Forty years after Noah’s triumph, French tennis seeks path to Grand Slam glory

It’s been 40 years since a Frenchman last won a singles Grand Slam title – and marking the anniversary of Noah’s famous win has become a nostalgic ritual for a nation starved of success.

The former tennis-champ-turned-pop-star was back on the French Open stage at the weekend for a celebration of his 1983 title, this time holding a mic instead of a racket. He strode barefoot on the famous red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier and performed a dozen songs – joined on stage by his opponent from 40 years ago, Matts Wilander.

Asked why no other Frenchman had emulated his success since then, he joked: “Because I’m not coaching anymore.”

Noah, who captained France to victory in both the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, later had a stark piece of advice for French youngsters hoping for a breakthrough: to pack their bags and travel abroad.

“You have to go and nourish yourself elsewhere, because we’re used to losing at all levels,” he told reporters. “All coaches have lost. None of them have won. So you’re surrounded by people who have all lost.”

‘As if Real Madrid had won nothing’

Look abroad is precisely what the French Tennis Federation (FFT) has done, tapping Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, the former player and coach who was credited with improving Roger Federer’s game in his twilight years, guiding the Swiss to three more Grand Slam titles.

A former world number three, Ljubicic was put in charge of a programme dubbed Ambition 2024, aimed at improving French tennis and nurturing a new generation of champions. As he took on the job in December, the towering Croat expressed bafflement at the dearth of tennis success in France.

“Non-French people are always puzzled by tennis in your country,” he told French reporters. “It’s as if Real Madrid had won nothing for a long time.”

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 French Open champion, made blunter comments at a tournament in Marseille earlier this year, saying it was “sad” not to see better players in a country “with a Grand Slam tournament and ample resources to invest in the future of tennis.”

Self-flagellation has been a recurrent theme at the French Open, particularly on anniversary years. In 2018, as organisers marked 30 years since the last time a Frenchman – Henri Leconte – reached the final, the 1988 runner-up blasted the players’ lack of dedication and mental toughness.

“They don’t train on clay as much as we used to,” said the flamboyant Leconte. “They are afraid to play at the French Open. They are always coming with an excuse, saying, ‘Oh, I have a bad back or elbow’.”

The harsh assessment was shared by some fans at Roland Garros, who flagged the home players’ inability to cope with expectations.

“The French have great courts and great players, but at this level in tennis it’s the mental strength that makes the difference,” said Marcus from Denmark, sheltering from the sun that has blessed the tournament’s opening days. He drew a parallel with the former world number one Andy Murray, who finally ended Britain’s decades-long wait for a male Grand Slam title “despite facing even greater pressure at Wimbledon”.

Murray, who lost eight of his 11 Grand Slam finals, all of them against either Djokovic or Federer, would certainly have seen more success had he not landed in the era of the “Big Three”. It’s a point Marion Bartoli, the last French player to win a major in 2013, also raised in the run-up to the French Open, stressing that the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gaël Monfils were equally unfortunate to have faced such formidable opponents throughout their careers.

Quantity over quality

Leconte has argued that the French Tennis Federation should take a share of the blame for choosing “quantity over quality”, fostering an abundance of young talents instead of focusing on the handful who are most promising.

Over the past two decades, there have been numerous Frenchmen in the top 100 of the ATP rankings. This strength in depth explains why the French, as a team, have often done well in the Davis Cup. And yet hardly any players have come close to winning a Grand Slam tournament over the same period, with only Arnaud Clément (at the 2001 Australian Open) and Tsonga (at the same venue in 2008) reaching a final this century.

Supporters of the French model, however, stress that individual Grand Slam titles are not the only measure of a sport’s success. France has the second highest number of licensed players in Europe, after Germany, and its academies are the envy of most European countries.

Furthermore, the system has worked reasonably well for women, resulting in four singles Grand Slam titles this century, starting with Mary Pierce’s victory at Roland Garros in 2000.

Once again, the nation’s hopes of success rest largely on a female player, the world number five Caroline Garcia, who battled past China’s Xiyu Wang in three sets (7-6, 4-6, 6-4) on Monday – six months after her triumph at the WTA Masters in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Don’t forget the girls,” Noah said after his anniversary bash on Saturday. “The women had some victories. We should talk about it as well.”

Teenage promise

Of the “New Four Musketeers” who dominated the male game over the past two decades, two – Tsonga and Gilles Simon – have recently retired. The remaining two – Monfils and Richard Gasquet– are both 36 and ranked outside the world’s top 50.

The transition to a new generation has been far from seamless.

Ugo Humbert, 24, is currently the top-ranking French player, in 40th position, but his progress has stalled since he burst into the top 30 in 2021. The only other player in the top 50 is Adrien Mannarino, aged 34.

Those rankings mean no Frenchman is seeded in singles at the French Open, for the second year in a row. The fear is that none will make it past the first week at Roland Garros, in what has become a depressingly familiar pattern in recent years.

But there is reason for hope, too, with a new crop of players aged under 20 now powering their way into the senior game.

So far this year, a total of eight French male players have won a tournament in the Challenger Tour, the stepping stone for the senior ATP Tour. That’s more than any other country.

Leading the charge is a pair of teenagers, Luca Van Assche and Arthur Fils. The former, who turned 19 earlier this month, has already won two Challenger tournaments this year. The latter, still only 18, secured his ATP breakthrough by winning the Lyon Open in the run-up to Roland Garros.

The youngsters are not exactly newcomers to the French Open. Van Assche won the junior title at Roland Garros in 2021, defeating his friend Fils in the final. But they suffered contrasting fortunes on Monday for their first shot at the senior tournament.

Fils was knocked out by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, the No 29 seed, in four sets (1-6, 6-4, 3-6, 3-6), whereas Van Assche cruised to an impressive straight-sets win (6-1, 6-1, 6-4) over Italy’s Marco Cecchinato, the 2018 semi-finalist, carried by a raucous home crowd.

“It’s always a lot easier for us (French) to play here in front of the fans; it gives us great strength,” Van Assche told reporters after the match. Still unburdened by expectation, he will be counting on the home crowd again as he takes on Davidovich Fokina in the next round on Wednesday, aiming to avenge his friend’s defeat.