Before the tournament, not many people bet on her, or even know her name. A week later, here is Varvara Gracheva qualified for the round of 16 at Roland-Garros and adopted by the public at Suzanne Lenglen. As a baptism gift, he began to sing the Marseillaise, a quality acoustic show amplified by the roof of the court in which the Frenchwoman did not hesitate to join. “A first at Roland-Garros,” Fabrice Santoro explains to him in the middle of Lenglen. “It’s a moment that I will memorize until the end of my life,” she declared in a post-match conference in a French that is clearly improving but still getting used to, especially under pressure.
For the first time in the fortnight, here she is sitting in the main interview room at Roland-Garros, larger, less confidential. “It’s weird to find yourself in front of so many journalists. Maybe it’s just part of the job at the end of the day, I don’t know…” she smiles, the same smile that sometimes appears in the middle of a match when things get tough, as if to reassure herself. “If someone had told me, five, four, a year before: you’re going to be on the Suzanne Lenglen, and smile with all your teeth…”
Gracheva not aware of his qualification for the Olympic Games
Things happen so quickly that she herself has difficulty keeping up. When a colleague points out to her that she is the last French player competing in Paris, she cuts him off, amused: “another thing I didn’t know. I’m happy to be here, I want to go as far as possible. And I am proud. » Is she only aware of being qualified for the Olympics thanks to her victory in two sets against Irina-Camelia Begu? Here again, we have some doubts. ” Maybe ? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m going to ask if they accept me! I’ll ask Julien Benneteau. »
A priori, it should be fine. The captain of the French Billie Jean King Cup team gave him his chance last fall, but his first call-up was cut short. Her opponent, the German Tatjana Maria, had to give up quickly, while Gracheva had not registered a single game in the first set (3-0). The Olympic Games will be a new opportunity for her to represent her new colors. Before that, there will still be a Grand Slam round of 16 to play against Mirra Andreeva or Peyton Stearns.