A match at the end of the day and a packed Suzanne-Lenglen court under a big blue sky to encourage the French “revenant”: all the ingredients were there for the duel between Lucas Pouille (675?) and Cameron Norrie (13?). But the long-awaited fight did not happen. The Briton easily won on Wednesday May 31 in the second round of Roland-Garros (6-1, 6-3, 6-3).

The Frenchman, out of the qualifications, tasted for the first time another atmosphere than that of court 14, where he had played all his matches so far during this edition. But he must not have been very out of place. From the first points, the “Allez Lucas” and the many chants of the 10,000 spectators in search of the thrill were ready to push him again.

Passions that Cameron Norrie quickly calmed down. The British metronome, boundless, imposed his rhythm and made visit all the corners of the ground to the French. The encouragement of the public, still as loud despite the score, will not change anything: the seeded No. 14 made the break quickly in each round to win without difficulty.

“He had decided to heal himself, that is to say to stop playing”

Former world No. 10 and semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 2019, Lucas Pouille had fallen into oblivion after several injuries. But it is above all the fracture of a rib, in the spring of 2022, which made him switch. “From there, I started to see everything in black,” he recalled in L’Equipe. This is the beginning of the descent into hell.

“I began to have a darker side and to enter into a depression which led me, after Roland, to sleep an hour a night and to drink alone”, he continues in the columns of the sports newspaper. So he decides to put the snowshoes away and have a good time with his friends and family on the Côte d’Azur. “He had a very good holiday because he no longer had his greatest pain, which was to go on the court, explains his coach and friend Enzo Py in L’Equipe. He had decided to treat himself, that is to say to stop playing. He stopped the train before it derailed. »

It was a stint at Bercy – for Gilles Simon’s farewell – and the prospect of the 2024 Olympics at home that prompted him to return to the courts. But the way back is also winding. The old demons seemed to return as soon as it resumed in January, with an abdominal injury in Thailand then the appearance of pain in a rib in Quimper.

“I would have signed” for a second round on the Lenglen

He then prepared for the clay court season with his young compatriots Luca Van Assche and Arthur Fils in Nice, before heading to the American and South American continents. There, he chained three Challengers where he won only two games, before withdrawing from the fourth, which he had to play, because of lumbago. “I was the one who had to carry his bag”, even says Enzo Py in L’Equipe.

Nothing predestined Lucas Pouille to tread the ocher of the Porte d’Auteuil this year. But, invited by the organizers to compete in the qualifications, he regained his splendor in the lair of court 14. The victories over the Czech Tomas Machac (127?) then the Taiwanese Tseng Chun-hsin (215th) and finally the Austrian Jurij Rodionov (134?) – his first Grand Slam for three and a half years – opens the doors to the big picture.

After having replayed, and beaten again, the Austrian – lucky loser – in the first round, the step was therefore too high against the British number 1. If he conceded that there was “disappointment”, the Northerner still managed his tournament. “If coming back from the United States, several weeks ago, I had been told: you will qualify, you will pass a round and you will be in the second round on the Lenglen, honestly I would have signed, “he said. he relativized in a press conference after the match. Above all, beyond the result, he became a tennis player again.