Romain Rouillard (interview by Jacques Vendroux) 06h00, June 02, 2023

At the microphone of Jacques Vendroux, Yannick Noah returns, in an exceptional podcast, on his coronation at Roland-Garros in 1983. 40 years later, the last Frenchman to win on the Parisian clay gives his backstage behind the scenes. A performance born of a fierce hatred of the defeat forged a year earlier.

"I grew up in a culture where getting to the semi-finals is already not bad." The famous maxim taken up by Pierre de Coubertin, assuring that "the important thing is to participate", has never found favor in the eyes of Yannick Noah. On the tennis court, nothing counts more than victory for the one who is already preparing his triumph at Roland-Garros. But before capsizing the public of the Porte d'Auteuil, the Franco-Cameroonian participated, in 1982, in the Davis Cup campaign that led the France team to the final, lost to the United States. However, during this epic, it is another event totally foreign to tennis that germinates in him this hatred of defeat.

Head to the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium in Seville where, on the eve of the Davis Cup quarter-final against Czechoslovakia, the football France team challenged Germany, or rather West Germany, in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup. A cruel evening for the Blues led by Michel Platini, beaten on penalties after an anthology match (3-3). A meeting also marked by the kamikaze exit of goalkeeper Harald Schumacher on poor Patrick Battiston, evacuated on stretcher, unconscious, his body raised from spasms. "We lose an imperdable match," recalls Yannick Noah. "We lead 3-1, we are stronger than them! And the day after the defeat, L'Équipe, which at the time was the Bible titled 'Formidable' or 'extraordinary', something like that." A state of mind that does not suit the native of Sedan.

Breaking the Curse

"And I was like, 'No... I'm not great if I lose in the semis. And I'm going to fight against these people," says Noah at the microphone of Jacques Vendroux. The Habs then set course for their number 1 goal. The one that none of his compatriots has managed to reach so far: lifting the trophy at Roland-Garros. A tournament he left in the quarterfinals in 1982, beaten by the Argentine Guillermo Vilas. "In 1983, I thought I could win. I thought it was possible and that I was one of the two-three who could win. In 1982, I was one of the ten," he says.

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Yannick Noah will trace this path to success alongside his coach, Patrice Hagelauer. An "osmosis" is created between the two men. "We thought, 'We're trying something, but it's to get the Grail.'" But this desire for personal triumph also takes on a collective dimension. The duo wants to break the curse. The one that locks the France into a status of eternal vanquished. "The thing is, every time we go to see the matches, we palm! You never win! We don't have that thing. We don't have, in the trophy room, in the training rooms or in the locker room, pictures of one of our own who has the Roland trophy. And we said 'we're going to do it ourselves.'"

A dream fanned by the joy that such an event would bring. "You're like, 'F**** if we win, it's going to be fire! But they will all die of joy! And we can do that," he recalls. Yannick Noah had already seen everything. A year later, on a centre court totally committed to his cause, the Frenchman defeated the Swede and defending champion Mats Wilander in three sets. A feat that no other tricolor has managed, for the moment, to reproduce.