Three days before the start of the French Open at Roland Garros, the draw took place Thursday, May 27, in the referee’s office, behind closed doors. And a nice surprise: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will face each other potentially from the quarters and then the semi-finals.
>> Roland-Garros 2021: Richard Gasquet facing Hugo Gaston from the first round, the French facing strong arms
If internationally, we are promised a spectacle, our French are struggling. Among men, there are only two seeds: Gaël Monfils and Ugo Humbert. It must be said that there are only five French people in the Top 50, four of which are beyond 30th place. Gaël Monfils has won only one match for 15 months, Tsonga only one victory since the start of the year, two for Gilles Simon.
For women, it’s worse: none of them will be seeded. There are only four French women left in the top 100 and they are all beyond the 50th place in the world. In view of the state of play, it is not even certain that there are French men and women in the second week.
And that’s not the only sign of gloom. The French Tennis Federation is losing licensees. And this is not new: the FFT has lost 350,000 licensees in 30 years. They are now 950,000 while in 1991, the number of licensees stood at 1.3 million. A record never surpassed or equaled! It was just after France’s victory in the Davis Cup with the Noah, Forget and Leconte. At the time, French tennis was still riding the wave of a sport that became more democratic in the late 1970s. It was then that Tristan started playing tennis. He is licensed at TC 16, Porte de St-Cloud in Paris. “I dreamed, he recalls. I dreamed of this sport which was beautiful, which was worn by players who had exceptional personalities in addition to having athletic talents. “
Vitas Gerulaitis, Guillermo Vilas, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors … It was truly extraordinary times.
Tristan, licensed from a tennis club in Paris
to franceinfo
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Tennis then becomes the second sport in France in terms of number of licensees behind football. It remains that way, but it may not make you dream anymore like it used to be. French players may not achieve great results either. And then, it is an aging sport which has perhaps not known how to renew itself, nor to attract or retain young people between the ages of 15 and 30.
The problem also certainly stems from the organization of tennis in France. Currently, there are two categories of players and it is necessary to distinguish them: on the one hand the licensees affiliated to a club, and on the other the unidentified practitioners, estimated between three and four million. So many players who potentially could become licensees and perhaps even future champions.
You still have to convince them to join a club, and some of them do not see the point. This is the case of Alain and Daniel, met on the municipal courts of the city of Paris. They have been playing tennis for 40 years and pay 9 euros to play for an hour. “It all depends on what I earn, answers Alain. What is the point of being affiliated with a club if I finally have the same thing without being affiliated with a club? “
I have never been told the benefit of being fired.
Daniel, free practitioner
to franceinfo
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Daniel has been practicing for years without being made redundant. “Nobody came to try to explain to me why I should be fired, nobody tried to seduce me, and then I found my happiness like that”, he assures.
Practitioners and licensees say the same thing sometimes. They agree in particular to say that the Federation is not sufficiently present with the players in the clubs or elsewhere. “For my part, I have never met representatives of the federation in the clubs, regrets Tristan, and I think that it is themselves or through partnerships, there is really a reconquest on the ground to be made to find younger people, to give back passion to people who have had it and who have it. lost, indeed perhaps for financial matters. There is field work to be done as it is done in other sports. “
The French Federation is perfectly aware of the problem, like its new president Gilles Moretton, elected last February. He fights and rejects the idea that tennis is an elitist sport reserved for the privileged rich, capable of sometimes spending 1,000 euros to join a club.
The contributions to join a club are too high in large cities, especially in Paris. “The caricature, these are the big cities where the clubs are huge and the contributions are very important, recognizes Gilles Moretton, but in my Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Cantal, which is a small department, there are only 19 clubs, small clubs. There, you can play tennis for a yearly subscription of 50 euros. “
We have the opportunity to access tennis for all budgets, now tennis may need to fight this image that it may have. But it was in the 1980s, I think it is a lot less now.
Gilles Moretton, President of the FFT
to franceinfo
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The solution would perhaps be to adapt the contribution according to the income of the players wishing to join a club. Gilles Moretton is also perfectly aware that the Federation has a work of seduction to provide to bring in or return the players to the clubs. “It is absolutely essential that for this clientele, we find the right product, he judges. These are not people who want to compete, they are people who want to play leisure, so it’s up to us to change the way we have to design our license. We do not necessarily only have competitors, two-thirds of our licensees do not compete. They just play for the sake of getting together, and the social bond is very important. “
The French Tennis Federation will occupy the field. Gilles Moretton is determined to organize a Tour de France for clubs and he will surround himself with illustrious past and current players so that licensees and practitioners can play, talk and interact with professionals. In this work of seduction, Gille Moretton wants the pros to give back to tennis what tennis has given them.
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