It was 20 years ago on the Philippe-Chatrier court. Olivier Rochus and Xavier Malisse won the men’s doubles at Roland-Garros. A while ago, but no one in Belgium has forgotten this great moment in the history of our country. A surprising, unforgettable fairy tale, at a time when Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin reigned at the top of the women’s circuit.
And yet, it was a close call for the two Belgians to never take part in this 2004 edition of the tournament. “I arrived in the French capital from St. Polten where I had played a quarter-final in three sets against the Austrian Jürgen Melzer,” Olivier Rochus tells us from Paris where he comments on Roland-Garros for RTBF. “I had huge aches and pains. And I wasn’t sure I would hold out, I couldn’t even train. I suggested to Xavier that we find another partner but he didn’t want to. At worst, the match lasts three games and I’ll go back to Belgium to play golf,” he told me.
The youngest of the Rochus brothers bites into his quid, puts on anti-inflammatories and spends hours in the hands of the physiotherapist. “The idea was at least not to have to give up, to have to shake hands with our opponents and to go home without having been able to go through to the end of the match. On the day of the match, I told Xavier that I would do as little as possible. That I would just serve, stay on my side, hit on my diagonal, and for the rest, we’ll see. Finally, we win the first two rounds in three sets. a bit of a struggle…”
They take turns dismissing the best doubles specialists
With these first two steps completed, Olivier feels better. “We were able to start playing hard and we gained confidence.”
Above all, the Rochus-Malisse pair are having fun. And that is probably where the key to their success lies. “We were really enjoying ourselves, putting the results aside. For us, it was a bit like training. We felt like kids.”
Kids who will eliminate the heavyweights of the discipline: Björkman-Woodbridge (seeded n°2) in the round of 16, Etlis-Rodriguez (9) in the quarter-final or even Bhupathi-Mirnyi (3) in the semi-final .
Malisse’s return: “I understood that… I loved tennis”
“It’s true, we beat a lot of specialists, guys who did it every day,” continues Olivier Rochus. “They used serve-and-volley a lot, attacks at the net. It’s a style of play that suited Xavier and me well. On clay, it’s easier to return and we did it very well. We also defended well in the baseline. And we had a feel for the game. Honestly, we were a real team.”
guillement
Santoro and Llodra had more pressure than us, against the little Belgians
It was only at the quarter-final stage that the Belgian duo began to understand that a victory at the Porte d’Auteuil was within reach. “There was a big mobilization behind us, people were starting to get excited, we were receiving lots of messages. In the quarter-finals, we said to ourselves that there might be a way to get something.”
And that’s what happened. On Saturday, June 5, 2004, Olivier Rochus and Xavier Malisse won a doubles match 7-5 against the pair composed of French players Fabrice Santoro and Michaël Llodra, sixth seeds. “Even if they played very well in singles, they were also and above all big names in doubles. So they had more pressure than us. Especially in front of their home crowd, against a team of small Belgians,” Olivier jokes.
Like Justine Henin in 2003, after the first of her four victories at Roland-Garros, Olivier Rochus and Xavier Malisse would have deserved to return to Belgium to enjoy a crowd bath on the Grand-Place in Brussels. “But we just went for a bite to eat and a drink on the Champs-Élysées. I don’t remember if we left France by plane or by train, but the next day, I was on my way to England in order to start the grass season, I was going to lose on Monday in the first round at Queen’s against the American Todd Martin”, smiles Olivier.
Olivier Rochus: “Ready to enter my new life”
2024-06-05 07:00:00
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