Nicolas Jean-Christophe Escudé (born 3 April 1976 in Chartres) is a former professional tennis player from France, who turned professional in 1995. He won four singles titles and two doubles titles during his career.

Escudé is best remembered for the vital role he played in the 2001 Davis Cup final against Australia on the grass-courts of Melbourne. Escudé beat the recently crowned World No. 1, Lleyton Hewitt in the first rubber with a superb win in 5 sets, repeating what he did to Hewitt earlier that year in the fourth round of Wimbledon. Two days later, Escudé won the decisive fifth rubber for France against Wayne Arthurs in four sets.

The right-hander reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour on 26 June 2000, when he became World No. 17. He's a natural left-hander who was trained since a child to play right-handed but does everything else lefty. His brother Julien Escudé is a professional football player, who currently plays for Sevilla FC.

In 2006, he announced his immediate retirement from the sport due to a persistent shoulder injury that had been keeping him out of the professional tennis circuit for the past 22 months.

Lleyton Glynn Hewitt ( /ˈleɪtən ˈhjuːɨt/; born 24 February 1981) is an Australian professional tennis player and former world no. 1, who has a current ATP ranking of 176.

Hewitt is the youngest male ever to be ranked no. 1 at the age of 20. His career achievements include winning the 2000 US Open men's doubles, the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon men's singles, and back-to-back Tennis Masters Cup titles (2001 and 2002). In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put Hewitt in 34th place on its list of the 40 greatest tennis players since 1965.

Hewitt might well have followed in the footsteps of his Australian rules football-playing father Glynn. Instead, he became one of the youngest winners of an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament when, as an almost unknown youngster, he won the 1998 Next Generation Adelaide International, defeating Andre Agassi in the semifinals. Only Aaron Krickstein winning Tel Aviv in 1983 and Michael Chang winning San Francisco in 1988 were younger when claiming their first ATP title. Hewitt then left Immanuel College to concentrate on his tennis career.. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

Peter "Pete" Sampras (/ˈsæmprəs/; born August 12, 1971) is a retired Greek–American tennis player and former world number 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Sampras debuted on the professional tour in 1988 and played his last top-level tournament in 2002 when he won the US Open, defeating rival Andre Agassi in the final. He was the year-end world no. 1 for six consecutive years (1993–1998), a record for the open era. His seven Wimbledon singles championships are also an Open Era record. He spent 286 weeks at no. 1, the most of any male player. His five US Open singles titles is an Open Era record shared with former world no. 1 players Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer. Sampras is the last American male to win Wimbledon (2000) and the ATP World Tour Finals (1999).

Julien Escudé (born 17 August 1979) is a French footballer who plays for Sevilla FC in Spain, as a central defender.

Escudé began his professional career at AS Cannes, playing one season in the second division. After some solid performances, on 26 July 1999, the 20-year-old joined top level club Stade Rennais FC, then managed by young Paul Le Guen, where he gradually developed into a first division player, amassing nearly 150 official appearances.

In the 2003 summer, Escudé signed with Dutch side AFC Ajax, scoring six times in his first two seasons combined for the Amsterdam Arena outfit, and winning the Eredivisie title in his first year. In August 2005, after a defeat against Feyenoord, he fell out of favour with manager Danny Blind, and never played a match afterwards.

In January 2006, Escudé signed for Sevilla FC in La Liga, for €1.5 million. His league debut came on 11 February, as he played nine minutes in a 4–0 win at Andalusia neighbours Cádiz CF; in the following round, he played the entire 1–0 home success against Celta de Vigo.

Richard Gasquet (French pronunciation: [ʁiʃaʁ ɡasˈkɛ]) (born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He won the mixed doubles Grand Slam title at the 2004 French Open, partnering Tatiana Golovin. His highest ranking in singles is #7. His best achievements in tennis are reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2007 and later that year qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup. Gasquet is best known for his long winding groundstrokes and his one-handed backhand.

Richard Gasquet was born in Béziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. He is the only child in the family. He began playing tennis at the age of 4 under the guidance of his father, Francis, who ran a tennis club, the TC Sérignan, along with his mother Maryse. He appeared on the cover of French Tennis Magazine aged only 9, and was touted as an extremely promising prospect even at such an early age. He was coached by his father during his junior career, and by Tarik Benhabiles for a short period. Since turning professional he has been coached by Eric Deblicker and Guillame Peyre. In February 2010, he hired coach Gabriel Markus, who has worked with Marat Safin and David Nalbandian in the past.