Pro tennis player, he re-tapes his neighbor's court to train

• At 21, Arthur Reymond was in 589th place in the ATP ranking when the coronavirus caused the suspension of the professional tennis circuit on March 12.
• To keep fit (and morale), the young player from Villemur-sur-Tarn (Haute-Garonne) embarked on a major project with his father: making his neighbor’s court run again, abandoned from a decade.

Whether professional or classified 30/5, all tennis players are housed in the same boat in this infancy: it is only possible to play in singles, and only outside, until further notice. In other words, you have to stay at home when it rains heavily like Monday in the Southwest. This is what Arthur Reymond, 589th world player and member of the Stade Toulousain, did.

"I'm going to try to" type "with friends, but I don't have a specific program," he says at 20 Minutes . Tournaments will not resume until August, at the earliest. In the meantime, the 21-year-old left-hander, deprived of his passion and his livelihood for two months, touches "zero income". "It's a bit of a complicated situation," he breathes.

🎾 The resumption of tennis in clubs is official this Monday, May 11!
📺 Discover good practices with @ ppauline86 and @julienbenneteau ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YvLBBwLBJU

In the absence of a clear prospect of recovery, depression sometimes awaits. But the young man is of the voluntary and resourceful kind. He proved it at the very beginning of confinement, by rehabilitating with his father a clay court which had not seen a racket for ten years. The land, in Villemur-sur-Tarn (Haute-Garonne), belongs to a neighbor of the Reymond family, who is also president of the local tennis club. And, to use a local term, the result "hoped" for quite a few people, when it was unveiled on the Tennis Legend blog.

#Containment Legend. To be able to train, the French Arthur Reymond, 589th in the world, repaired for two weeks, from A to Z with his father, the clay ground of his neighbor. The result is monstrous! Before, after, during, here is the evolution of the court in pictures. pic.twitter.com/GxSPr4W9b7

"He always carries out his projects from A to Z"

"Basically, we just wanted a place to make baskets of balls, services," says Arthur. In the end, we did the whole field. »« He always carries out his projects from A to Z, he will never stop at the letter S! ", Underlines Laurent, the father who has the sense of the formula. Certificates in hand, the pair sweated for two weeks at the rate of one hour per day, to retype the court, by tinkering with tools. Convenient to maintain your physique.

"At the end of each hour, I hit the ball for a minute or two, just to enjoy," smiled Arthur. Once the job finished, he was able to repeat his ranges against his father, "classified 30, but who plays 15/1 or 15/2, certifies the son. The terrain is more than adequate, even after two weeks of rain. I played it again on Sunday. "

"I will try to organize a small tournament with six players"

However, nothing replaces the thrills of competition for a tennis fanatic, who started his sport at the age of five, and has been on the move, in France and abroad, for five good seasons. "I will try to organize a small six-player tournament in two or three weeks, when everyone has started again. "

Because the states of form are disparate among the pros of the yellow ball, who do not necessarily have the means to have a court at home, like certain cadors, or the possibility of rebuilding one near them. "The first question we ask is," when will the circuit resume? " "Admits Arthur Reymond.

The tennis solidarity fund endowed with 6 million dollars https://t.co/eMt588sDI6

What about the idea of ​​a tennis solidarity fund, fed by the highest ranked players - and therefore the richest - and by the biggest tournaments for those deprived of resources? "It would be a very good initiative, but we're not going to ask for money," said the Toulousain. When you enter the circuit, you don't just do that for the financial aspect. We live to chain tournaments. I don't have a classification objective, I just want to progress, to flourish. This is how the results will follow. "

Like last October, during the ITF Nevers tournament. Then only ranked 839th, Arthur Reymond had knocked down two “Top 300”, including his compatriot Quentin Halys (184th) in the final, to win his first title in singles with the pros. The road to a second coronation is as uncertain as the current general context. But it will necessarily go through the clay of Villemur-sur-Tarn, whether the tennis-handyman intends to continue to tread, deconfinement or not.

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• Deconfinement
• Covid 19
• ATP
• Toulouse
• Confinement
• Coronavirus
• Tennis
• Sport