Began playing tennis at age eight with his older brother, Frederic...Father, Pascal, works in the Commerce industry; mother, Raymonde, is a housewife...His uncle was European boxing champion and another uncle was World military boxing champion...Played soccer until age 12 then decided to concentrate on tennis fulltime...Most thrilling moment in sports history outside of tennis was France winning the 1998 World Cup in soccer...His favorite soccer club is Olympique Lyonnais... Enjoys listening to music of Counting Crows, favorite movie is Gladiator and CD is Rocky soundtrack...Favorite surface is carpet (taraflex) and considers backhand his best shot.