mikhail Youzhny before losing to Roger Federer. In July, he made it to the final in Newport, where he was defeated by John Isner.

Olivier had his best results in 2012 early in the year, reaching the final in Auckland. However, he mostly played on the ATP Challenger Tour in 2013. He retired from professional tennis in 2014.

Career Finals

Singles: 10 (2 Wins, 8 Losses)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 series (2–8)
Finals by surface
Hard (0–6)
Clay (2–0)
Grass (0–2)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Win 1. Sep 2000 Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, Italy Clay Italy Diego Nargiso 7–6(16–14), 6–1
Loss 1. Feb 2002 Copenhagen Open, Denmark Hard (i) Germany Lars Burgsmüller 3–6, 3–6
Loss 2. Mar 2003 Copenhagen Open, Denmark Hard (i) Slovakia Karol Kučera 6–7(4–7), 4–6
Loss 3. Jan 2005 Heineken Open, New Zealand Hard Chile Fernando González 4–6, 2–6
Win 2. May 2006 BMW Open, Germany Clay Belgium Kristof Vliegen 6–4, 6–2
Loss 4. Sep 2007 Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open, India Hard France Richard Gasquet 3–6, 4–6
Loss 5. Oct 2009 Stockholm Open, Sweden Hard (i) Cyprus Marcos Baghdatis 1–6, 5–7
Loss 6. Jul 2010 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S. Grass United States Mardy Fish 7–5, 3–6, 4–6
Loss 7. Jul 2011 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S. Grass United States John Isner 3–6, 6–7(6–8)
Loss 8. Jan 2012 Heineken Open, New Zealand Hard Spain David Ferrer 3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 7 (2 Wins, 5 Losses)

Legend
Grand Slam tournament (1–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 series (0–2)
ATP World Tour 250 series (1–3)
Finals by surface
Hard (1–3)
Clay (1–2)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W/L Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Win 1. Jun 2004 French Open, Paris Clay Belgium Xavier Malisse France Michaël Llodra
France Fabrice Santoro		 7–5, 7–5
Win 2. Jan 2005 Adelaide International, Australia Hard Belgium Xavier Malisse Sweden Simon Aspelin
Australia Todd Perry		 7–6(7–5), 6–4
Loss 1. Jul 2005 Generali Open, Austria Clay Belgium Christophe Rochus Czech Republic Leoš Friedl
Romania Andrei Pavel		 2–6, 7–6(7–5), 0–6
Loss 2. Jan 2006 Qatar Open, Doha Hard Belgium Christophe Rochus Sweden Jonas Björkman
Belarus Max Mirnyi		 6–2, 3–6, [8–10]
Loss 3. Oct 2006 Stockholm Open, Sweden Hard (i) Belgium Kristof Vliegen Australia Paul Hanley
South Africa Kevin Ullyett		 6–7(2–7), 4–6
Loss 4. Jul 2008 Kitzbühel, Austria Clay Argentina Lucas Arnold Ker United States James Cerretani
Romania Victor Hănescu		 3–6, 5–7
Loss 5. Feb 2010 PBZ Zagreb Indoors, Croatia Hard (i) France Arnaud Clément Austria Jürgen Melzer
Germany Philipp Petzschner		 6–3, 3–6, [8–10]

Performance in Major Tournaments

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# A NH
(W) Won; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (NH) not held. SR=strike rate (events won/competed)

