Nicolas Escude interview

Riosfan · Aug 24, 2010

Any one a fan of this exciting French player? He had a very fluid natural game, very good serve and shotmaking, though he never won any Masters Series or Slams, he did lead France to win the Davis Cup with two huge wins on grass in Melbourne over Hewitt and Arthurs which was in the prime of Hewitt. Helluva player beset by injuries. He is at the US Open this week for qualies and did this Q&A which is a good read, with a funny Safin story...

http://tennis-prose.com/articles/biofile-with-nicolas-escude/

Shaolin · Aug 24, 2010

Escude was one of my favorite players, as well as Rios. Awesome all court game. Too bad about all the injuries.

BorgFan123 · Aug 24, 2010

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...a=X&ei=bIZ0TL6ZAYH6lwfN74GxBg&ved=0CCoQ9QEwBA

pjonesy · Aug 24, 2010

Shaolin said:
Escude was one of my favorite players, as well as Rios. Awesome all court game. Too bad about all the injuries.

Its interesting that you mentioned Rios. I have always felt that Rios was one of the most relaxed and effective tennis players I've ever seen. It just seemed like he always was able to hit the right shot at the right time, with ease. Tons of variety and creativity on the court.

Anyway, back to Escude. He hit with so much pace, with what seemed like minimal effort. He was incredibly coordinated, hit very hard and rarely missed. When he did miss, it was only by a centimeter. I remember him playing Agassi once and they were just killing the ball. They were locked in during rallies, hitting so hard and so accurately. All you saw in that match were winners and forced errors.

BorgFan123 · Aug 24, 2010

pjonesy said:
Its interesting that you mentioned Rios. I have always felt that Rios was one of the most relaxed and effective tennis players I've ever seen. It just seemed like he always was able to hit the right shot at the right time, with ease. Tons of variety and creativity on the court.

Anyway, back to Escude. He hit with so much pace, with what seemed like minimal effort. He was incredibly coordinated, hit very hard and rarely missed. When he did miss, it was only by a centimeter. I remember him playing Agassi once and they were just killing the ball. They were locked in during rallies, hitting so hard and so accurately. All you saw in that match were winners and forced errors.

What do you think about Wayne Arthurs, sir?

Riosfan · Aug 24, 2010

Rios and Escude were two players who just looked different than the rest of the pack and played with a different one of a kind flair and motion.

Riosfan · Aug 24, 2010

When thinking of Arthurs, you think of the deadly lefty serve and the hard knocks career that, what he suffered through failing to qualify for over a what dozen slam qualies then finally found success late in his career. Talk about a Rocky Balboa story in tennis. Then he had some amazing comeback matches at the end of his career in slams which were quite dramatic. A very memorable career in it's own way. Wayno

BorgFan123 · Aug 24, 2010

Riosfan said:
When thinking of Arthurs, you think of the deadly lefty serve and the hard knocks career that, what he suffered through failing to qualify for over a what dozen slam qualies then finally found success late in his career. Talk about a Rocky Balboa story in tennis. Then he had some amazing comeback matches at the end of his career in slams which were quite dramatic. A very memorable career in it's own way. Wayno

I heard Nicolas Escudé won the decisive fifth rubber against Arthur in four sets. I can't remember the year... Is that 2001 David Cup Final?

nfor304 · Aug 25, 2010

it was 2001, on a temporary grass court in rod laver arena which was pretty weird, and with the roof closed. Arthurs played because rafters shoulder injury had flared up again.

nfor304 · Aug 25, 2010

escudes rise through the rankings was pretty interesting. In 96 he was ranked in the 700's while his rivals from the juniors like rios kuerton and lapentti were all around the top 50. In late 96 and early 97 he had some good results and cut his ranking to the top 50 too. I remember reading and interview with him and he said he played exactly the same as he did when he was ranked 700, but the difference was after seeing rios etc and their success he started to believe in himself and what he was capable of.

pjonesy · Aug 25, 2010

BorgFan123 said:
What do you think about Wayne Arthurs, sir?

Big serving lefty, flat strokes and traditional net player. Arthurs had a pretty straight ahead game, not much flash or flair. If I recall correctly, he played well into his 30s and notched a few big wins late in his career. The bottom line, his serve was very dangerous on a fast surface.

BorgFan123 · Aug 25, 2010

pjonesy said:
Big serving lefty, flat strokes and traditional net player. Arthurs had a pretty straight ahead game, not much flash or flair. If I recall correctly, he played well into his 30s and notched a few big wins late in his career. The bottom line, his serve was very dangerous on a fast surface.

