Dick Norman

This article is about the tennis player. For the footballer, see Dick Norman (American football).

Dick Norman

Country	Belgium
Residence	Waregem, Belgium
Born	1 March 1971 (1971-03-01) (age 40) Waregem, Belgium
Height	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Turned pro	1991
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$1,309,890
Singles
Career record	30–69
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 85 (6 November 2006)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	2R (2006)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	4R (1995)
US Open	2R (2002)
Doubles
Career record	53–47
Career titles	4
Highest ranking	No. 10 (26 April 2010)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2006)
French Open	F (2009)
Wimbledon	SF (2009, 2010)
US Open	QF (2009, 2010)
Last updated on: 30 June 2010.

Dick Norman (born 1 March 1971 in Waregem, Belgium) is a professional tennis player. He has achieved a degree of folk popularity among tennis fans due to his height (6 feet 8 inches), his left-handed power game and, in the last few years, his age (since late 2006 he has been the oldest player on the tour).

Turning professional in 1991, Norman notched up only his 14th Grand Slam appearance at the 2006 Wimbledon, where, at 35, he was the second oldest male competitor, to Andre Agassi. With Agassi's retirement immediately following the 2006 U.S. Open, Norman succeeded him as the oldest active player on the ATP tour.

In 1995, he made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon, despite qualifying out of the lucky loser's draw. He defeated successive but aging former Wimbledon Champions Pat Cash and Stefan Edberg in the first and second rounds respectively, then doubles guru Todd Woodbridge in the 3rd round, before falling to another former Champion Boris Becker in the fourth round. It remains the furthest that any player has ever advanced in a Grand Slam Tournament coming out of the lucky loser draw.

He disappeared from tennis scene after a few unimpressive seasons, but has made a resurgence starting in 2003, at the age of 32, a common age at which retirement is considered. He qualified for three of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Nine of his fourteen Grand Slam appearances have come after his 32nd birthday, although except for a surprise run in doubles at the French Open in 2009, none as successful as his 1995 Wimbledon run. Most times he'd lose in the first or second round. Still he has exceeded $1 million in career earnings, in large part due to his Grand Slam "successes".

In November 2006, at the age of 35 years and eight months, Norman attained his career-high ATP ranking as World No. 85.

In July 2007, at Newport, Norman made it to his very first ATP semifinal, defeating the 8th seed Michael Berrer along the way. His first round win was over fellow "giant", 6'9" wild card John Isner, who was playing in his first-ever ATP match.

As of February 2008 he remained the oldest active player on the ATP tour at 36 years and 11 months; and although his ranking had dropped back to World No. 169, partly as a result of his having taken a break of several months from the tour over the preceding Autumn and Winter following the birth of his first child, he appeared to remain committed to continuing his career on the circuit.

Although Norman is currently the oldest player on the tour, Jimmy Connors continued to compete regularly until the week of 10 May 1993 when he was 40 years and 8 months of age and played another six isolated tournaments over the three years to follow, the very last of which took place in the week of 29 April 1996 when he was 43 years and 7 months old, so Norman is not in totally uncharted territory where the men's game is concerned, despite the fact that few players nowadays continue beyond the age of 35.

He has won over ten titles on the Challenger circuit, the most recent being at Mexico City in April 2009, at the age of 38. In January 2007, he teamed with countryman Xavier Malisse to win the doubles title at the ATP event in Chennai. In early 2009 he made the conscious decision to focus more on doubles than singles, and in February he joined forces with American James Cerretani to win the doubles title at the ATP World Tour event in Johannesburg.

In 2009, Norman teamed with South African Wesley Moodie and advanced to the final of the French Open. They lost 3–6, 6–3, 6–2 to the third seeded pair of Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes. It is by far the furthest Norman has advanced in a Grand Slam tournament. It was the first time in his 19-year career that Norman had played doubles at the French Open; and only the third tournament in which Moodie (who with Stephen Huss won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2005) and Norman played together.

In the semi-final, Norman-Moodie saved three match points in a come-from-behind 0–6, 7–6, 6–4 victory over the defending champions, Bob and Mike Bryan, the second seeds. The Bryans had won the previous two Grand Slam titles, the 2008 US Open and the 2009 Australian Open. On their way to the final, Norman-Moodie had in the first round upset the seventh seed team of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram.

In finishing runner-up for the 2009 French Open title, Norman earned 78,000 euros. The finish moved him to a career-high No. 32 in the ATP Doubles Rankings.

At 38 years and 3 months, Norman is the oldest male to reach a French Open final in the Open Era. He became the fifth player aged 38 or older to play in a men's doubles Grand Slam title match – Neale Fraser (39) was runner-up at Wimbledon in 1973; Ken Rosewall (38) lost the US Open final in 1973; Sherwood Stewart (38) won the Australian Open in 1984; and Bob Hewitt (38) won Wimbledon in 1978.

Two weeks later, he won the Ordina Open with his partner Wesley Moodie. It was his first grass court title.

In November, he won the AXA Belgian Masters as oldest man in the field.

In another career highlight, Dick (along with partner Moodie) qualified for the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals. This is the first time in his career that Dick qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals. Dick and Wesley entered the final tournament of the seasons, the 2010 BNP Paribas Masters, ranked 8th. Due to Jürgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner winning 2010 Wimbledon, only the top 7 ranked pairs qualified for the Finals. Due to Dick and Wesley reaching the quarterfinals in Paris and František Cermák and Michal Mertinák failing to reach the finals in Paris, Dick and Wesley were able to secure qualification.

Grand Slam finals

Doubles (1)

Runners-up (1)

Year	Championship	Partner	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2009	French Open	Wesley Moodie	Lukáš Dlouhý Leander Paes	6–3, 3–6, 2–6

Career finals (5)

Doubles (5)

Wins (4)

Legend (pre/post 2009) Grand Slam tournaments (0) Tennis Masters Cup / ATP World Tour Finals (0) ATP Masters Series / ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0) ATP International Series Gold / ATP World Tour 500 Series (0) ATP International Series / ATP World Tour 250 Series (4)

Wins by Surface Hard (3) Clay (0) Grass (1) Carpet (0)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	Jan 8, 2007	Chennai, India	Hard	Xavier Malisse	Rafael Nadal Tomeu Salvá	7–6, 7–6
2.	Feb 8, 2009	Johannesburg, South Africa	Hard	James Cerretani	Rik de Voest Ashley Fisher	6–7, 6–2, [14–12]
3.	Jun 21, 2009	's-Hertogenbosch, Holland	Grass	Wesley Moodie	Johan Brunström Jean-Julien Rojer	7–6, 6–7, [10–5]
4.	Feb 6, 2011	Zagreb, Croatia	Hard (i)	Horia Tecău	Marcel Granollers Marc López	6–3, 6–4

External links

• Dick Norman's web-page and journal
• Dick Norman at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Norman Recent Match Results
• Norman World Ranking History

Top ten tennis players

Persondata
Name	Norman, Dick
Alternative names
Short description	tennis player
Date of birth	1 March 1971
Place of birth	Waregem, Belgium
Date of death
Place of death