Florent Serra

Full name is Florent Lucien Serra...Began playing tennis at age seven with his father, Jean-Luc, who was born in Casablanca, and got him involved at his local tennis club in Bordeaux...Mother, Martine, is a secretary in Bordeaux...Tennis was always his sport of choice and he remained in Bordeaux until he was 18 in order to finish his degree in economics with honors...After finishing his studies, moved to Paris to train at Roland Garros under national training program...Wanted to continue his studies and did some correspondence courses to focus on English, but realized that it was too difficult while focusing on a pro tennis career...Admired Thomas Enqvist and Carlos Moya growing up...Favorite surface is clay and best shot is forehand...Fitness trainer is Paul Quetin and coached by countryman Pierre Cherret.

2000 -- Reached SF in Futures in Luxembourg and Ukraine; Reached doubles final at Maspalomas Futures...

2001 -- Won first Futures title at Aix-Les-Bains; Finalist at Futures events in Bourg-En-Bresse and Mulhouse; Compiled a 32-16 Futures record and was 3-4 in Challengers

2002 -- Finalist at Hilversum Challenger (l. to Zib); Reached SF at Brest Challenger; Posted 15-11 Challenger record; In Futures, reached Alphen Aan Den Rijn final; Had 11-9 Futures record; Won doubles title at Syros Futures (w/Ascione)

2003 -- Made ATP debut as qualifier at Adelaide (l. to Verkerk); Had 20-19 Challenger record, reaching SF at Lugano and New Caledonia...

2004 -- Won first ATP match at Umag (d. Ulihrach, l. to Volandri) and 2nd RD in Metz; Made Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros (l. to Spadea); Was 12-18 in Challengers, with best result SF at Seoul

2005 -- Made third-biggest jump from previous year into Top 50, improving 159 positions... Qualified into Australian Open for first time (l. to Dent)... As a wild card at Roland Garros won first Grand Slam match beating Pavel before falling to Stepanek in 2nd RD... Made ATP Masters Series debut in Montreal and reached 2nd RD when Hewitt retired with illness (l. to Ancic)... Made US Open debut and reached 2nd RD (d. Koubek, l. to Mirnyi)... In next event, won first ATP title in Bucharest, defeating Crivoi, Volandri, Mathieu, Pavel and Andreev... Saved three match points in 1st RD match against Crivoi...Also had successful Challenger year, going 33-14... Won titles in Mexico City (d. Saretta) and Rimini (d. Navarro Pastor)... Also a finalist at Rome (l. to Patience)...

2006 -- Captured his second ATP title and reached a career-high ATP ranking (No. 36) in June...Won season-opening tournament in Adelaide, upsetting three seeds (Robredo, Nieminen, Hrbaty) en route to his first hard court title...At 's-Hertogenbosch in June reached SF...In August, reached 3rd RD at AMS Cincinnati and in final clay court outing in Bucharest, advanced to SF...Reached QF in Metz ...Went 2-3 vs. Top 10 opponents (d. No. 7 Blake in Rome, No. 8 Robredo in 's-Hertogenbosch)...

2007 -- Finished in Top 100 and posted two ATP QF showings...Also reached 3rd RD at AMS Miami where he defeated No. 8 Blake in 2nd RD before losing to Lopez in next round...In July, posted win over No. 5 Davydenko in 1st RD of Amersfoort en route to QF (l. to Haase)...His other QF came in Moscow.

2008 -- The Frenchman finished in Top 100 for a fourth straight season, highlighted by 20 match wins...Advanced to one ATP SF, reached a Grand Slam-best 3rd RD at Roland Garros and one a Challenger title...Opened with QF in Chennai (l. to Moya) and 2nd RD at Australian Open (l. to Nadal)...Did not win back-to-back matches again until April when he advanced to SF in Estoril (l. to Davydenko)...Followed with SF at Tunis Challenger...At Roland Garros, beat Giraldo and Hanescu before losing to Ginepri...Reached 2nd RD at Wimbledon (d. Lu, l. to Seppi in five sets)...In August, advanced to QF in Los Angeles (l. to Fish)...After a 2nd RD at US Open (d. Schuettler, l. to Karlovic), reached QF in Bucharest and followed with title at Szczecin Challenger (d. Montanes)...Qualified in AMS events in Madrid (l. to Soderling) and Paris (d. Canas, l. to Nadal)...Went 0-5 vs. Top 10 opponents and 10-15 on hard, 9-7 on clay...Turned in career-best 17-8 tie-break record...Earned a career-high $412,641.

2009

The Frenchman finished in Top 100 for fifth straight year highlighted by a personal-best 24 match wins…In April he reached his third career ATP World Tour final in Casablanca (l. to Ferrero)…Also made six QF appearances — Brisbane, Delray Beach, Estoril, Gstaad, New Haven and Lyon…His best win came over No. 16 Soderling in 1st RD of Memphis…Compiled marks of 14-16 on hard and 9-10 on clay…Earned a career-high $449,133.