On hard court or clay court, sir. Thanks.

db379 · Aug 25, 2010

Nice find! I really liked Escude, great player, great shot maker.

This part of the interview is hilarious:

Funny Tennis Memory: “Doubles in Rotterdam, I was playing with Rosset against Safin and Kiefer. There was great moments. Marc missed easy smashes and me and Marat were laughing, we were on the floor, during play, 10 or 15 minutes. Unbelievable. Rosset was missing – he was on the net – he kept missing. Miss the ball. We were on the floor.”

obsessedtennisfandisorder · Aug 25, 2010

Yeah, Nico had some bad luck with injuries too...just as he
appeared to get a roll on and get his ranking up there he got an injury...He was looking good in late 99, and then from memory he got injured and had to sit out some tournys and then again around 2002-2003 he got injured again when he could have done something big around that time..similar to scud's injury woes. REally he was the only player to really test dre on his 03 AO run.
Nice vid of him talking here wit rafter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzJUZTDsbZ0&feature=related
I first heard of him at the 98 Aussie Open.

Shaolin · Aug 25, 2010

pjonesy said:
Its interesting that you mentioned Rios. I have always felt that Rios was one of the most relaxed and effective tennis players I've ever seen. It just seemed like he always was able to hit the right shot at the right time, with ease. Tons of variety and creativity on the court.

Anyway, back to Escude. He hit with so much pace, with what seemed like minimal effort. He was incredibly coordinated, hit very hard and rarely missed. When he did miss, it was only by a centimeter. I remember him playing Agassi once and they were just killing the ball. They were locked in during rallies, hitting so hard and so accurately. All you saw in that match were winners and forced errors.

Yeah Rios was my favorite player ever, effortless power, great touch, like a combination of Agassi and McEnroe, with catlike movement/balance also. Too bad he didnt have his mental game in order or he would have a few majors.

Riosfan · Aug 25, 2010

Shaolin, I'ma huge Rios fan also. Did you know there's a book coming out next year on Rios? Should be good. It's not with Rios cooperation but about his tennis career.

Would love to see the video of that doubles match with players on the floor laughing for ten minutes. Rosset must have been a character. We need some Rossets these days.

Elina · Aug 26, 2010

Thanks for posting that interview. Escudé was one of my favourite players all his active career.

pjonesy · Aug 26, 2010

BorgFan123 said:
On hard court or clay court, sir. Thanks.

I suppose you are correct. I certainly remember seeing him play, but I can't say that I followed his progress during the tennis season. It just seemed like his name always came up more often at Wimbledon, US Open or the Australian Open.

pjonesy · Aug 26, 2010

Shaolin said:
Yeah Rios was my favorite player ever, effortless power, great touch, like a combination of Agassi and McEnroe, with catlike movement/balance also. Too bad he didnt have his mental game in order or he would have a few majors.

I can't believe he did not win the French. I never really thought about the McEnroe comparison, but he did have a great lefty serve and excellent touch. Being lefthanded did give him an advantage, but IMO his greatest attributes were his ability to take the ball extremely early and disguise the directions of his groundstrokes.

Gizo · Aug 27, 2010

I fondly remember his 2 excellent 5 set wins over Hewitt on grass in 2001, in the 4th round at Wimbledon (Hewitt had won his last 13 matches) and the Davis Cup Final.

Shaolin · Aug 27, 2010

Riosfan said:
Shaolin, I'ma huge Rios fan also. Did you know there's a book coming out next year on Rios? Should be good. It's not with Rios cooperation but about his tennis career.

Thats cool..thx for the info. I'll check that out.

pjonesy said:
I can't believe he did not win the French. I never really thought about the McEnroe comparison, but he did have a great lefty serve and excellent touch. Being lefthanded did give him an advantage, but IMO his greatest attributes were his ability to take the ball extremely early and disguise the directions of his groundstrokes.

Yeah Rios should have won the French, I remember in 1998 Rios playing Moya and they said Rios has ''just woken up from a nap'' when he played, (and it looked like he wasnt awake too). He lost and of course Moya won RG but I think Marcelo would have won that match if he took it more seriously. Rios definitely took his talent for granted but when he played well it was amazing.

Mustard · Aug 27, 2010

Escude twice beat Hewitt in 5 sets on grass in 2001, in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon and in the Davis Cup final as he helped France to victory over Australia.

Edit: Gizo beat me to it.

rod99 · Aug 28, 2010

rios was a miserable human being. great talent but terrible as a person.

Nicolas Escude interview

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Hall of Fame

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