Sébastien de Chaunac


Sébastien de Chaunac is a retired French professional tennis player. He mainly played ATP Challenger Series tournaments, capturing one singles and two doubles titles. He has appeared in the main draw of grand slam tournaments a total of eight times.

Career

College career

Prior to turning pro, de Chaunac played three collegiate seasons at the University of Mississippi and was tabbed an All-American in his final two years. As a sophomore in 1996–97, he was 52–9 in singles, reached the semifinals of the 1997 NCAA Singles Championship and finished the season ranked No. 2 nationally. He also was the Southeastern Conference Tournament MVP and led the Rebels to the semifinals of the NCAA Team Championship, clinching the quarterfinal victory against Boise State. As a junior in 1997–98, de Chaunac was ranked No. 1 in the nation in singles and claimed the title in the SEC Singles Championship. An all-SEC selection in his final two seasons, he helped the Rebels claim SEC regular-season titles in both 1996 and '97, as well as the tournament crown in the latter year. An outstanding student, de Chaunac was named to the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team in 1998 and had a perfect 4.0 grade-point average.

2009

He entered the qualifications of the 2009 Australian Open ranked #252. He beat Gary Lugassy, Alex Bogdanović and Santiago Ventura to qualify for the main draw of the Australian Open for the second time in his career after a first round appearance in 2004. In the first round proper, he defeated #57 Steve Darcis in a gruelling 5-set encounter, finally prevailing 2–6, 6–3, 0–6, 6–2, 6–2. He was then beaten in straight sets by ninth seed and World No. 10 James Blake 6–3, 6–2, 6–3.
He then qualified for the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg. In the first round, he upset third seed Marcel Granollers 7–5, 7–6 then defeated local wildcard Izak van der Merwe in a hard-fought 6–7, 7–5, 7–6 victory to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP tournament for the first time since February 2005 in Marseille. There he was beaten by fellow Frenchman and eventual runner-up Jérémy Chardy 7–6, 6–3.
This loss marked the beginning of a period of struggle for de Chaunac, as he successively failed to qualify for the tournaments in Marseille and Indian Wells, while also recording a string of first and second-round defeats in Challenger tournaments. This period was highlighted only by a semifinal run at the Jersey Challenger in March and a final at a Futures tournament in Newcastle in May. The following week, he entered the qualifying draw for the French Open, discarding Grega Žemlja and Pablo Santos, only to fall to Daniel Brands 7–6, 6–7, 10–8 in the qualifying round. He was equally unlucky at Wimbledon, losing to Alejandro Falla 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 in the last round of qualifying.
He bounced back, though, by qualifying for the next tournament in Indianapolis, where he put up a good but ultimately unsuccessful fight in the first round against Robby Ginepri, who prevailed 7–5, 5–7, 6–2, and went on to win the tournament. Two weeks later, he qualified for an ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Washington by defeating Brendan Evans 4–6, 7–6, 7–6. He beat Denis Istomin 6–4, 7–6 in the first round, before stunning fourteenth seed and World No. 32 Dmitry Tursunov 3–6, 7–6, 7–5, the highest-ranked player he ever managed to beat. Unfortunately, his run was cut short by American John Isner, who ousted him 6–2, 6–4 in the next round. As a result, he reached a new career-high, integrating the Top 150 for the first time. However, he failed to qualify for the US Open, losing to Marsel İlhan 7–6, 7–6 in the second round of qualifying.
A few weeks later, he qualified for yet another ATP-level tournament, his fifth of the year, in Metz, by beating Alex Bogdanović 6–1, 1–6, 7–6. In the first round, he pushed Ivan Ljubičić to a final-set tie-break, losing 4–6, 6–1, 7–6. His efforts were rewarded by a new career-high ranking of World No. 140.

Personal life

He is the son of former racing car driver and founder of Oreca Team Hugues de Chaunac. He allegedly is married and has three children.

Singles finals

Wins (5)

Legend
Grand Slam
Tennis Masters Cup
ATP Masters Series
ATP Tour
Challengers
Futures

No.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponent in the finalScore
1.5 May 1999Esslingen, GermanyClay Martin Spöttl7–6, 6–2
2.10 July 2000Bourg-en-Bresse, FranceClay Emanuel Couto7–5, 6–2
3.17 July 2000Aix-en-Provence, FranceClay Slimane Saoudi7–6, 6–3
4.8 May 2001Newcastle, United KingdomClay Jarkko Nieminen6–4, 6–2
5.2 February 2004Dallas, U.S.Hard Amer Delic6–4, 7–6

Runners-up (9)

No.DateTournamentSurfaceOpponent in the finalScore
1.28 April 1999Hatfield, United KingdomClay Jean-René Lisnard7–6, 1–6, 6–0
2.16 August 1999Bronx, U.S.Hard Alexander Popp6–7, 7–6, 6–0
3.15 October 2001Brasilia, BrazilClay Sebastián Prieto6–4, 4–6, 7–66
4.22 September 2003San Antonio, U.S.Hard Dmitry Tursunov6–2, 6–7, 6–4
5.29 September 2003Nevers, FranceHard Jean-Michel Pequery6–4, 6–4
6.13 March 2006Lille, FranceHard Jo-Wilfried Tsonga7–5, 7–5
7.7 January 2008Nußloch, GermanyCarpet Karol Beck6–4, 6–4
8.7 April 2008Angers, FranceClay Alexandre Sidorenko6–7, 6–2, 7–6
9.11 May 2009Newcastle, United KingdomClay David Guez6–3, 3–6, 6–0

Doubles titles

Wins (3)

No.DateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponents in the finalScore
1.10 April 2000Saint-Brieuc, FranceClay Olivier Patience Maxime Boyé
Jérôme Hanquez
w/o
2.15 September 2003Mandeville, U.S.Hard Zack Fleishman Benedikt Dorsch
Matija Zgaga
6–7, 7–6, 6–3
3.24 January 2005Heilbronn, GermanyCarpet Michal Mertiňák Gilles Elseneer
Gilles Müller
6–2, 3–6, 6–3

Runners-up (1)