Agénor, Ronald

Tennis player – The son of a former diplomat at the United Nations and Minister of Agriculture of Haiti, Ronald Agénor has sustained one of the longest careers in the history of the game of tennis (19 years).

Born in Rabat, Morocco in 1964. He is the youngest of six children and started to play tennis in Congo, Africa, and discovered competitive tennis in Bordeaux, France, at age 14. Under the wing of his brother Lionel, he was able to combine intensive training and competition while attending high school. Ronald turned pro and earned his first ATP point in 1983 and was ranked #793 in the world. Since then, he has scored wins against world’s greatest players such as, André Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Brad Gilbert, Mats Wilander, Yannick Noah, Thomas Muster, Peter Korda, Guillermo Vilas, and Michael Stich, to name a few.

Nicknamed ” The Haitian Sensation ” or “l’Haitien de Bordeaux”, He won 3 ATP tour tiltes, was a quarter finalist at the French Open, and reached the fourth round at both the US Open and the French Open in 1988.

In 1987, he made history by playing against Yannick Noah from France, in what would be the first all black male ATP Tour tennis final in men’s professional tennis history. In 1999, at 35 years of age, he became the oldest player to reach the top 100 in the world since Jimmy Connors did it in 1991.