Olivier Rochus


Olivier Rochus is a retired Belgian tennis player. He is the younger brother of Christophe Rochus, also a former top-40 tennis player.
Rochus won two singles titles in his career and in 2004 won the French Open doubles title, partnering fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 24.
At tall, he was the shortest player on the ATP World Tour.

Career

Juniors

Rochus was a partner of Roger Federer on the junior circuit, winning the boys' doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998.
As a junior, he compiled a singles win/loss record of 81–30, reaching as high as No. 11 in the world in 1997. Rochus reached at least the quarterfinals of all four junior Grand Slam tournaments.

1999–2008

He won his first title in Palermo in 2000, defeating his brother in the semifinals and Diego Nargiso in the final. In 2003, he achieved his greatest Master Series result, reaching the quarter-finals of the Hamburg Masters.
He has represented Belgium at two Olympic Games in both the singles and the doubles competitions at Athens and Beijing.
In May 2006, he reached the final of the ATP tournament in Munich, setting up the first ever all-Belgian men's singles final against Kristof Vliegen. He won that final in straight sets.
In June, Rochus faced world No. 1, Roger Federer, in the quarterfinals of the Gerry Weber Open. Rochus held four match points in the second set at 5–6 and in the tie-break. He could not close out the match and eventually lost in three tiebreaks.

2009

He reached the final of the Stockholm Open, after winning to Swede Andreas Vinciguerra in the first round, eighth seed Feliciano López, and Jarkko Nieminen. In the semifinals, he beat best Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci. In the final, he met former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, but lost in two sets.
One week later at the Grand Prix de Lyon, he won his first match against French qualifier Vincent Millot. He faced world No. 8, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but lost in two short sets.
His next tournament was the Swiss Indoors, where he first won his three qualifying matches. In the first round of the tournament, he lost to his former double partner and world No. 1, Roger Federer.
The last tournament of his tennis season was the AXA Belgian Masters, where he met compatriot Steve Darcis in the semifinal.

2010

At the Sony Ericsson Open he defeated Richard Gasquet and the 2007 titlist and second seed Novak Djokovic.
In the Nice tournament, one week prior to Roland Garros, he pulled off another upset, defeating 2009 French Open finalist Robin Söderling.
He defeated Raven Klaasen of South Africa at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championship, but lost to Mardy Fish in the final in three sets.

2011

In March, Rochus lost in the fourth round in Miami to Federer, after defeating Blaž Kavčič, Marcos Baghdatis, and Mikhail Youzhny in the first three rounds. In July, he made it to the final in Newport, where he was defeated by John Isner in straight sets.

2012–13

Rochus had his best success earlier in 2012, reaching the final in Auckland. He lost to Nicolás Almagro in the first round of Wimbledon.
In 2013, he played mostly on the Challenger Tour, never advancing beyond the second round of an ATP event.

ATP career finals

Singles: 10 (2 wins, 8 losses)

ResultW/LDateTournamentSurfaceOpponentScore
Win1.Sep 2000Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia, ItalyClay Diego Nargiso7–6, 6–1
Loss1.Feb 2002Copenhagen Open, DenmarkHard Lars Burgsmüller3–6, 3–6
Loss2.Mar 2003Copenhagen Open, DenmarkHard Karol Kučera6–7, 4–6
Loss3.Jan 2005Heineken Open, New ZealandHard Fernando González4–6, 2–6
Win2.May 2006BMW Open, GermanyClay Kristof Vliegen6–4, 6–2
Loss4.Sep 2007Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open, IndiaHard Richard Gasquet3–6, 4–6
Loss5.Oct 2009Stockholm Open, SwedenHard Marcos Baghdatis1–6, 5–7
Loss6.Jul 2010Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S.Grass Mardy Fish7–5, 3–6, 4–6
Loss7.Jul 2011Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, U.S.Grass John Isner3–6, 6–7
Loss8.Jan 2012Heineken Open, New ZealandHard David Ferrer3–6, 4–6

Doubles: 7 (2 wins, 5 losses)

ResultW/LDateTournamentSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Win1.Jun 2004French Open, ParisClay Xavier Malisse Michaël Llodra
Fabrice Santoro
7–5, 7–5
Win2.Jan 2005Adelaide International, AustraliaHard Xavier Malisse Simon Aspelin
Todd Perry
7–6, 6–4
Loss1.Jul 2005Generali Open, AustriaClay Christophe Rochus Leoš Friedl
Andrei Pavel
2–6, 7–6, 0–6
Loss2.Jan 2006Qatar Open, DohaHard Christophe Rochus Jonas Björkman
Max Mirnyi
6–2, 3–6,
Loss3.Oct 2006Stockholm Open, SwedenHard Kristof Vliegen Paul Hanley
Kevin Ullyett
6–7, 4–6
Loss4.Jul 2008Kitzbühel, AustriaClay Lucas Arnold Ker James Cerretani
Victor Hănescu
3–6, 5–7
Loss5.Feb 2010PBZ Zagreb Indoors, CroatiaHard Arnaud Clément Jürgen Melzer
Philipp Petzschner
6–3, 3–6,

Performance timelines

Singles

1Held as Hamburg Masters until 2008, Madrid Masters 2009–present.
2Held as Stuttgart Masters until 2001, Madrid Masters from 2002–08, and Shanghai Masters 2009–present.

Doubles

Top 10 wins