Full name Claude N'Goran Plays Left-handed Career titles 0 Weight 83 kg Handed Left-handed | Country (sports) Ivory Coast Career record 9–14 Height 1.9 m Prize money 44,203 USD | |
Born 18 March 1975 (age 41)
Adzopé, Cote d'Ivoire ( 1975-03-18 ) Highest ranking No. 200 (7 August 1995) | ||
Claude N'Goran (born 18 March 1975) is a former professional tennis player from the Ivory Coast.
Biography
Born in Adzopé, N'Goran grew up in a family of 13 in the city of Abidjan, the son of a auto factory worker and a homemaker. He learned to play tennis with self-made wooden paddles, as they couldn't afford proper rackets. One of his seven brothers is tennis player Clement N'Goran.
N'Goran, a big serving left-handed player, is the most capped Ivorian Davis Cup representative in history. In total he featured in 94 matches across 45 ties, from 1990 to 2008, for 53 overall wins, 37 in singles. He also represented the Ivory Coast at the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the men's doubles competition. Partnering his brother, Clement, the Ivorians won their first round match over Chinese Taipei, then exited in the round of 16 to the third seeded Dutch pairing, Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis. He was a member of Ivory Coast's gold medal winning team at the 1999 All-Africa Games.
During his professional career he played mostly on the Challenger and Futures/Satellite circuits. He had a win over Carlos Moyá at the Tampere Open in 1995 and won a total of four Challenger titles, all in doubles. At ATP Tour level he appeared in the main draw of three tournaments, the first was the 1995 Lipton Championships (Miami Masters), which he entered as a qualifier and lost in the first round to MaliVai Washington. His next appearances were in the doubles events in Toulouse, where he was based. He participated in the tournament twice, with brother Clement in 1996 and Lionel Barthez in 2000.