Nothing is left at home: of the 28 Frenchmen who started the tournament, none will be in the third round
On the 40th anniversary of the triumph of Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman to lift the Musketeers Cup, and 23 of the last women's victory, led by Marie Pierce, Roland Garros again goes blank in the third round of the tournament. None of the 28 local tennis players, in both individual draws, managed to put their heads in the third round. With the defeat of Arthur Rinderknech against Taylor Fritz on Thursday night, the tricolor saw all hope of seeing one of their own in the next instances of the competition blown up. Earlier, on the same day, Diane Parry left, overwhelmed by Mirra Andreeva, the 16-year-old Russian sensation, and Océane Dodin, surpassed by Ons Jabeur, seventh seed and finalist in the last edition of Wimbledon.
France lives with resignation an endemic crisis. Two years later, again nothing is left at home. The festivities for the round anniversary of Noah's triumph and the fervor of Monday night, when Gael Monfils, 36, lifted an adverse 4-0 in the fifth set against the Argentine Sebastián Báez to enter a second round that did not was able to play due to injury, leaving the way clear for Holguer Rune, have been the only joys for an audience that has learned to enjoy the temple of clay without national representatives. The adventure of Lucas Pouille also did not last long, dispatched by Cameron Norrie in his second game, once he confessed to the alcoholism problems that compromised his personal and professional life.
deferred hopes
There were many eyes on Arthur Fils, who turns 19 on the 12th, who won his first title in Lyon the week before the start of Roland Garros. Like Luca Van Assche, another of the newcomers who hints at the future, Fils found his executing arm in Alejandro Davidovich. “I think they will both be good players,” said the Spaniard after coming out ahead in two duels with a high epidermal component in the stands.
In full and long twilight the generation of Richard Gasquet and Monfils, in whom it was believed to see potential candidates for the title, no player appears in the short term that can arouse illusion. Among the women, the big disappointment was Caroline Garcia, fifth favorite, winner of the WTA Finals in 2022 and semifinalist at the US Open, who crashed in the second round against Russian Anna Blinkova, 59th.
It is not about stage fright, because the famine reaches the rest of the Grand Slam tournaments. Nor did any man reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2021. No woman made it to the 2020 Australian Open or to Wimbledon and the US Open in 2021. “The psychological aspect in the Grand Slams weighs a lot. It’s not just the tennis and the physical. It’s also the head. It takes a certain arrogance, more self-confidence,” commented Tatiana Golovin, a former US Open quarterfinalist, on Amazon Prime Video. A certain dose of chauvinism, perhaps, in the land of Lacoste, Borotra, Bugnon and Cochet, wouldn’t hurt them.