Doubles Champion Benneteau Hoping For Singles Success In Atlanta

Julien Benneteau has achieved so much success as a doubles player on the ATP World Tour that it can be easy to forget how much the Frenchman also has accomplished by himself on court.

From 2008 to 2014, the 6’1” right-hander reached 10 ATP World Tour finals, including two per year in 2008 and 2012-2013. Benneteau has always finished as a singles finalist, but he’s never let that deter his singles or doubles success or his participation in singles.

This week, the two-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 doubles champion (Shanghai, with Tsonga; Monte-Carlo, with Zimonjic) will again return to the singles side of play in his debut at the BB&T Atlanta Open. “I love to play in the U.S. The tournaments are good and very well-organized,” Benneteau said. “I’m very glad to be here for the first time.”

Benneteau wasn’t always pleased, though, when he kept falling short in ATP World Tour singles finals. “Keep going, keep going, keep going,” he remembers telling himself.

“Because sometimes after one, two of the finals, I was very disappointed. I was very low and in a bad mood, and it was tough,” he said.

He also encouraged himself to keep reaching the bigger stages of tournaments. “It was one of the things I told myself, ‘OK, it’s not this one. Give yourself another chance, another time’,” he said.

The Frenchman has followed his own advice. In doubles, Benneteau has won 10 career tour-level titles, including two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns. He and compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the Shanghai Rolex Masters on hard courts in 2009. Benneteau and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic won the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on clay in 2013.

In 2014, the Bourg-en-Bresse native and current doubles partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, also of France, claimed their home Grand Slam championship by winning Roland Garros. This season, they reached the semi-finals in Rome and the final at Wimbledon.

“I always loved to play doubles, even when I was younger so it’s natural for me,” said Benneteau, No. 37 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings.

The 34 year old said his game, especially his return of serve, also might be better suited for two-on-two tennis. “I’m an all-around player. I can play a lot of styles, on every surface. It helps me a lot for doubles,” said Benneteau, who has won doubles titles on hard courts, clay courts, indoor carpet and indoor hard courts.

This week, Benneteau won’t have a partner with him on the court but he will have a longtime pal ready to discuss his matches. Antoine Benneteau, Julien Benneteau’s younger brother by four and a half years, now coaches Julien. Antoine Benneteau also played on the ATP World Tour, reaching No. 370 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in April 2013.

“Obviously he knows me very well. He always followed my career and my matches and he used to play so he knows tennis… he knows the [ATP World Tour], he knows how it works, he knows all the players, so he helps me a lot,” Julien Benneteau said. “Everything is good, and I hope now in singles we can have a good result to show to others that we make a good team.”