How Ferro managed to overcome his inferiority complex

Fiona Ferro is now the No. 1 tricolor on the women's circuit.

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• Fiona Ferro still hasn't lost a game since coming out of confinement.

• For a long time carrying a certain inferiority complex when she chained the eliminations in the first round of Roland Garros, the Frenchwoman knew how to work mentally.

• Now trained by Emmanuel Planque, she has all the assets to show very high, perhaps from this 2020 edition.

At Roland-Garros,

Kneel down and call her Fiona Djokovic.

Like the Serb, Fiona Ferro is undefeated since the end of confinement, and even better, since she was not disqualified anywhere along the way.

A galloping confidence and the intoxicating prophecy of Emmanuel Planque, the miracle worker of French tennis, who now presides over the destinies of the new French number 1: "I have my opinion and I will keep it to myself but I will not be amazed that she wins big tournaments and that she is top 5 ”.

On our side, we even boasted with our colleagues.

Semi-final next week, you'll read it here first.

A runaway that would have been difficult to justify two years ago, when the young girl seemed to join the long funeral procession of disappointed hopes of the training

France.

Victory for Fiona Ferro 🇫🇷

The Frenchwoman overthrows Elena Rybakina in the decisive set and wins 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 after a fight of 2:03!

The 49th world will face the Romanian Patricia Maria Tig in the third round 🎾 pic.twitter.com/FqtYtlgbTM

- France tv sport (@francetvsport) October 1, 2020

"There weren't really any expectations for me"

“So far, the last few months and years there haven't really been a lot of expectations for me.

This is something that is going to be a bit new.

I'm not sure how I'm going to manage it, ”admitted the Niçoise after qualifying for the third round.

It is because Fiona Ferro has long suffered from the impostor syndrome, despite her multiple titles of champion of France in the youth categories.

His first three invitations to Roland-Garros (2014, 2015, 2017), all ended in defeats in the first round, have long shaken a still fragile mental edifice.

“This feeling of illegitimacy, I had it when I had a lot of

at Roland and I did not win a match, she recalled recently in the

.

I had a little trouble feeling like I belonged.

On a $ 25,000 in Cherbourg or elsewhere, you may feel less judged, she describes.

But at the Australian Open or Indian Wells, big tournaments, mixed, with a lot of people, I focused a little on the eyes of others.

Obviously, when you start to think about what people think, it becomes complicated.

"

"She matured later than others"

At the time, it was Pierre Bouteyre, on the strength of his successful experience with Alizé Cornet, brought up to 11th in the world, who was responsible for unclipping the mental lock.

“Fiona was somewhat of the only Frenchwoman to go on the junior circuit in her generation.

All of her

were legitimate, except that she often fell against very strong girls in the draw.

Its progression was super linear up to the 250th place in the world, it reached this milestone quite early, but it is true that there was a little stop afterwards ”.

At 20, Ferro then made the last chance decision: to leave Bouteyre, Valbonnes, his parents, his three brothers, to find the key at the National Training Center in Paris.

With some success, it must be recognized.

“From the start, I was convinced that she would get there and that she would be at that level, or even better, Judge Bouteyre.

For me, it was obvious, given the experience I had with Alizé.

She just needed the right level of balance in her private life, she matured maybe later than she hoped but the potential was already there.

Even when she was 250th, I saw her burst from Mertens or Sakkari, she lacked a bit of continuity, but it was only a matter of time ”.

When it comes to maturity, Ferro has grown suddenly.

While everything seemed to work like on skates with Stéphane Huet, at the end of last year, with a first title and a breakthrough in the top 50, she decided to make a big sweep.

The Frenchwoman empties her locker and goes to knock on the door of Emmanuel Planque, however more used to working with boys.

Emmanuel Planque seduced by his work force

But the former coach of Lucas Pouille was immediately seduced by the work force of Ferro, whose physical density blew us away, the other night at the Central.

“She's a hell of a hard worker.

I have worked with a lot of boys and I can tell you that Fiona is like a machine ”.

She can field three or four hours of training in a row, she has no limits.

Drawing ?

During confinement, the 44th in the world did not spend her time daydreaming at the window.

It was a tennis day on the family clay court with her boyfriend, who was ranked in the 500th in the ATP, and a day devoted to physical training, with everything she could find on hand.

Those who follow her on Instagram must have looked like Captain America in early May.

I love what @fioferro 😍 @rolandgarros #ManuPlanque offers

- Lucas Pouille (@la_pouille) October 1, 2020

“When I spoke to you about its potential, that is one of the qualities that do not deceive, confirms Bouteyre.

She moves really well, and has always moved really well.

From the moment she is not injured, and that one adds this flash of arms on the forehand, she is a girl who can travel ”.

Even more since she accepted the idea that she belonged to this world, also thanks to the substantive work undertaken with Makis Chamalidis, the mental preparation man of the Federation.

“Younger, she fought a bit on her own, she was very nervous.

It is the enormous progress that I see in her today, she has especially gained in serenity, in calm, completes Bouteyre.

The match against Rybakina, it went up once in two when she was young ”.

"I can impose my game against anyone"

His former protégé shares the same analysis: “I changed my attitude and the fact of believing that I can really impose my game against anyone.

Before when I played hard hitting girls like Rybakina, I really thought I was powerless and the only way to get points was to miss.

I was playing just to make them miss.

There, it's really a big change of power ”.

Is Impostor Syndrome Gone For Good?

“During these last two years, it was a little less present and there, it is not any more.

".

We realized that.

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