In his 20-year career, François Jauffret has twice reached the semi-finals of Roland-Garros (1966 and 1974). Tony Roche and Manuel Orantes prevented him from dreaming of conquests.
Before your 1974 semi-final you had reached this stage of the competition in 1966. Has that served you?
The times were really different, in eight years a lot had changed. In 1966, for example, we didn’t have clay courts, in 1974 I prepared differently.
I lived in Chantilly, between my shift on Wednesday and my half on Friday I did not come to train at Roland Garros on Thursday, whereas in 74 I was able to come to train between the two rounds.
In 74, the public also responded in a more important way, in 66 there were not many people in the stands, 3000 to 4000 spectators. The prices were different too. As a prize for my semi-final, in 1966, I won a voucher of 2,500 francs.
In 1966, I did not realize what Roland-Garros represented. Marcel Bernard won in 49, Noah in 83 and that’s it. The few French winners show how difficult it is to win Roland Garros and even to reach the final or semi-final.
I lived through the three periods, that of amateurism in 1966, of semi-professionalism from 1970 and professionalism after 1975.
Which semi-final left you with the most regrets?
That of 1974 against Manuel Orantes. He largely beat me (6-2, 6-4, 6-4) whereas I had beaten him in Hamburg a few weeks before, but I did not manage to find the backhand which had allowed me to to beat. I was playing well, but he used me tactically. I didn’t like meeting lefties.
My best shot was the volley, it was much more difficult to return to the backhand and the southpaw always managed to find my backhand on the serve. I was disappointed because I still managed to hang it. In addition, that year, I had achieved the feat of beating in the round of 16 Jan Kodes who won the tournament twice.
« If I had beaten Borg in 1976 … »
Wasn’t this feat against Kodes for you a final before the letter?
Not at all. I stayed focused on my tournament after this round of 16. Orantes was one of the big favorites of the competition. I was around and regularly in the world twenty but what made me dangerous was that I beat the best clay court players:
Emerson, Newcombe, Roche, etc., but I’ve never beaten them in the Roland-Garros final, that’s what I missed in my career, reaching a Roland-Garros final and beating one of the best in the world. finally.
You played for a very long time, including two semi-finals at Roland Garros in eight years. What was this longevity due to?
I didn’t play much, we started careers later too. Sometimes I didn’t play for three months and did a lot of physical training. I played mainly in the summer and then it was another world, I worked on the side, I was a sales manager for sixteen years.
« I did not manage to find the setback that allowed me to beat Orantes »
Looking back, do you have any regrets about your career?
I have no regrets, or maybe that of not having won Roland-Garros once when I beat all the best at some point in my career.
It is also true that a victory over Borg in 1976 would have been something phenomenal. I lost in the round of 16 against him with a 10-8 in the 5th set (4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 8-10). I had served for the match. It was an incredible score because everyone was taking 6-1, 61 against Borg at the time. In the next round Adriano Panatta beat Borg, a lot of people said he could thank me for making him tired.
I was undefeated against Panatta, so maybe he was happy not to meet me. The images of this match against Borg, I will keep them in my head until the end of my days. When there is no victory at the end, there is remorse. When JoWilfried Tsonga almost beat Novak Djokovic in 2012 in the quarter-finals (1-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 1-6), I felt sorry for him, I thought again in my own match against the Swede.
