Julie Halard-Decugis

Julie Halard-Decugis (born 10 September 1970) is a French former professional tennis player.

Halard-Decugis lived in La Baule, France during the initial stages of her career and later moved to Pully, Switzerland. She turned professional in 1986. She won the French Open junior singles title in 1988 and was the Wimbledon junior singles runner-up in 1987. She retired from the WTA Tour tennis circuit at the end of the 2000 season. Her highest WTA Tour singles and doubles rankings was number seven and number one respectively. She had been coached by Arnaud Decugis since 1989.

Halard-Decugis won her first WTA Tour singles title in Puerto Rico. She enjoyed her best season in 1996, when she won her first WTA Tour Tier II singles title in Paris and finished the year with a career-high season-ending singles ranking of number 15 and as the number one singles player from France. This occurred despite the fact that her playing schedule in the second half of 1996 was curtailed because of a wrist injury sustained during the Fed Cup semi-final match against Spain. She only played two tournaments in late 1997 because of injuries.

By winning the singles title in Rosmalen in 1998, she became the 20th player to have won singles titles on all four surfaces in the Open Era. Halard also won the singles and doubles titles in Pattaya that year, and broke into the top 10 singles ranking in August 1999, becoming the fifth Frenchwoman after Françoise Dürr, Mary Pierce, Nathalie Tauziat and Amélie Mauresmo to do so. In 1999, she won two WTA Tour singles titles and was runner-up on three other occasions. Between 15 November 1999 and 9 January 2000, Julie Halard, Nathalie Tauziat, Amélie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce were all ranked inside the singles Top 10, the first time France had four players ranked among the singles Top 10.

2000 was to be the final and perhaps the finest year of Halard's professional playing career. She reached the Australian Open singles quarter-final for the second time, captured the second WTA Tour Tier II title of her career in Eastbourne and reached her career-high singles ranking of number 7 in February. Halard was also runner-up in Tokyo's Princess Cup in the month of October and won the doubles title with Ai Sugiyama. The following week, she won both the singles and doubles titles at the Japan Open in Tokyo, saving three match points in the final to defeat the defending champion Amy Frazier.

On her 30th birthday, Halard won the 2000 US Open women's doubles title with Ai Sugiyama, her only Grand Slam title as a professional. The pair also reached the final at Wimbledon, the semi-final at the French Open and the quarter-final at the Australian Open that year. Halard-Decugis won nine other doubles titles in 2000, five of them with Sugiyama, and became the first Frenchwoman to attain the number one WTA Tour doubles ranking in the Open Era.

Halard-Decugis represented her country in the Federation Cup Fed Cup from 1990 to 2000 and in the Olympics Games in 1992 and 2000.

She married her coach, Arnaud Decugis, on 22 September 1995. Arnaud Decugis is the great nephew of Max Decugis, a leading tennis player from France during the early 20th century. The couple have 2 children: Camille, born on 10 February 2002 and another child born in July 2003.

Win (1)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2000	US Open	Ai Sugiyama	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	6–0, 1–6, 6–1

Runner-up (1)

Year	Championship	Partnering	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
2000	Wimbledon	Ai Sugiyama	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–3, 6–2

Wins (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	October 21, 1991	San Juan, Puerto Rico	Hard	Amanda Coetzer	7–5, 7–5
2.	April 27, 1992	Taranto, Italy	Clay	Emanuela Zardo	6–0, 7–5
3.	April 25, 1994	Taranto, Italy	Clay	Irina Spîrlea	6–2, 6–3
4.	May 8, 1995	Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Ludmila Richterová	6–4, 6–4
5.	January 8, 1996	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Mana Endo	6–1, 6–2
6.	February 12, 1996	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Iva Majoli	7–5, 7–64
7.	June 15, 1996	Rosmalen, Netherlands	Grass	Miriam Oremans	6–3, 6–4
8.	November 16, 1998	Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Li Fang	6–1, 6–2
9.	January 4, 1999	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Dominique Monami	6–4, 6–1
10.	June 7, 1999	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Nathalie Tauziat	6–2, 3–6, 6–4
11.	June 19, 2000	Eastbourne, United Kingdom	Grass	Dominique Monami	7–64, 6–4
12.	October 9, 2000	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Amy Frazier	5–7, 7–5, 6–4

