Sunday afternoon. Hugo Gaston throws yet another drop that falls dead on the throw-in box. Dominic Thiem. One of the big favorites for the title squirms in a new effort to reach another ball. The sprint is wasted. His opponent picks up the glove and throws a balloon at him, leaving Dominic unresponsive. The stands roar under the cold Parisian night, in inhumane conditions for playing tennis (that has been repeated so much by some, right?). Thiem does not give credit: that cheeky young man is one inch away from beating him while the world attends perplexed.
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Before reaching Roland Garros With an invitation, Hugo Gaston had 5 losses in a row in the main draws of the circuit Challenger. His cover letter was not at all flattering: predicting a result beyond the first round was an exercise of faith that few would have dared to do. And there he was, a week later, showing the world all the tennis that was inside him. This has been a fairly repeated pattern in the Parisian Major: that of stories of warriors rising from anonymity, unknown to the general public. Why?
It is moving to see the best players in the world, the same ones who have infinite facilities in each event they step on, playing under conditions that any club player can experience in their day to day life. Night games in months where the heat doesn’t hit so hard; Freezing temperatures that freeze the soul and force you to give an extra effort. Sure, it shouldn’t be an impediment. Tennis is you, the court, your opponent and no one else. In each survival exercise that a game involves, you have to reach the end being the best. The rest is totally secondary.
And this is something to take into account in a time where facilities have been parked, where we should value more than ever the simplicity of things. While tennis players like Feliciano López cracked uncontrollably due to all kinds of external components, guys like Daniel Altmaier they were focused on doing their job. Unaware of Feli’s drama, Daniel achieved his first Grand Slam victory. Yes, it is clear that it is neither comfortable nor ideal to play a match on clay, in September, at night. I guess, even so, that a guy who has been out of competition for more than a year and that a year ago I had no ranking I would not pay the slightest attention to this.
When your career hangs in the balance, when you play in places where the balls are the worst you’ve ever seen (and no, I’m not talking about Wilson that would surely taste glorious to many Futures players), the cold of Roland Garros is nothing. Appear player stories that needed a single boost, conditions that equal the entire circuit. Stories of players with spurting tennis, who hide complicated moments and that make us reconnect with the roots of tennis.
Hugo Gaston, Daniel Altmaier, Nadia Podoroska o Sebi Korda They are names that not every tennis fan knew before this Roland Garros. They are guys who have been fighting for months in the lower echelons of the circuit, who know fair and square what the true difficulties of this sport are. No, these are not the temperature of a thermometer or the pressure of a ball made for the best to use.
In every match won, tennis in its purest form was in luck. This Roland Garros has been a triumph of romanticism, of that ‘amateurism’ hidden in clubs and small courts. On the biggest stage in the world, supporting actors of a global play they decided to take on the leading role and dance in front of the people. For them, these two weeks are the gift of months and months of work. Public recognition is the validity to the dream they chase.
This Roland Garros, submerged among the doubts of tennis players who have their lives solved, has given life to the little giants of our sport. Now it only remains to give them the voice they deserve.
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