Younes El Aynaoui
 |
|
| Country (sports) |
 Morocco
|
|---|---|
| Residence | Rabat, Morocco |
| Born |
12 September 1971 Rabat, Morocco |
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Turned pro | 1990 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
| Prize money | $4,044,301 |
| Singles | |
| Career record | 265–227 |
| Career titles | 5 |
| Highest ranking | No. 14 (11 March 2003) |
| Grand Slam Singles results | |
| Australian Open | QF (2000, 2003) |
| French Open | 4R (1995, 2000) |
| Wimbledon | 3R (2000, 2001, 2003) |
| US Open | QF (2002, 2003) |
| Other tournaments | |
| Olympic Games | 2R (1992) |
| Doubles | |
| Career record | 24–56 |
| Career titles | 0 |
| Highest ranking | No. 85 (14 July 2003) |
Younes El Aynaoui (Arabic: يونس العيناوي) (born 12 September 1971) is a retired professional tennis player from Morocco of French descent.
He is a five-time singles winner on the ATP Tour and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 in March 2003, at the age of 31. His long career has been plagued by injuries and he did not play competitive tennis between September 2008 and January 2010. However, in December 2009 he scheduled to play at the ATP Champions Tour tournament in London, where he made his debut at the senior tour.
El Aynaoui is an extremely popular figure in Morocco. He received a gold medal – the nation's highest sporting honor – from King Mohammed VI. In a 2003 poll by leading Moroccan newspaper L'Economiste, readers named El Aynaoui their favorite role model for society, ahead of the prime minister and athletics star Hicham El Guerrouj. The center court of the Royal Tennis Club in Marrakech is named after El Aynaoui.
In 1990, at the age of 18, El Aynaoui traveled to Bradenton, Florida, to spend a week at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, after which he decided to turn professional. He continued to hone his skills at the academy for the next two years where, in order to afford the fees, he drove the academy bus, cleaned the gym, strung rackets, tossed practice balls to campers, and helped to babysit younger players. He also saved money in a high interest account.
In 1993, he reached his first top-level Grand Prix singles final in Casablanca, where he lost to the Argentinian player Guillermo Pérez Roldán.
After finishing runner-up in three tour events in 1996, El Aynaoui suffered a broken right ankle. He had surgery on his ankle in November that year, but the injury continued to cause him problems. He missed seven months of the season in 1997 and had a second surgery in February 1998. He returned to the tour that summer ranked World Number 444, and enjoyed a run of strong results. He won five Challenger series tournaments and finished runner-up at one top-level event in Santiago. By the end of the year he had improved his ranking to World Number 49, and was named the ATP's Comeback Player of the Year for 1998.
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