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Henri Leconte leads "French Revolution" on Senior Tour By James H. DeLorenzo [Originally published in the ATP Tour's International Tennis Magazine November/December 1998 issue.] Suddenly, there is an influx of new names and faces amongst the leaders this season on the Nuveen Tour/ATP Senior Tour of Champions. In times past, tennis fans expected to see notables such as Johan Kriek, Guillermo Vilas and Jose-Luis Clerc atop the list of leaders on the senior circuit. In the past three years, however, newcomers (if you can use that term on the men's over-35 professional tour) like Tim Wilkison, Mikael Penfors and Yannick Noah have made an impact on the competition for the five-year-old circuit. This season, one of the shining stars on the tour has been another "rookie," Henri LeConte. The outstanding play of this flamboyant Frenchman has led to a "changing of the guard." Leconte, who turned 35 years old this past July 4, was always one of France's most popular tennis players. He made his debut on the senior circuit late in 1997 with appearances in two of the European-flavored ATP Senior Tour of Champions tournaments. Less than a year later, Leconte is comfortably nestled into third place on the Nuveen Masters Point Standings, giving him a strong shot at competing for the season-ending Nuveen Masters title this coming March. The Frenchman has upset the status quo on the seemingly-staid senior circuit, jumping ahead of more familiar names in the standings like Bjorn Borg, and leading a revolution in the standings that threatens current leaders John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. In fact, Leconte's career dominance of Borg has continued on the Champions Tour, and has contributed to his high ranking this season. In mid-October, LeConte faced the top-seeded McEnroe in the finals of Sydney, Australia's Harvey Norman Champions. While he succumbed to McEnroe 6-4, 6-2, the #2-seeded Leconte overcame Borg 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. He generated an enormous amount of power from the baseline, belting down eight service aces to the Swede's three and finishing the match with an untouchable forehand winner. Leconte stunned Borg with a mixture of well-disguised ground strokes, delicate drop shots and brilliant shot making, play that once saw him rise as high as number five in the world. "When he played the way he just played, hitting winners from all over the court, he is very hard to beat," said Borg following the match. "I haven't played like that for a long time. I don't think I played that well when I was on the ATP Tour. You have to play your best to beat Bjorn and I did," said Leconte, who now leads Borg in their career head-to-head record 5-2. The fifth annual Nuveen Masters, slated for March 1 through 7 at the Kensington Golf and Tennis Club in Naples, FL, features the top eight players in the Nuveen Masters Point Standings competing in round-robin play for a $100,000 top prize. As of mid-October, McEnroe was atop the leader board with 2,150 points, followed by Connors with 2,050. Leconte is third, at 1249 points, with Borg (1,245) Andres Gomez (1,035), Mansour Bahrami (1,025), John Lloyd (790) and Vilas (785) rounding out the current top octet. Closing in are Noah with 770 points (ninth place) and Penfors with 725 (10th). The 6'1", 180-pound Leconte, a lefthander (like fellow senior stalwarts Wilkison, Vilas, Connors, and McEnroe, among others) made his professional tennis debut in 1980 at the age of 16, and reached his highest-ever ranking in singles in 1986 (#5 in the World). Leconte won nine singles and 10 doubles titles during his career. His totals would have probably been higher had it not been for recurrent back problems that forced him to have surgery in 1989 and 1991. His career highlights include reaching the final of the French Open in 1988 and the semifinals in 1986 and as late as 1992. In fact, until Cedric Pioline advanced to the finals at Roland Garos this past year, Leconte was able to boast that he was the last Frenchman to achieve that goal. Leconte and fellow Frenchman Noah won the French Open doubles title in 1984 and reached the doubles final of the U.S. Open in 1985. In singles, Leconte was ranked among the top players in the world from 1982 through 1988. His first back surgery sidelined him for most of the year in 1989 and his ranking fell to #115. A long-time Davis Cup star for France, he compiled a record of 41-25 while representing his country. He is perhaps best remembered lately for his 1991 Davis Cup upset of Pete Sampras, when the American was ranked #6 in the world and Leconte was rated #159. Of his sometime absences from the game due to injury (and his "retirement" from the ATP Tour in 1995), Leconte has said, "It was only while I was away that I realized how much sport meant to me. I have earned a lot of prize money from tennis [over $3 million], but I can honestly say that was not the prime motivation for me. It is the winning that has given me the real pleasure." Returning to the game in the fall of 1997, Leconte made his debut on the senior circuit at the ATP Senior Tour of Champions event in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He won his first senior tour match a month later in Portschach, Australia with a 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 12-10 (Champions Tiebreaker) win over Borg. In that tourney, Leconte advanced to the third place match against Emilio Sanchez, but lost 6-3, 7-5. Leconte then made his first of four trips to a singles final this calendar year at the ATP Senior Tour of Champions in London, where he lost to McEnroe 6-2, 3-6, 10-5. Once the current 1998-99 season began, Leconte defeated Borg to win the Delta Airlines ATP Senior Tour of Champions title in Aland, Finland, 4-6, 6-4,10-5. Little more than a month later, Leconte reached the finals of the Sprint PCS Champions event in Boston, MA, losing to Gomez 7-5, 4-6, 10-3. "It's different on the senior tour," Leconte said, echoing the opinion of many of the circuit's newcomers. "It seems more relaxed, but everybody is playing so well. Everybody still wants to win, so you've got to play your best."
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