Rolex Paris Masters – The galley continues but Pouille hangs on: “Reliving great moments is what motivates him”

He got a wild card, but not for the final draw. Lucas Pouille will play well at Bercy: he was invited to compete in qualifying there, which had not happened to him for seven years. At the time young hope of tennis tricolor, he had escaped before falling in the round of 16 against a certain Roger Federer. If he will not be able to face the Swiss legend this year, it is a safe bet that the Northerner would sign to perform such a course, he who has yet reached in particular a half (Australian Open 2019) and two quarter-finals ( Wimbledon and US Open 2016) Grand Slam meanwhile. Another time, because since then fate has been fierce.

For two years and a first alert to the right elbow which forced him to stop the 2019 exercise in Shanghai, Pouille has been fighting quite simply to remain a tennis player. This chronic injury, which finally forced him to the operation in the summer of 2020, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, cost him a full season after which he separated from Amélie Mauresmo, his coach at the time, who could not continue to follow him on the circuit with health restrictions for family reasons. It is associated with a duo of coaches, Thierry Ascione and Nicolas Renavand, that the former 10th player in the world therefore launched the challenge of the comeback in 2021.

Repeated physical glitches and lack of confidence: a thwarted comeback

“In preparation in December 2020, we went there very slowly, with intermediate balls, retrace Nicolas Renavand. He had implemented a new gesture to serve to protect his elbow, so it had pulled his shoulder a bit. Little by little, he recovered physically with a resumption of the Challenger competition in Quimper. He was progressing quite a bit, he even replayed very well. The clay-court season looked promising, he even won two matches in Monte-Carlo..”

Yes but here during this encouraging round of 16 on the Rock against Alejandra Davidovich Fokina (6-2, 7-6 defeat), his body betrayed him again. “He stumbles a little, he wants to catch up and he tears his obliques, a tear in the abdominals of 5 by 2 centimeters. It messes him up all season on earth where he has to heal it as quickly as possible with Roland-Garros that was happening. He deals with it in a hyperbaric chamber, it goes rather quickly, but he only has one preparation match in Belgrade. And at Roland, he plays a good Pablo Cuevas and takes a good jail in the first round. It’s a match that hurts him“, further details his coach.

This will be the story of his 2021 season. Between reconstruction, gradual increase in the level of play and new injury. Later for example, during the American summer at Winston Salem, Pouille managed to get out of qualifying, before winning in the first round against Feliciano Lopez and then leading largely in the second against Daniel Evans 6-4, 4 -0. But at the time of carrying the blow, his back was blocked, condemning him to impotence in the second part of the match (defeat 4-6, 6-4, 6-1). A mishap which partly explains his inability to conclude a 1st round of the US Open which stretched out his arms – he had obtained two match points at 5-3 in the 4th set before losing in five – against Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

From the greatest courts in the world to the passage required by the anonymity of the Challengers

A season is made of turns, and the Northerner has never been able (?) To take the good ones. “After the little hopes, there was always a little injury, a little thing. He is disappointed, but we must continue, there is no choice“, notes Renavand. Before Bercy, his balance sheet in 2021 is hardly brilliant on the ATP circuit: 5 victories for 14 defeats (including 12 in the 1st round) and a ranking (156th player in the world) which forced him to come back. regularly by Box Challengers in recent weeks.

Back in the meantime in ATP 250 in Metz in September, Pouille hoped to accumulate enough points to regain the Top 100 by the end of the year and a place in the table of the Australian Open 2022. But he lacked consistency, not to mention the mental difficulty of stringing together these anonymous tournaments for a player who has known the biggest arenas in the world.

“I find him courageous, because he always manages to start again, especially on the Challengers. Do one or two from time to time to get yourself back okay, but starting to string them together like at the end of the season, it’s different. He is full of good will, that’s not the problem: on the first one, he made a final (beaten by Benjamin Bonzi in Cassis, Editor’s note), on the second, quarter, then it was more complicated. He again had small pains in his heel and back in Mouilleron le Captif“, explains Nicolas Renavand.

His service, a real launching pad for his puncher game, is still lacking: the change of gesture to spare his elbow is probably the cause. Pouille has regained his power, but lacks precision (percentage of first masters), which can make him negative in his attitude on the court. Added to this is a certain mental wear and tear linked to the length of the season and the special conditions of a circuit still partly subject to the constraints of the coronavirus. Father of a family since January, Pouille also suffered from not seeing his daughter Rose as much as he would have liked. Does this mean that motivation is weaker than at the time when everything revolved around tennis, which could also explain its difficulties in going up the slope?

His coach doesn’t think so. “It gave him a balance to have this base. When he loses, he comes home, he sees his little girl, which also allows him to play down. But he’s coming back to the circuit because at 27, he still has things to give. ” When we beat Rafael Nadal in Grand Slam, moreover after five sets, we are not really the type to give up. At the time, during this US Open 2016, Pouille posed as heir to the Tsonga-Monfils-Gasquet-Simon quartet. French results at the highest level would depend on him.

Five years later, he is very far from it, while French tennis would need the Northerner in his best condition. Except nice and big surprise, he will not be in the Top 100 at the beginning of 2022, which could call into question his participation in the Australian Open. Contesting in qualifying is not a fundamental obstacle, but Pouille also needs to ensure that he plays a sufficient number of matches to justify the trip. Everything will therefore depend on the other tournaments scheduled for January in the Antipodes.

A promising new physical fund to relaunch

The short-term outlook is therefore not necessarily encouraging. But all is not so dark. “On the physical basis, muscular, in terms of his weight – he had taken a lot during his white year – he returned to his standards of form. He did a series of physical tests with his trainer Xavier Moreau and he even exceeded some values ​​recorded in 2018 when he was really good. It has become a plane again physically and in terms of strikes, it’s the same“, emphasizes Nicolas Renavand.

And if the physique goes, everything can follow for Pouille whose first objective will be to get out of the vicious circle of the Challengers in 2022, by finding the Top 100. Once this first step is reached, all dreams will be allowed. Those he had touched with his finger a few years ago.

“We can never take away what he did. This is not a player who has potential and who gets stuck in the 150th place in the world, it is not a waste. He did exceptional things and he only resumed for 11 months under difficult conditions. We must continue. The ultimate goal is to relive great moments in Grand Slam, to redo second weeks, quarters, halves. That’s why he trains and keeps trying.”