And the winner is… Luca van Assche.

The young 17-year-old won the Roland-Garros junior title this Saturday, beating Arthur Fils in the final to conclude a tournament in which the last four was 100% French.

Stronger, fresher too, van Assche won in two sets (6-4, 6-2), to succeed Geoffrey Blancaneaux, the last French winner in the category in 2016. “I am happy, very happy to win this tournament, here in France, blew the winner after the meeting.

It's cool !

"

What if it was the long-awaited succession among the Blues, after the catastrophic results of this 2021 edition among the adults?

The question will not fail to be asked of these four, even if it should not be too much to bathe them with that.

Everyone is well aware of the difficulty that the transition to seniors represents.

A Grand Slam title in the anti-chamber can be promising - Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Fabrice Santoro, Henri Leconte are good examples - but does not guarantee anything.

"We work a lot to have the same career as them in the future," Luca observes.

There were four of us in the semi-finals, we know we're competitive, we all want to win.

We just have to keep going, work hard.

"

"I know this is only a step"

The four boys went through the Pôle France de Poitiers, which specializes in training young people from 13 to 16 years old, and from which one in two players selected for the French team has come from over the past ten years. To talk about the four semi-finalists (with Sean Cuenin and Giovanni Mpetshi-Perricard), they have known each other since childhood and inspire each other. “When you see one win, you want the same,” said van Assche. These are the basics of what could look like a great generation for French tennis.

The ambition is there, in any case.

We felt it while listening to Fils and Mpetshi-Perricard, very posed in press conference after their victorious quarter-final.

Van Assche is made of the same wood.

“I'm super happy and proud of myself, but I know it's only a step.

It is not my goal in my career [to win “only” the junior tournament], ”he said.

We like that.

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