Featured in the Magazine l’Equipe on the eve of the first round of Roland Garros 2024, the courts of the Tennis Club des Flandres de Croix are full of myths. The opportunity to make those who know their history speak. To try to disentangle fact from fiction about the presence of all these champions at Croix in the last century.
Listen to these balls hit by tennis legends, soak up the tension that reigns here on the indoor court of the Tennis Club of Flanders. No, you are not dreaming, but you are imagining… You are imagining a confrontation which legend says took place here, between two essential figures of tennis in the middle of the last century. Rod Laver and Stan Smith.
For those who don’t know, the first, Australian, is still compared today to Novak Djokovic, current world number 1. It is even rumored that he would have made more of an impression at the time. And for good reason, the man won the 4 Grand Slam tournaments in 1962, before turning professional and no longer being able to participate in these major competitions until 1968.
Rod Laver at Wimbledon in 1968
•
© – / AFP
The second is Stan Smith, American, player of the 1970s, has a less extensive record in Grand Slams – even if he won Wimbledon and the US Open – but more consistent in Davis Cup.
A score display board, from the time at the Tennis Club des Flandres in Croix.
•
© Jean-François Tsakala
The two champions are still alive and are now 85 and 77 years old. So imagine a confrontation between these two champions in the making at Croix, under the glass roof of the Tennis Club des Flandres: today a scorer’s table helps you take the step…
Exhibited like a museum piece to the aficionados who are the club’s licensees, it prolongs the legend… However, if we have collected testimonies ensuring the presence of these two players at Croix, at the time of writing these lines, no proof – photos or writings attesting to this – unlike the presence of Suzanne Lenglen or the 4 Musketeers in the club.
An advertisement for registration for group lessons given by Suzanne Lenglen (right), in the 1936 publication “Smash”.
•
© Tennis Club de Flandres in Croix
As evidenced by this extract from Smash, the newspaper of the Tennis club of Flanders from 1936, in which an advertisement appears to register for a course with Suzanne Lenglen. “At the time, the club created by textile industrialists from Roubaix, with its cachet and its so-called Eiffel structure, was very fashionable. It housed the rare clay courts north of Paris”explains Jean-François Tsakala, 48 years old, sports manager of TCF. “In the 1970s Patrice Dominguez [ancien joueur, dirigeant de la FFF, et journaliste, NDLR] told me that we had the most beautiful club in France”, remembers Didier Lefévère, 85 years old, former president of the club for 28 years.
Extract from a document on the history of the club prepared by Gérard Dujardin at the request of the TCF in March 2004.
•
© Gérard Dujardin
Today, the TCF – and its 440 licensees – is merging with the other Croix club, AS Victor Hugo, which has 220 licensees. The town hall is committed to restoring the heritage structure as it is.
The club has 11 courts, six indoor, five outdoor (including three on synthetic clay) and is the pride of its young and old tennis fans.