Singles Performance

Tournament 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A 1R 1R 2R 1R 4R 2R 2R 1R A 1R A 2R 1R A 7–11
French Open LQ 3R 2R 1R 1R 2R 3R 1R 1R Q3 2R 1R 1R A A 7–11
Wimbledon 3R 2R 3R 4R 1R 2R 3R 1R 2R Q1 1R 2R 1R 1R A 13–13
US Open 1R 1R 1R 1R 4R 3R 3R 1R 1R 2R 1R 1R 1R Q2 A 8–13
Win–loss 2–2 3–4 3–4 4–4 3–4 7–4 7–4 1–4 1–4 1–1 1–4 1–3 1–4 0–2 0–0 35–48
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells A A 1R 3R 1R 2R 3R 3R 2R A 1R A 1R Q2 A 6–9
Miami A A 1R 2R 2R 2R 4R 3R 1R Q1 3R 4R 1R 2R A 12–10
Monte Carlo A A A 1R 1R 3R 2R 1R 2R Q1 1R 2R 1R A A 5–9
Madrid1 A A 1R QF 2R 1R 1R 1R 2R A A 1R 1R A A 5–9
Rome A A A 1R A 1R 1R 2R A A A A A A A 1–4
Toronto / Montreal A A A A A 3R A A A A A A A A A 2–1
Cincinnati A A A A A 3R A 1R A A A Q1 Q2 A A 2–2
Shanghai2 A 1R A 1R A 3R 1R A 1R A A A A A A 2–5
Paris A A 2R A A 1R 2R Q1 Q2 A A A A A A 2–3
Win–loss 0–0 0–1 1–4 6–6 2–4 10–9 5–7 3–5 3–5 0–0 2–3 4–3 0–4 1–1 0–0 37–52
Career statistics
Titles / Finals 1–1 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–1 1–1 0–1 0–0 0–1 0–0 0–1 0–1 0–0 0–0 2–10
Year-end ranking 68 114 64 48 66 27 36 48 122 57 113 67 90 200 580

1Held as Hamburg Masters (outdoor clay) until 2008, Madrid Masters (outdoor clay) 2009–present.
2Held as Stuttgart Masters (indoor hard) until 2001, Madrid Masters (indoor hard) from 2002 to 2008, and Shanghai Masters (outdoor hard) 2009–present.

Doubles Performance

Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open 1R 2R 2R 2R 2R 1R A A A 2R 1R 5–8
French Open 1R W 3R 3R 3R QF A 1R 1R 1R A 15–8
Wimbledon A 2R 3R 2R 2R A A 1R A 3R A 7–6
US Open 2R 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R 3R 1R 1R A A 5–9
Win–loss 1–3 8–3 5–4 6–4 4–4 3–3 2–1 0–3 0–2 3–3 0–1 32–31

Big Wins Against Top Players

Olivier Rochus had some impressive wins against players ranked in the top 10. Here are some of his notable victories:

# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score
2000
1. Sweden Magnus Norman 2 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 2R 6–4, 2–6, 6–4, 6–7(4–7), 6–1
2002
2. Russia Marat Safin 2 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 2R 6–2, 6–4, 3–6, 7–6(7–1)
2003
3. Spain Albert Costa 9 Indian Wells, United States Hard 2R 5–7, 6–4, 6–4
4. Spain Albert Costa 8 Hamburg, Germany Clay 2R 3–6, 6–3, 7–6(7–3)
5. Argentina Guillermo Coria 7 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Grass 1R 7–5, 7–6(7–4), 6–3
2004
6. Australia Mark Philippoussis 10 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard 1R 6–2, 7–6(10–8)
7. Spain Carlos Moyá 4 US Open, New York Hard 3R 4–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–7(5–7), 7–5
2005
8. Argentina Guillermo Coria 6 Auckland, New Zealand Hard QF 6–4, 6–4
9. Argentina Mariano Puerta 9 Lyon, France Carpet (i) 1R 4–6, 7–5, 6–3
2006
10. Argentina Guillermo Coria 7 Miami Open, United States Hard 3R 6–4, 6–3
2007
11. Russia Nikolay Davydenko 4 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Hard 2R 4–6, 6–4, 6–2
2010
12. Serbia Novak Djokovic 2 Miami Open, United States Hard 2R 6–2, 6–7(7–9), 6–4
13. Sweden Robin Söderling 7 Nice, France Clay 2R 2–6, 6–4, 6–4

See also

A friendly robot icon. In Spanish: Olivier Rochus para niños

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