In the heat of the 2023 Roland-Garros vintage, a small court overshadows the majestic Philippe-Chatrier, Suzanne-Lenglen and Simonne-Mathieu: court number 14, the largest of the annex courts, offers since the beginning of the Roland-Garros fortnight an atmosphere of madness as soon as a Frenchman or a French woman shows up. And it brings luck to the tricolors, more accustomed to the taste of defeat in recent years.

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Luca Van Assche can attest to this. The 19-year-old French tennis player experienced his baptism in Grand Slam on Monday, May 29. Carried by the public despite his closed and concentrated face, he dispatched in three authoritarian sets the Italian Marco Cecchinato (6-1, 6-1, 6-3). The latter was not a loser of the year Porte d'Auteuil, as evidenced by his semi-final at Roland-Garros in 2018.

"With the help of the public, it's always much easier for us, the French, we are pushed from beginning to end. It was super cool for me to play in front of them. I managed to free myself, and I had a very good match," said Luca Van Assche after his performance. "As the game progresses, you often get chills when you hear the whole audience singing around you."

An audience capable of carrying its favorites but also of making their opponents unpin. Marco Cecchinato was quickly put under pressure. From the warm-up, while the two opponents were throwing balls at each other, the audience took a malicious pleasure in screaming with joy when Luca touched the ball and booing when it was the turn of the Italian in a ping-pong of onomatopoeia. He also did not hesitate to box the Italian at the slightest challenge or gesture of annoyance. The Palermo native ended up throwing his racket in frustration at what he called "his worst match at Roland Garros".

Other Frenchmen have made it their official address for the tournament. Lucas Pouille played there and won all three of his matches in the qualifying week. He then asked Amélie Mauresmo, the tournament director, for permission to play her first round. And after his splendid victory against the Austrian Jurij Rodionov (6-2, 6-4, 6-3), the show was still at the rendezvous with a Marseillaise sung like the nights of victory in the Davis Cup.

🇫🇷 The beautiful story continues for Lucas Pouille at Roland-Garros!
After getting out of qualifying, he continues in the big draw.
A lot of emotions on court 14 🥳 #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/Fvm4Qcov0u

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2023

"People ... maybe push me like I've never been pushed here," said Lucas Pouille, who was thought to have been lost to tennis – he hadn't reached the second round of a Grand Slam since the 2019 US Open. And he could see himself staying on court number 14 until the end of the tournament.

An arena to which "everyone can have access"

The French audience of this short is not chauvinistic. You just have to have his favors. The Swiss Stan Wawrinka, winner in 2015 of the Parisian Grand Slam, made the show from the top of his 38 years and found in the encouragement the strength to resist four and a half hours of fight against the Spaniard Albert Ramos-Viñolas (7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 1-6, 6-4). "It's quite a compact field, quite small. The public is very close and, above all, everyone can have access to it. As soon as there are interesting matches, there is a lot of atmosphere. There were a lot of young people, a lot of kids, so it's pretty cool," he said.

🎾 #RolandGarros | Stan Wawrinka 🇨🇭 finds the 2nd round of a Grand Slam!

🤩 The Swiss puts on a show and offers himself a moment of communion with Court 14.

▶ Follow the matches live on: https://t.co/QcnMbW4Uvz pic.twitter.com/JI1IvQF6MT

— francetvsport (@francetvsport) May 29, 2023

The short number 14 is now starting to have its little reputation. To access it, the queues are now huge. Sometimes you have to wait a whole hour to have the chance to access it. It must be said that seats are expensive: the largest of the small courts has only 2,200 seats, which is accessible with any ticket.

"The spiritual heir of number1"

How to explain its success? Perhaps by its format. Created in 2018 in place of a gymnasium, this small buried bowl looks like a real gladiatorial arena. The spectators access their benches by descending steps and are as close as possible to the players, feeling the intensity of each blow. We are so close to it that we see the beads of sweat beading on the faces of players strained by the heat.

Cap mandatory to spend the day, under penalty of nasty sunburn. Arena buried at the very west of the Porte d'Auteuil, the court does not offer a square meter of shade. To drink, the gourds have to be well filled otherwise you will have to go through the long queue again. Or you have to rely on the court maintenance agents, who take pleasure in watering the public in addition to the clay at the time of the interruption.

"It is simply the spiritual heir of court number 1," whispers a regular of the fortnight and court number 14. A reference to the mythical oval court of Roland-Garros, razed in 2019 to make way for the garden of the Musketeers and sponsors. This court, historically located in the shadow of Court Philippe-Chatrier, has left an immeasurable void in the hearts of French tennis fans that court number 14 now seems to fill.

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