It must be a fantasy for our current French players: winning tournaments without having to play matches. There at least we might finally have a successor to Yannick Noah at Roland-Garros. Since then, in 2023, it will be 40 years, it was the last victory of a Frenchman in a Grand Slam tournament. This feat, being titled without playing, one of our tennis players achieved it in the 30’s.
He was called Christian Boussus, he was born in Hyères in the Var in 1908. This left-hander, finalist all the same Roland-Garros, in 1931, joined the French team two years earlier. Lack of luck for him, it’s right at the time of the famous Musketeers, Henri Cochet, Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra and of course Rene Lacoste. This is also why Christian Boussus was nicknamed the Fifth Musketeer! The problem for poor Christian is that the other four did not miss a single game of Davis Cup during the period he was with them, he spent four years on the substitutes’ bench without playing a single time!
Four years during which France won this Davis Cup. Small and even big consolation for Boussus: his name is engraved on the famous salad bowl given to the winners for eternity, since the names of the substitutes are also written there. Ironically, he ended up playing Davis Cup matches between 1934 and 1938. But during this period, France never managed to win once the silver bowl! But hey, he had already won it 4 times, that is to say as many as Guy Forget, Henri Leconte, Yannick Noah and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga combined!
>> Oh yeah? From Monday to Friday, Florian Gazan responds in one minute to all the essential, existential, sometimes completely absurd questions that cross your mind. Very useful or totally useless knowledge to shine in society, absolutely incredible anecdotes to share, amazing stories to tell. And each time, you will say to yourself “Ah yeah?”. An RTL Originals podcast.
