Roland Garros 2023 | Les Bleus disappointed again, but after dusk comes dawn

The conclusion is cruel. Implacable. For the third consecutive edition, no French will be at the rendezvous of the second week of Roland-Garros. At home, the Blues did not work miracles, because behind this raw result hides, unfortunately for tricolor tennis, a certain logic: in the men’s table, no player was protected by the status of seed, and only Caroline Garcia benefited from it on the female side. If there was a real and legitimate disappointment, it would therefore undoubtedly have to be sought on its side.

And again… Despite her status as seeded 5 in the tournament, the Lyonnaise has given no assurance of performance in recent weeks. In total breakdown of confidence, she will have finally done as in Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome: winning a match before packing her bags. On Wednesday, however, it was hard not to mope. Six of our compatriots were in the running and… seven laid down their arms, since after the elimination of his colleagues, Gaël Monfils came to announce his withdrawal at a press conference.

Like two years ago, France does not even have a representative in the 3rd round, a kind of return to square one. But does this mean that the situation has not changed and that the impasse can only continue? Aren’t there reasons to hope? If there is obviously nothing to rejoice at the moment T, the prospects are not so gloomy if we take a step back. Especially on the side of these gentlemen.

A promising succession and great stories despite everything

If it was only a possible promise in 2021 in the wake of 100% French semi-finals among juniors, youth is really showing up. Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche have already made a successful transition to the professionals. The first has already won a title on the circuit in Lyon just before Roland (and perhaps had not completely digested it), when the second spent a round at Roland-Garros for his first time in the big picture. Admittedly, they both suffered the law of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, but there is no shame in that, we are talking here about a player who has already reached the quarter-finals on Parisian soil.

They are the youngest players in the top 100, and they are improving steadily. At this rate, the Top 50 is possible in the short term and given their trajectory, it would not be crazy to imagine that at least one of the two is seeded in a year to the day. We have seen it, it is far from being a detail. This relative protection makes it possible to consider the 3rd round as a reasonable objective and therefore to aim more realistically for a performance to regain the second week.

But it is not a question of weighing on this youth, also represented by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard who played five sets for the first time in his career, the full weight of the potential French success next year. This Roland will also have reserved other promises, those of the unexpected rebirths of Lucas Pouille and Fiona Ferro to a lesser extent. Enchanted parenthesis or real springboard for the future? Impossible to know. But these performances will have had the merit of showing that the Blues can transcend themselves.

And what about Gaël Monfils? He certainly does not represent the future at almost 37 years old, but he still showed the way in his own way by accomplishing a feat of which he himself probably did not consider himself capable. He is no longer the effective leader of French tennis, but he still is by example. In 2024, with better ranked youngsters – including Ugo Humbert already back in the Top 40 and who has finally won a match at Roland – gloom is not inevitable. So play it like La Monf’ and there will be more than reason to hope!