Éric Prodon
Eric Prodon (born June 27, 1981 in Paris, France) is a French professional tennis player.
Juniors career
Prodon had a long career in Juniors, playing from 1997 to 1999 and reaching year-end #28 in 1998. In matches against future top pros, he beat Mikhail Youzhny and Julien Benneteau in 1997. Early in 1998, he lost to Jarkko Nieminen, and late in the year, he beat Roger Federer, Karol Beck, and Guillermo Coria in successive rounds at Eddie Herr before losing to David Nalbandian in the final. He then beat Youzhny again after that in the Orange Bowl. Early in 1999, he had a great Australian hard court run, beating Nieminen and splitting matches with Kristian Pless in finals two weeks in a row. In March, 1999, he lost to Coria and [Paul-Henri Mathieu]] in successive finals. In May, he lost to Nieminen again, but beat him and Karol Beck the next week in the French Open before losing again to Nalbandian in the quarters. In June in England on the grass, he lost to Mardy Fish in a final. In the summer, back on clay, he beat Tommy Robredo and Boris Pashanski but lost to Igor Kunitsyn. And finally in his next to last match as a junior, he lost to Danai Udomchoke in September in Canada.[1]
Professional career
2000 to 2006
Prodon's transition to the pro tour was a rocky one. While he first entered the top-300 in late 2000 as a 19 year old, he spent most of 2001 in the 300's before getting back down into the 230's late in 2002. He faded again to the 300's in 2003 and 2004 before getting back down to the 230's again in late 2004 and early 2005, but an injury in February kept him out for 7 months. Another injury in April, 2006 kept him off the court the rest of the year. So he spent most of 2005 and 2006 ranked outside the top-500.
2007: A Breakthrough Year
Prodon returned to the tour in mid-February, 2007, ranked #683, and won Italy F1 in his first tournament back from a 10 month layoff. His ranking continued to slip, despite some Futures success, and by the time he got to Scotland for a Futures tournament in May, he was #721.
But he then went on a tear on the Futures circuit, winning 4 of 7 titles and finishing as the runner-up in the other three while touring Scotland, Algeria, Poland, Belarus, and France, compiling a 32-3 match record during that stretch, to improve his ranking to #290 by mid-July.
He followed that up with a Challenger championship in Finland, beating #116 Raemon Sluiter and #100 Peter Luczak to reach a career-high ranking of #226. In August, he made two straight Challenger finals in Italy and Germany to break into the top-200 for the first time and reach #165, beating #250 Davide Sanguinetti, #117 Boris Pashanski, and #136 Bohdan Ulihrach while losing to #116 Jiri Vanek and #289 Ivo Minar.
The rest of his year was a bust, going just 2-7 in Challengers, with a win over #657 Martin Verkerk and 2 straight losses to #224 Thomaz Bellucci, as well as losses to #90 Luczak and #113 Fabio Fognini to end the year ranked at career-high of #158 at the age of 26.
2008
Prodon continued to be injury-free and making some progress in early 2008. He started the year winning a Challenger in Miami, beating wild card Jan-Michael Gambill along the way. Then he tried and failed to qualify into 3 consecutive ATP stops in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, losing to #60 Oscar Hernandez, #95 Nicolas Lapentti, and #157 Daniel Gimeno-Traver. He struggle in his return to Challengers in March and April, winning just 1 of 4 matches while losing to #125 Flavio Cipolla and twice to #165 Christophe Rochus.