Julie Halard-Decugis

Who is Julie Halard-Decugis?

Julie Halard-Decugis is a former professional female 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 June 1987 after winning the French Open junior singles title in 1986 and 1988 and reaching the Wimbledon junior singles final 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 Sandrine Testud to do so. In 1999, she won two WTA Tour singles titles and was runner-up on three other occasions. Between November 15, 1999 and January 9, 2000, Halard-Decugis, 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.