The Unlikely Rise of Jules Marie: From YouTube Star to ATP Qualifier

This is the story of an unlikely rock star. Strikingly but refreshingly different. In the ATP rankings at the end of the year, Jules Marie is only an “anonymous” 226th in the world, ahead of the Australian Li Tu and just ahead of the Swede Dragos Nicolae Madaras. At first glance, it is the banal story of a young French promise who cuts his teeth on the secondary circuit among the other galley slaves of this daily life made of odds and ends. But, in detail, Jules Marie is a 32-year-old puncher, in full recovery after first abandoning the circuit in 2015.

Above all, he is not an unknown person, with 106,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. He himself still has difficulty understanding the full extent of his community. “If I’m in Paris, there are between two and six people who come to see me, he says. It’s huge. Once, while walking on the banks of the Seine, I decided to take a nap. I lay down, I close my eyes and thirty minutes later I see Instagram notifications. A guy had taken a photo of me writing ‘the resting warrior’. I even have fans who have flown in to come see me in a tournament, who drove four to five hours during the day to see my matches. It’s pretty crazy.”

Covid as a birth certificate

By this first life, perhaps, that of a tennis player who was gifted but who had ended up being disgusted with secondary tournaments and these inherent daily financial problems. A bad patch, with frustrating defeats, some against names that will count (Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev) and Marie throws in the towel. He decided to only compete in CNGT tournaments and devoted himself to giving lessons in his club in Montrouge, near Paris. Life passes but, in the back of his mind, he still dreams big.

Jules Marie during his first life on the circuit, in January 2015

Credit: Imago

January 2020: imperial, he wins the M15 Bagnoles-de-l’Orne. March 2020: Covid undermines his desire to try his luck again and, to pass the time and give his advice to as many people as possible through tutorials, he creates a YouTube channel with his brother. The exercise amuses him but ends up transforming: it is mainly Jules who is filmed, Jules who reveals behind the scenes of his tournaments, Jules who recounts his meetings, his analyses. The changeover takes place in December, in his native Normandy.

“The trigger was the Caen Open, which I won by beating three players from the Top 50, which was a miracle, let’s say it,” he recalls. This enthusiasm with this YouTube channel and all the positive messages asking me to try my luck again at the ATP meant that…”. On the road to the title, after coming out of qualifying, he beat Antoine Hoang, Lucas Pouille, David Goffin before benefiting from Ugo Humbert’s withdrawal in the final. “On the winners of the Caen Open, there are Tsonga, Simon, Gasquet, Ferrer and… Jules Marie. It’s incredible, it’s a film. These are only guys who were in the Top 10 . I’m the exception,” he laughed at the time.

Sideways glances and sponsors

So here he is launched into a mission impossible on paper: at 30, to start from scratch. But this time, he is no longer alone. Accompanied by his “breakers” (nickname for fans of the channel, editor’s note), Jules Marie recounts his daily life in this tennis reconquest. Inevitably, at first glance, he receives surprised looks and polite unsaid words.

“When I took over, we decided to focus on developing the channel,” he says. Being 1,300th in the ATP, I came to tournaments with a videographer, a community manager, my brother and an osteopath. So there were five of us with the camera focused on me and my team. The players knew me but some must have said ‘but who does he think he is?’. After Caen, I also had a first big sponsor with Célio and I heard from higher ranked players, in the Top 150, who didn’t take it very well. It was a bit ‘why him?’. So among the players, it was a bit mixed. And then, little by little…”.

Despite a year 2022 less glorious than he hoped, Jules Marie unites behind his concept. But the Youtuber does not forget to be a serious, regular and determined tennis player. As his channel’s numbers swell, his performance improves. In 2023, he has a crazy season, especially at the end with a title in Kuwait, and two finals in Portugal and Greece. Little by little, he climbed and found himself 226th in the world. What followed was a long wait to officially validate his participation in the Australian Open qualifiers.

“I knew 99% that I was going to make the Australian Open, he explains today. In general it comes in 235-240. Being 226th, I was in the cut. But, the D-day, I refreshed the list every ten minutes from 6 p.m. I would have liked to know this before going to bed but unfortunately no. I woke up at two o’clock, at five o’clock, at seven o’clock, without intention until it came out at 8 a.m. It was so hyped. It’s a relief not to have to wait for other players’ injuries or withdrawals to go straight into qualifying.”

A little revenge for all those who didn’t believe it

In the Antipodes, Jules Marie will undoubtedly take the time to look back on the path traveled. “It’s certain to start from zero at thirty and succeed in that, by having a more difficult scale than at the time on ATP points and by having players between 400th and 1,500th much stronger than in the past , it’s a relief, he admits. It’s also a little revenge, I have it in a little corner of my mind, for all those who didn’t believe it but it takes a back seat to Me.”

It’s also a nice snub to the player he was in 2015, the one who was deprived of Melbourne for just a few places. “I went to Australia for nothing,” he says again. “I went to Adelaide and Auckland and ended up not getting within two places in the qualifying table. Ranking below 300-310 in the world was enough to be selected, but that year the tournament had paid for the plane tickets for all the players so there were a lot more who came and the cut was higher. “

There he will find other French compatriots, much less jealous than at the time about his history and his destiny. Because ultimately, Jules Marie only played her card intelligently. “Since then, I have seen that other players are working a little more on this aspect, with visuals on Instagram, stories,” he smiles. “Today, the players tell me ‘man, well done, you succeeded your bet’. They understood that all this was not for nothing.”

2023-12-23 07:32:00
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