“My goal is to give me a new year in the top 100.” Difficult to make more spontaneous than constant Lestienne when evoking his ambitions for 2025. But the 32 -year -old Frenchman, 177th world player, is far from be an isolated case. His compatriot Titouan Droguet (N.183) gives the same answer a few hours later.
“It is not only symbolic,” says Lestienne, who reached the top 100 for the first time in August 2022 after almost ten years on the circuit. This is the ranking that allows you to be in the final table of the Grand Slam tournaments. There is a huge difference on all aspects but especially at the financial level. It's another life, nothing to do with life in challengers ”.
“Rather, you have to be 98th or 99th”
A first round in Roland-Garros reports 73,000 euros gross when it offers 1,890 euros to the Quimper Open (25,740 euros for the winner). The whole four times a year, which ensures an important annuity when you have to pay your trips and those of your coach, the hotels, the staff and all the additional costs (rope and others). The cost of a season varies a lot, depending on the choices of tournaments and the staff of each, but is around 100,000 euros.
The number 100 is not chosen at random. “The first 102 in the ATP ranking enter Grand Chelem. But there are always injured players who use their protected classification so it is more necessary to be 98th or 99th, ”says Lestienne. Lucas Pouille, 101st in the world before the Australian Open, was the first player not to integrate the main draw.
-“The quarters, the Demis, it does not pay”
The top 100 remains “something special” for Ugo Blanchet (N.227), 139th at its best level. “For people, succeeding in tennis is to be top 100. It's a barrier to cross,” continues drugstore.
To enter it, the competition is tough. “There are so many very good players in challenger,” conceded Mackenzie McDonald, Mannarino's fall in Quimper. Even more since 2024 and the change of the point system: less are allocated in challenger, more in ATP. “I find it logical,” describes drugs. ATP matches are so hard to win. A quarter in challenger, it does not pay too much but at this level, we cannot be satisfied with it. “It is very complicated from the challengers. The quarters, the Demis, it does not pay. You have to make finals or win, ”continues Lestienne. Betting out in Quimper would already be a good first step.