Runners-up (9)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	October 5, 1987	Athens, Greece	Clay	Katerina Maleeva	6–0, 6–1
2.	August 5, 1991	Albuquerque, U.S.	Hard	Gigi Fernández	6–0, 6–2
3.	February 14, 1994	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Martina Navratilova	7–5, 6–3
4.	February 26, 1996	Linz, Austria	Carpet (i)	Sabine Appelmans	6–2, 6–4
5.	May 18, 1998	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Irina Spîrlea	7–65, 6–3
6.	April 26, 1999	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Corina Morariu	6–2, 6–0
7.	May 10, 1999	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Martina Hingis	6–0, 6–1
8.	August 9, 1999	Los Angeles, U.S.	Hard	Serena Williams	6–1, 6–4
9.	October 2, 2000	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Serena Williams	7–5, 6–1

Wins (15)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	August 8, 1994	Los Angeles, U.S.	Hard	Nathalie Tauziat	Jana Novotná Lisa Raymond	6–1, 0–6, 6–1
2.	September 19, 1994	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	Amy Frazier Rika Hiraki	6–1, 0–6, 6–1
3.	January 1, 1996	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Els Callens	Jill Hetherington Kristine Kunce	6–0, 6–1
4.	June 8, 1998	Birmingham, United Kingdom	Grass	Els Callens	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	2–6, 6–4, 6–4
5.	November 16, 1998	Pattaya City, Thailand	Hard	Els Callens	Rika Hiraki Aleksandra Olsza	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
6.	January 3, 2000	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Anna Kournikova	Sabine Appelmans Rita Grande	6–3, 6–0
7.	January 10, 2000	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Martina Hingis Mary Pierce	6–0, 6–3
8.	February 7, 2000	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Sandrine Testud	Émilie Loit Åsa Svensson	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
9.	March 20, 2000	Miami, U.S.	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Nicole Arendt Manon Bollegraf	4–6, 7–5, 6–4
10.	May 1, 2000	Bol, Croatia	Clay	Corina Morariu	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–2, 6–2
11.	August 21, 2000	New Haven, U.S.	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez	6–4, 5–7, 6–2
12.	August 28, 2000	US Open	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	6–0, 1–6, 6–1
13.	October 2, 2000	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Nana Miyagi Paola Suárez	6–0, 6–2
14.	October 9, 2000	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Corina Morariu	Tina Križan Katarina Srebotnik	6–1, 6–2
15.	October 23, 2000	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Ai Sugiyama	Martina Hingis Anna Kournikova	4–6, 6–4, 7–65

Runners-up (10)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	September 16, 1991	Paris, France	Clay	Alexia Dechaume	Petra Langrová Radka Zrubáková	6–4, 6–4
2.	April 18, 1994	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Nathalie Tauziat	Larisa Neiland Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6–2, 6–4
3.	February 12, 1996	Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Nathalie Tauziat	Kristie Boogert Jana Novotná	6–4, 6–3
4.	March 4, 1996	Indian Wells, U.S.	Hard	Nathalie Tauziat	Chanda Rubin Brenda Schultz	6–1, 6–4
5.	September 15, 1997	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Chanda Rubin	Monica Seles Ai Sugiyama	6–1, 6–0
6.	January 5, 1998	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Janette Husárová	Nana Miyagi Tamarine Tanasugarn	7–61, 6–4
7.	January 12, 1998	Hobart, Australia	Hard	Janette Husárová	Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez	7–66, 6–3
8.	October 18, 1999	Moscow, Russia	Carpet (i)	Anke Huber	Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	6–0, 6–1
9.	June 26, 2000	Wimbledon	Grass	Ai Sugiyama	Serena Williams Venus Williams	6–3, 6–2
10.	August 14, 2000	Montreal, Canada	Hard	Ai Sugiyama	Martina Hingis Nathalie Tauziat	6–3, 3–6, 6–4

Head-to-Head record

• Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 4—8
• Dominique Monami 2—2
• Serena Williams 0—4
• Martina Hingis 0—5
• Venus Williams 1—1
• Anna Kournikova 1—1
• Elena Dementieva 1—0
• Jelena Dokic 1—0
• Steffi Graf 1—9
• Lindsay Davenport 2—9
• Mary Pierce 3-0