Hugo Gaston will be opposed to Richard Gasquet in the first round of the 2021 edition. – SAIDI CHRISTOPHE / SIPA
- Hugo Gaston caused a sensation last year by pushing Thiem to the fifth set in the round of 16.
- The Toulousain works with a mental trainer to digest this media explosion.
- He will face Richard Gasquet in the first round in a match that looks like a passing of the torch.
At Roland-Garros
It is a collaboration that Marc Barbier, his lifelong trainer, has long wanted to hide from the most attentive followers of the Hugo Gaston explosion. The last darling of French tennis – Remember that incredible first week in the fall, that bike wheel inflicted on Wawrinka, then those 50 depreciations to make poor Thiem silly – has been accompanied for several months by a mental trainer. As if it was still necessary to conceal this kind of experience like a shameful secret, when the kid must now carry with him all the hopes of relief from our glorious musketeers.
Under the watchful eye of Interior Sport cameras
Isabelle Inchauspé, an expert in the profession who worked with Estanguet or Mauresmo, appears briefly in the documentary bySport interior, dedicated to the young Toulouse. An example like another of the expectations raised by the 141st world since the 2020 edition. Hundreds of interview requests
and several TV passages, until the award of the best singer trophy at the NRJ Music Awards at the end of December. Each time, with the agreement of Barbier, who nevertheless warned after Thiem: “We have an objective, we have a path, we will stay our course. We imagine that there will be a lot of commotion, things will stir quite a bit around Hugo, but we will try to live it as quietly as possible. The expectations, we can not control them, the training, yes. “
At first glance, the kid continues to stick to it, despite a relative stagnation in the standings (167th after Roland, 141st today) and only one victory on the main circuit in Miami. “His notoriety has changed, but he hasn’t at all, promises Inchauspé. He continues his progression as he had imagined, he has not changed his way of thinking because he won three games at Roland. He has a very calm family life, the parents have done a remarkable job of emotional balance. He has a great brain and values in the right place. “For almost a year and a half she has regularly debriefed Gaston’s career in Toulouse when their schedules allow it, then on the phone the rest of the time.
“The comments do not slip on him”
She experienced the whirlwind of autumn live. Short but regular phone calls, to “tell the present moment”. “It changes little by little, but Hugo is difficult to find. Contrary to what he can get, the comments, the compliments, the criticisms, do not slip over him. He is very sensitive and he is already sorting out in his head what to keep or not. »If the interested party promises in a recent interview with La Dépêche du Midi “That he does not care too much about the wait” and that he knows that “his course of the past year offers him no guarantees”, the air of the type sure of his fact and of his future success , the six months that have just passed have not offered a linear progression.
On several occasions, in the document of Canal, Gaston gives the feeling of wanting to send Barbier and his essential life lessons for a walk. After qualifying for Australia, to begin with, where the southpaw goes through against an affordable opponent. “What happened is a mystery to me. To achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves, we cannot afford to operate like that. »Gaston’s black gaze, who does not say a word, before bursting into tears in his arms. during a defeat to the challenger of Quimper.
Then especially at the beginning of April, during an internship on land in Spain, where the boy seeks a fight like a child who tests the limits of his parents. Barbier then keeps a royal calm: “I can’t get in touch with him, it’s no use. »A week later, Gaston made almost everything fuse in Rome, where he reached his first challenger final.
The Nadal carrot in the second round
Amused comment from Isabelle Inchauspé: “Hugo, I’ve known him since he was very young. He walks a lot in stages. We started to work together when he started to enter the main circuit, the objective now is to acquire a high level of maturity ”. The two plan to call each other one last time before the game against Richard Gasquet, who many would like to see as a handover. Ritchie always sends wood backhand when he’s not hurting anywhere, like right now, but does he really want to take a sixty-ninth rousing against Rafa in the second round, in the event of a qualifier? It remains to be seen.
Gaston, he would not say no, even if he played the role of the youngest perfectly admiring the achievements of his elder : “Richard has done a lot of things for French tennis, it’s a chance to meet him”. It would be another, all the same, to play at least once the best player in the history of clay in his living room before Nadal hangs up to return to fish in the Bélares. “Richard, a benchmark French player, is already a great draw,” says Inchauspé. But it is sure that Rafa, he can learn more from a match like that than in ten tournaments in a row ”. Even if we dare not even imagine the possibility of a thunderclap like in the fall this time.