Zoé Richard, a young 21-year-old tennis player, born and trained in Dijon, is breaking through on the French circuit. Fully invested in its game for a few months, it is not yet Porte d’Auteuil but nevertheless at the gates of the world circuit.
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It is not yet Roland Garros, but dreams of achievement are always born on small courts. Even the winter cold of a room in Longvic, in the suburbs of Dijon, will not change anything; Especially when you are a child of the ball like Zoé Richard.
“My mother was a tennis teacher. So since I was little, there are balls and rackets lying around the house, confides the young woman. It was the first to take me to a field and I hooked directly. Growing up, I always loved it. My competitive spirit developed even more and dreams grew. So I always want to go further. “
Since her first strikes at the age of three, her progress has been constant even though she had to reconcile tennis and studies for a long time until her baccalaureate. She can now concentrate on her game for a few months. And the results are there. “It’s going really fast, explains his sparring-partner Gwendal Hoerth. Above all, she takes time on her opponent every time and that’s what is the most difficult. You can never put your game down, you are dependent on her. “
“Zoe is a player who is rather attacking, with rather short playing paths, adds his trainer François Ousset. Moreover, the difficulty for her is to make good choices on balls. Should she attack? Does she have to defend? So she has to manage to gain a little patience. “
video length: 03:41
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PORTRAIT. Zoé Richard, young tennis hope
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Physical and mental work
At 21, Zoé Richard has therefore worked twice as hard since her days are filled exclusively with little yellow balls. Five hours of daily training with a mandatory passage in bodybuilding. She works with an English coach accustomed to rugby, enough to gain punch.
But the other match that Zoé led, it is especially far from the courts and the sports halls. A fight on itself. She worked with mental trainer Aude Lefranc on the parasitic thoughts that sometimes led her into the net. An invisible but essential data in tennis. “Everything is played out very quickly, details the preparer. So the slightest parasite, an attention that is not positioned in the right place, it’s a waste of time, it’s a blow that is not typed exactly as we know how to do in training. “
“It’s true that I will be more in competition with myself on the pitch rather than with the opponent, recognizes Zoé Richard. So once we go back to one on one, which I try more and more to do, suddenly it becomes easier and we look at the right things to do to win the game in the right place. It immediately becomes more effective. “
In the field, the results follow. It is now at the gates of the French Top 50. His latest results and his quality of play have caused noise even in the United States. Zoé Richard is at a turning point in her career, it is up to her to seize the rebound. “It’s more of a click in the head rather than in the game, she explains. It’s really seeing what you want and not letting go. Because there is no longer anyone giving up, it is war on the ground. And then the financial click also that must be followed. Because if we don’t have the money to go, we can’t play games and we can’t progress. “
Even if confinement has put a brake on its ambitions, it must now scour tournaments around the world to find its place.
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