Italian Tennis Dominance at Roland Garros: A French Perspective

What do Adrian Mannarino, Arthur Fils, Ugo Humbert, Alexandre Müller, Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Corentin Moutet have in common? They are all French and suffered the law of Italian players at Roland Garros. From Giulio Zeppieri, 148th in the world, to Jannik Sinner, number 2 (and future number 1), the Transalpines have caused a lot of misery to our representatives in the men’s singles. However, they did not play at home, could not count on the energy of the public to sublimate them but they succeeded. And this insolent success obviously raises questions.

So what do our transalpine neighbors do better than us? Is this a problem of general sports policy? Asked at a press conference on the subject, Ivan Ljubicic, the high level director at the French Tennis Federation (FFT) was divided.

“I don’t really believe in a system and I’ve said it before. The system forms the mentality, the general attitude, but not the very high level players. In Italy, we know the structure: they are only individual projects, he insisted Sinner did not play a day in the federal structures He did group training sessions and participated in training blocks, but not a day in the federation. . And for the other players, it’s the same. What does the federation do? It’s there in case the players need something in terms of structure or services.”

Fewer staff, more individualized projects

Before adding, more nuanced: “The truth is that in Italy, they have something that is impossible in France: a president of the federation in office for 22 years (Angelo Binaghi in office since 2001, Editor’s note) So, they have continuity in terms of projects. This is something that we cannot do in France or in any other country. They have undoubtedly made mistakes but they have invested a lot in it. Masters in Italy or to host part of the group stage of the Davis Cup It’s not just about money, but about mindset, attitude towards tennis and operation. .”

Add to this the fact that ATP President Andrea Gaudenzi is also Italian and you understand that the country has more and more influence in the world of the little yellow ball. But the French fault is not to be found in general training. The FFT always produces a high density of players in the Top 100. This week, there are 11 to appear there against 9 Italians, and on the women’s side, the equality is perfect at this level, since 5 French and 5 Italians are part of this elite.

Sinner pulls others up

So what is really missing in French tennis? Probably a locomotive. “In this generation, Sinner lifts up the others, also underlined Ljubicic. It’s like a pillar, and that’s what we lack in France. If we look at the number of players in the Top 100, 200 , we are better than in Italy. But Sinner, Musetti, Arnaldi, who are excellent, are the result of individual projects.

Lisnard: “Moutet is good for tennis as a whole”

Watching Jannik Sinner break glass ceilings one after the other, his compatriots believe more in their chances. The career of Matteo Arnaldi, who beat Andrey Rublev and was not far from also getting Stefanos Tsitsipas on his hunt, was remarkable. And beyond the talent of Lorenzo Musetti who once again pushed Novak Djokovic to his limits and which we are not discovering, the performance of Flavio Cobolli, very close to taking the scalp of Holger Rune, also animated well the first week.

Blues less trained on earth but called to break through

It’s also a safe bet that Jasmine Paolini was inspired by the future world number 1 to push her adventure further and experience her first Grand Slam half at the age of 28. France does not lack young people with certain potential, but also a flagship player. With the milestones reached at the start of the season by Ugo Humbert (titled in particular in Dubai by beating Hubert Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev) who was getting closer to the Top 10, she believed she had found it. And perhaps Messin will be in the future, but his limitations on clay prevented him from dragging others in his wake.

Ocher is undoubtedly a more natural surface for the Italians, who train on it more frequently, even if they do not have a Grand Slam at home. So why not hope for more breakthroughs in the Majors on hard or grass for our Blues? After all, there were French people in the second week in Melbourne and Paris and that is already progress. “We can also remember that over the last 20 years, the level of Italian men’s tennis was not good and that has changed,” Ljubicic recalled. “We need a generation with emulation, and I hope really and I believe that the generation of players born in 2002, 2003 and 2004 (Cazaux, Fils, Van Assche, Mpetshi Perricard, Editor’s note) will change things.”

2024-06-05 21:45:00
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