At the beginning was hope, quickly confronted with a principle of reality: for the second time in three years, there is no more French in contention while the third round begins at Roland-Garros. Before 2021, such a failure had never hit French tennis. The new management team of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) has set up a system for detecting future talent on a broader base of young players, but the road still seems long before shining a nugget.

This year, however, the story looked beautiful, even if the title seemed objectively out of reach on this fortieth anniversary of Yannick Noah's victory.

Caroline Garcia was there as a leader, with her status as world No. 5, promising young shoots were expected in the men with Lucas Van Assche and Arthur Fils. Added in the first days of the tournament were the epic of Lucas Pouille and the unexpected resurrection of Gaël Monfils, who has lost none of his aura despite his months of absence and the inevitable advance of time (he will be 37 years old in September).

In fact, the French novel turned sad very quickly. A little by the force of fate, a little by that of fate, a little by an insufficient level in general or at the moment.

This last point applies in particular to Caroline Garcia, again a victim of her mind. "I had the first set, I had a break (in the second) and from that moment on, things came to a bit of a standstill. I tensed up a lot," she confessed after her second-round loss to Russia's Anna Blinkova (56th).

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"Young people, they lack tennis level"

Disappointing certainly, but not so surprising given its latest results. Garcia has not been able to cope since the beginning of the season the status acquired last year after reaching the knockout stages at Wimbledon, winning the title in Cincinnati, playing his first Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open and winning the year-end Masters. And thus found the Top 5 of the WTA.

"I'm human, I have emotions, there are things going on in your heart, in your head, and you try to manage everything, at the same time as managing an opponent. You're doing the best you can. Today, it was not up to par, in recent weeks either," she acknowledged.

The next generation, for both men and women, is not there.

"Young people, they lack the tennis level. But a Yannick (Noah) can be inspiring by his mental abilities, his ability to work, "analyzed for AFP the director of Roland-Garros, Amélie Mauresmo, herself former world No. 1 and double winner in Grand Slam (Australia and Wimbledon 2006), and whose captain in the Fed Cup France team was none other than the 1983 winner of the Paris tournament.

>> READ ALSO: French tennis in search of glory, 40 years after the triumph of Yannick Noah

Two of these youngsters, however, Van Assche and Sons, "have the potential" to win in Grand Slam "in the future", according to Ivan Ljubicic, former coach of Roger Federer, who joined the FFT in December 2022 to help the top level.

But fate was particularly cruel for them since in the best case, they would have faced each other in the second round. But fate, again, put on their road the formidable Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich (34th in the world) who was responsible for taking out in turn the two players of the 2004 generation.

The "elders" Puglia and Monfils held their rank

Fortunately, the "old" Pouille and Monfils played the drivers of the room and will have marked the 2023 edition.

First of all, Pouille because after dark years fighting physical and psychological injuries, he has rediscovered the taste for high-level tennis, victory, the overheated atmosphere of the Roland-Garros courts. Without any victory on the ATP circuit since May 2022 and confined to the secondary circuit since the beginning of the season, he has chained three victories in qualifying and one in the first round before yielding to the second against the world No. 13 Cameron Norrie, not to blush.

There would even be enough to feed his ambitions with now the "objective" to enter directly into the main draw of the Australian Open next January. Ranked 675th at Roland Garros, he will need to win enough matches to jump nearly 600 places at the ATP.

Monfils, who is also recovering from a foot injury and had not won a match on the ATP Tour since his retirement in August in Montreal, offered him an anthology fight to the public to pass the first round when he was led 4-0 in the fifth set against Sebastian Baez (42nd). But less than 24 hours after his triumph, the world 394th had to announce his withdrawal due to a wrist injury. When you don't want to...

With AFP

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