Game, set and match for tennis star Rosset
Swiss tennis player and former Olympic gold medallist Marc Rosset is to retire from the game after this week's Swiss Indoors tournament.
Rosset has won 15 singles and eight doubles titles over 17 years, but will also be remembered as a colourful and sometimes rebellious character.
The 35-year-old, who hails from Geneva, said on Tuesday that the Swiss Indoors would be his last professional tennis tournament.
Rosset is playing doubles in the tournament, which is taking place in Basel. In his first match on Tuesday he and doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka lost to Tomas Berdych and Jiri Novak 6-3, 6-3.
“My career already ended six months back,” said Rosset, who last played singles on the main tour in October 2004.
“But my friends told me I should do one last lap, do this officially,” he said.
Highlights
The Swiss, whose biggest success was winning the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992, turned pro in 1988.
“But, for me, the highlight was reaching the top ten,” said Rosset, whose ATP ranking peaked at world number nine.
“Barcelona was clearly a superb moment in my life, but being in the top ten is the sort of thing you dream of when you’re a kid.”
Rosset reached the semi-finals of the French Open in 1996 and won the doubles there in 1992.
The player was also part of the Swiss team that lost the 1992 Davis Cup final to the United States, despite Rosset’s impressive singles victory over then-world number one Jim Courier.
Rebel
Arguably one of Switzerland’s most talented male tennis players – until the arrival of current world number one Roger Federer – Rosset was also a formidable character off the court, variously described by journalists as a rebel, a sulk and an outsider.
“I never considered myself a rebel but I was always shy – and I think sometimes I tried to over-compensate and start saying things just to get reactions from people,” Rosset said.
“It wasn’t really me, but then that was the image I had for the next 15 years.”
Earlier this year Rosset was relieved of his captaincy of the Swiss Davis Cup team ahead of a World Group playoff against Britain because of a reported breakdown in trust between him and the players.
In 1998 he cheated death when the Swissair flight he was booked on crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all on board. Rosset had decided to stay on and practice in New York after losing in the first round of the US Open.
In terms of the future, Rosset said he is spending a lot of time on a Moroccan children’s charity and is also planning to open a restaurant in Geneva with Ukrainian former world number four Andrei Medvedev.
In total, the Swiss won 433 singles matches on Tour, earning nearly $7 million (SFr9 million) in the process.
swissinfo with agencies
Geneva-born Marc Rosset is 35-years-old.
He currently resides in Monaco.
The player is two metres tall.
He is right-handed.
Rosset turned professional in 1988.
Rosset’s biggest success was winning the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992.
His highest ranking in 17 years on the ATP Tour was ninth in 1995, but he has since dropped to 674th.
Rosset has a 433-351 career singles record, with 15 singles and eight doubles titles.
He has won almost $7 million (SFr9 million) in prize money.
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