When we saw him in 2009 for the first time it seemed Guillaume Rufin born on 26th May 1990 would have a quicker way up than he actually did. Especially that coming from a country like France is an advantage comparing to Eastern European talents.

Rufin comes from Viriat (Eastern France), resides in Charnay and is a son of Emmanuel and Anne. He has a brother named Xavier. He is 188cm tall and played right hand (double-handed backhand). He is sponsored by Adidas (if you think it could be Lacoste... they are not too quick with offering sponsorship to upcoming young French) and his racquet is Wilson. Although he considers hardcourt as his favourite surface, he's been also achieving success on clay. Computers are his hobby.

Already back in 2009 he was coached by Emmanuel Planque and travelled with his coach and his friend Axel Michon (who is actually far from being a good hardcourter, so maybe that's why they were mostly choosing clay). Rufin reached his career high #139 on 1st March 2010. In 2009 he won his first challenger in Florianopolis and also beat Eduardo Schwank in the first round of Roland Garros, where he had received a Wild Card. He looked like a player able to think on court, with decent serve for this level of circuit, but his lack of experience managed to shine through in some critical situations.

He tries to take advantage in the rally from the very first ball, but he sometimes manages to succeed with it, sometimes not, so the scores look the way they look. At the net his skills are like every French guy's, so you know what to expect.

His career stopped until late 2011 mainly because of the hip injury. He also tends to pull muscles sometimes.

Rufin is nicely seen in France among the officials because the regularly participates in winter camps organized by the federation. Exercises include general shaping and - among other things - skiing. If there's no snow they are biking.

Nathii and Marta
photo: TA

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