Ronald Agénor

Ronald Agénor
Country (sports)  Haiti
 United States
Residence Beverly Hills, California, USA
Born (1964-11-13) November 13, 1964
Rabat, Morocco
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro 1983
Retired 2002 (very brief comeback in 2006)
Plays Right-handed (1-handed backhand)
Prize money $2,014,601
Singles
Career record 221–257 (at ATP Tour, Grand Prix tour and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 3
Highest ranking No. 22 (May 8, 1989)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open 2R (1990)
French Open QF (1989)
Wimbledon 2R (1989, 1993)
US Open 4R (1988)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games 1R (1984DE, 1988, 1996)
Doubles
Career record 26–58 (at ATP Tour, Grand Prix tour and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 111 (July 14, 1986)
Ronald Agenor former World Tennis Ranked #22

Ronald Jean-Martin Agénor (born November 13, 1964) is a former professional tennis player who represented Haiti during his playing career. He is the only Haitian to have ever earned a Top 25 world ranking in singles, reaching as high as World No. 22 in May 1989.

Ronald Agenor is a former ATP #22 world ranked tennis player and has sustained one of the longest careers in the history of the game (19 years) and has scored wins against the world’s greatest players such as Agassi, Connors, Vilas, Noah, Higueras, Wilander, Stich, Korda, Muster, Sanchez, Gilbert, Annacone, Rosset, Leconte, Forget, Curren, and Cash, just to name a few. He reached the quarter finals at the French Open in 1989 by beating Carl Limberger, Tim Mayotte, Claudio Pistolesi and Sergi Bruguera before losing to champion Michael Chang. He also got to the fourth round of both the US Open and French Open in 1988. He represented Haiti in the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, in Seoul in 1988, and in Atlanta in 1996 and won 3 ATP Tour World titles in Athens, Genova, and Berlin. At the French Open in 1994, he defeated David Prinosil, 14/12 in the fifth set and broke the previous record of the longest match in the number of games in the history of the French Open since the open era previously held by Emilio Sanchez. In 1987, he made history by playing against Yannick Noah from France in what would be the first ATP World Tour tennis final between two players of color in men's professional tennis history. After a break from the pro circuit, Ronald made an incredible comeback in 1999 and at 35 years of age, became the oldest player to reach top 100 (ATP ranked #88) in the world since Jimmy Connors did it in 1991. In 2000, he represented and lead the Lido Luzern Tennis Club in Switzerland to its first Swiss National title in 100 years. In 2001, at 37 years of age, Ronald finished the year ATP ranked #186 appearing in a final against David Nalbandian from Argentina. In 2010, Ronald played an exhibition match with John McEnroe, competed against Pat Cash, and defeated Patrick Rafter at the Delray Beach Champions Tour Event and was featured on the ATP Uncovered Video Series “Ronald Agenor Uncovered”. The interview was broadcast on ESPN and all the major TV Channels around the world. He participated in various Charity and Fundraising Events for Haiti such as the “Hit For Haiti” in Indian Wells. In 2011, he defeated legend Bjorn Borg, and Pat Cash at the Marbella Masters in Spain.

Ronald is an Ambassador for Peace and Sport, an organization under the High Patronage of SAS Prince Albert II of Monaco. In 2006, the city of Castelnau de Médoc, in the world-famous wine country region of Bordeaux in France named its newly built tennis facility after Ronald. In 1989, he was Honorary Consul of Haiti in Bordeaux, France. He speaks several languages fluently. Besides coaching the game of tennis, Ronald produced the first two of a series of Instructional Tennis Videos, "Monster Forehand" and "Blazing One-Handed Backhand". Ronald is the son of a former Haitian Diplomat at the United Nations and Minister of Agriculture of Haiti. He is the youngest of a family of six children and learned how to play tennis in Congo (Ex Zaire) in 1974 and discovered competitive tennis in Bordeaux, France in 1978 under the wing of his brother, Lionel. He trained with the French Tennis Federation training program during one year at the Ligue de Guyenne in Bordeaux and was ranked #8 junior player in the world in 1982. He turned pro in 1983 and retired from Professional tennis in 2002 and opened the Ronald Agenor Tennis Academy in Los Angeles, CA. That same year he married former international print and runway Model, Tonya, and has two daughters, and became a US citizen in 2006. Ronald's other passion is music and started to play the guitar at age 15 and made several recordings.

Today, Ronald, whose life seems to be based on strings, spends his time between coaching tennis, playing exhibitions, music, and family.

Tennis career

Juniors

He was ranked the No. 8 junior in the world in 1982, turning professional the following year.

Pro tour

In 1989, Agénor reached the quarter-finals of the French Open (where he was knocked-out by eventual-champion Michael Chang), and won his first top-level singles title at Athens. In 1990, Agénor won two further tour singles titles at Berlin and Genoa.

He competed in three Summer Olympic Games, in 1984 (a demonstration event), 1988 and 1996.

In 1999, Agénor finished the year ranked World No. 98 and became the first player aged over 35 to finish in the top-100 since Jimmy Connors in 1992.

Agénor last competed in an ATP-sanctioned tour event in July 2006 at the Aptos Futures event after a four-year layoff from tour tennis, losing 3–6, 4–6 in the first round.

Career finals

Singles (3 titles, 5 runner-ups)

Legend
Grand Slam (0–0)
Tennis Masters Cup (0–0)
ATP Masters Series (0–0)
ATP Championship Series (0–0)
Grand Prix / ATP World series (3–0)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0)
Grass (0)
Clay (2)
Carpet (1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 6 July 1987 Gstaad, Switzerland Clay Spain Emilio Sánchez 2–6, 3–6, 6–7
Runner-up 2. 13 July 1987 Bordeaux, France Clay Spain Emilio Sánchez 7–5, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up 3. 5 October 1987 Basel, Switzerland Hard (i) France Yannick Noah 6–7, 4–6, 4–6
Runner-up 4. 25 July 1988 Bordeaux, France Clay Austria Thomas Muster 3–6, 3–6
Runner-up 5. 5 July 1993 Båstad, Sweden Clay Austria Horst Skoff 5–7, 6–1, 0–6
Winner 6. 16 April 1989 Athens Open, Greece Clay Sweden Kent Carlsson 6–3, 6–4
Winner 7. 24 June 1990 Campionati Internazionali di Puglia, Italy Clay France Tarik Benhabiles 3–6, 6–4, 6–3
Winner 8. 14 October 1990 Berlin, Germany Carpet (i) Soviet Union Alexander Volkov 4–6, 7–6, 6–4

After tennis

Agénor has also recorded music as a rock musician .

He is today a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Monaco-based international organization Peace and Sport.

References

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