Is there anything more exciting than a second week of Roland-Garros which is starting? And yes, especially when the package of the absolute scarecrow Rafael Nadal allows a lot of players to dream of the Coupe des Mousquetaires. OK we see you coming the blasouilles: “No, but all the same, it is each year the biggest sporting event organized in France, and we never have the least French in the round of 16”. So it’s not wrong, but this time, we found something to soften your nostalgia for 1983. And yes, we have prepared a list of six players still in contention in the final table who have a visceral link with the France (oula we oversold a bit there, sorry). Pick some favorites in there to get you fired up for good over the next eight days, that’s 20 minutes who delights.
Holger Rune
Yes, the fiery blond Danish has been training since the age of 13 on the grounds of the famous Muratoglou Academy in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes). Close to the emblematic French coach Patrick Muratoglou, since all this time, also via his Champ’seed foundation, Holger Rune clearly has a connection to the Côte d’Azur. He is also a Monegasque resident (oh that’s ok, that counts for France when it suits us) and his agent Philippe Weiss is French.
And for that matter, his first big conquests on the courts were (on clay of course) at the Beaulieu-sur-Mer junior tournament, then at the Junior French Open at Roland at 16 years old. It’s starting to make a lot of arguments for the Gentofte puncher. Cap back, real (big) mouth of the circuit, the young man has moreover this panache which makes kiffer.
Elina Svitolina
There, there is probably no need to detail an obvious link with France. The 28-year-old Ukrainian has been the companion of Gaël Monfils for five years, with whom she had a little girl, Skaï, born 7 months ago. The Monfils-Svitolina couple delighted us at the start of the tournament, talking about their new life as parents, supporting each other during their matches, and sharing victories after having their backs to the wall throughout the first set. When you like the combativeness of “la Monf”, you can only appreciate that of Elina Svitolina, whose qualification in the eighth is what is more a sacred performance, so shortly after giving birth.
Francisco Cerundolo
Here is a tennis player friend of the tricolor institution. All of tennis in France is thrilled to see Arthur Fils (18) tumbling through his first ATP tournament final in Lyon on May 27. We can then count on the Argentinian to allow the great hope of Ile-de-France to write a little more history by lifting his first title at the Open Parc (6-3, 7-5). Seven days later, the audience at Suzanne-Lenglen is on a mission. In his viewfinder is Taylor Fritz, who fell in the previous round of the last Frenchman still in the running, Arthur Rinderknech, in a boosted atmosphere, between chambering and contempt. When the players arrived on the court on Saturday, the Lenglen did it again by booing the American. Francisco Cerundolo heard their message and signed the surprise of the day against the tournament’s number 9 seed. hit the road Taylor!
Ons Jabeur
The endearing 28-year-old player has strong messages to convey on the women’s circuit, as she proved again on Saturday by taking a stand on the sensitive issue of a gender distribution for the night sessions of Roland Garros. Before coming to train for part of her adolescence in France, the Tunisian (French-speaking) won the Roland-Garros junior tournament in 2011 in the major category. A first for a Tunisian athlete. Seeded number 7 at Roland, Ons Jabeur may have a big shot to play.
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Here too, Patrick Muratoglou is obviously closer to the hatching of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who joined his academy on the Côte d’Azur in 2015. But the real point that also links him to France for even longer is very unusual . After growing up in a family of footballers, the young Greek decided to opt for the little yellow ball for good… in Normandy!
“When I won an under-8 tournament in Normandy, I understood that individual sports corresponded more to my personality than team sports. After this tournament, I told my father that I was going to quit football. Well he took it. Normandy, a formidable talent launcher revered as far away as Greece.
Carlos Alcaraz
It’s here masterpiece which almost triggered our story idea. We received on Thursday a strange email mentioning in the subject of the French origins for Carlos Alcaraz. What what, if the world number one and favorite of this edition of Roland-Garros lifts the trophy next Sunday, it would be a bit of our victory (we are not exaggerating at all)? Suffice to say that we immediately plunged into this email mentioning the site My Heritage, which allows you to create your family tree online. Drum roll and verdict: “My Heritage has found and can confirm that Carlos Alcaraz’s maternal grandmother is linked to his great-grandparents, Jean-Nicolas Egler and Marie Eugénie Jeannenot, who married in 1858 in Baume -les-Dames, in the Doubs (Burgundy-Franche-Comté)”.
Their CV is even listed there: “Jean-Nicolas Egler was a railway worker and his parents were weavers”. We avoid you the passage on the effects of the lost war against Prussia in his choice of nationality, but know that Jean-Nicolas Egler had gone to live in Malaga (Andalusia). And yes, it turned fate upside down/caused lose of French tennis in the very long term. We do not congratulate you Charles Alcaraze, even if this connection to the Doubs necessarily makes us the guy likeable. Like what, sometimes you have to open your weirdest emails.