French tennis has waited a long time for a male grand slam champion. Yannick Noah was their last champion back in 1983 at the French Open.
Many have tried. Sebastien Grosjean made four semi finals, Richard Gasquet three, and Jo Wilfried Tsonga a final and multiple semis. Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon have also broken the top ten, but that elusive title remains out of reach. Grosjean is now retired, but the other four still consistently ensure that at least one Frenchman appears involved in outside contender talk at most Slams.
But this is group is ageing. All four are either twenty-nine or thirty, well past the average age when a Grand Slam winner picks up his maiden title. With Tsonga and Monfils hampered in particular by poor injury records, it is unlikely that this group will remain around for more than the next two to three years.
So what else is there for the French?
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a whole lot. There are just three French players under the age of twenty-eight in the men’s top 100. Adrian Mannarino and Benoit Paire both have excitable games and undeniable talent. But they are inconsistent. Both are prone to meander in form, and neither have the talent to go deep into the Grand Slams. Paire’s recent revival and consecutive wins over Kei Nishikori have been soured by earlier defeats to Rogerio Dutra Silva, Tim Puetz, and Marco Chuidinelli. He is at a career high ranking of twenty-one, yet elected to play a Challenger last week.
The final player is Lucas Pouille. A talent for sure, and is holding a place well inside the top 100 at sixty-eight this week. Considering he started the year ranked at one hundred and thirty-three, his rise this year puts him in contention perhaps for the Newcomer of the Year Award. At twenty-one there is hope he can solidify and improve upon his ranking, and with wins against Dominic Thiem, Juan Monaco and Fabio Fognini, there is promise. But there are holes in his game. Defeats this year have come to Yan Bai, Lukasz Kubot, Sekou Bangoura, and Evgeny Donskoy. These are all since his ranking elevation. He has a good game, but does not excite like another generation of young players such as Australia’s Bernard Tomic, or Nick Kyrgios. With Alexander Zverev, Borna Coric, Hyeon Chung, and a whole host of Americans waiting in the wings, Pouille will be in what looks a fiercely competitive generation.
Is there at least depth for the future? If anything, the French can have been able to provide strong numbers, regularly taking double digit numbers as representatives for main draws of Grand Slam events. But even the depth is ageing. Nicolas Mahut and Paul-Henri Mathieu are now veterans, and will be doing well if they maintain their rankings over the coming year. Pierre-Hugues Herbert is twenty-four, but has never maintained top 100 status for very long. Julien Benneteau has been hit by injury, and is in the same situation as Mathieu and Mahut. Edouard Roger-Vasselin has fallen massively from the top, and now enjoys most of his success on the doubles circuit. Quentin Halys is the only French teenager ranked inside the Top 200, at one hundred and ninety. He is trying to make progress through the Challenger circuit, but does not have a major win under his belt.
Beyond Halys there are youngsters of a sort. Maxime Hamou and Calvin Hemery are names with youth on their side. Both have appeared often in Challenger draws, with very limited progress. Laurent Lokoli was predicted as a big hope but has lost his way. Gianni Mina, saddled with the tag of “Baby Monfils”, peaked at eighteen.
The present remains stable, even exciting at times for French tennis. But every nation seems to go through a generation gap (the United States might just be coming out of one) and France looks like it might be about to endure one. It seems that the best chance the French have is for one of their current stars to defy the odds and break that elusive thirty-two year win less streak. If one of them does not manage it, the wait could be a whole lot longer.
