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Eric ProdonFrench professional tennis player
Date of Birth: 27.06.1981
Country:  France |
Content:
Biography of Eric Prodon
Eric Prodon is a French professional tennis player. He was born on June 27, 1981, in Paris, France.
Junior Career
During his junior career from 1997 to 1999, Prodon reached the 28th position in the junior rankings by the end of 1998. He defeated future professional tennis stars Mikhail Youzhny and Julien Benneteau in 1997. In early 1998, Prodon lost to Jarkko Nieminen but later in the same year, he defeated Roger Federer, Karol Beck, and Guillermo Coria at the prestigious Eddie Herr junior tournament. He reached the final of the tournament before losing to David Nalbandian. Prodon also secured victories against Youzhny again at the Orange Bowl tournament. In early 1999, he performed well on hard courts in Australia, defeating Nieminen and reaching back-to-back finals. In March, Prodon was unable to overcome Coria and Paul-Henri Mathieu in consecutive finals. In May, he lost to Nieminen again but then surpassed him and Beck at the French Open before losing to Nalbandian in the quarterfinals. In June, while playing in England on grass courts, Prodon reached the final of a competition but was defeated by Mardy Fish.
Professional Career
At the end of 2000, Prodon made his debut in the Top 300 in the professional rankings. He returned to the Top 300 in 2003 and 2004, and by the end of 2004 and the beginning of 2005, he was ranked 230th. Due to an injury in February 2005, Prodon was sidelined for seven months. Another injury in April 2006 prevented him from competing for the rest of the year, and he was not even ranked in the Top 500 for most of 2005 and 2006.
After recovering, Prodon returned to the court in mid-February 2007, ranking only 683rd in the world. Despite some successes in the Futures tournaments, Prodon struggled to improve his ranking and ended up at 721st place in a tournament in Scotland in May. Continuing to participate in Futures tournaments, he won four titles out of seven and performed well in tournaments in Scotland, Algeria, Poland, Belarus, and France with a win-loss record of 32-3. By mid-July, Eric climbed to 290th place.
Competing in a Challenger event in Finland, Prodon defeated Raemon Sluiter, who was ranked 116th at that time, and Peter Luczak, who was ranked 100th. These achievements propelled Prodon to 226th place. In August, he reached the finals of two Challengers in Italy and Germany, entering the Top 200 for the first time at 165th place. He defeated Davide Sanguinetti (250th), Boris Pashanski (117th), and Bohdan Ulihrach (136th) before losing to Jiri Vanek (116th) and Ivo Minar (289th) in the finals.
The rest of the year did not go as well for Prodon. He won only two out of seven matches in Challenger tournaments, defeating Martin Verkerk (657th) and losing twice to Thomaz Bellucci (224th). Prodon also failed to defeat Peter Luczak (90th) and Fabio Fognini (113th). By the end of 2007, at the age of 26, he was ranked 158th.
In 2008, Prodon made some progress. He began the season with a victory at a Challenger tournament in Miami, defeating Jan-Michael Gambill. After a series of setbacks, Prodon reached the final and semifinal of two Challengers in April and May. He also earned a spot in the French Open 2008 by bypassing the qualifying rounds. By the end of the year, the French tennis player was ranked 115th.
Prodon's career peaked on August 22, 2011, when he reached a career-high ranking of 83rd.
