It was May 31, 2023 against the Argentine pair Casanova-Olivo. They were far from imagining it, but by joining forces for the first time in doubles during the first round of the Troisdorf Challenger, in Germany, the Malouin Manuel Guinard and the Clermontois Grégoire Jacq began an association which would prove to be also complementary than fruitful.
“Our pair came together by chance. I saw that Manu was on the entry list and I asked him if he wanted to play with me and we made the final for our first tournament,” recalls Grégoire Jacq.
A final and three victories to start
In the process, this new duo will win the following three Challenger-type tournaments in which they will participate: Lyon, Troyes then Amersfoort, in the Netherlands.
“We were around 350th place in the world (Grégoire Jacq was N.310 and Manuel Guinard N.208, on May 31, 2023) and we found ourselves N.130 quite quickly. Afterwards we continued on our merry way, with a little more difficulty on hard indoor courts than on clay,” adds Manuel Guinard.
In a year and a half, the Guinard-Jacq pair have won eight Challenger tournaments and reached two ATP 250 finals, this summer in Bastad, Sweden, then in Umag in Croatia, without forgetting a round of 16 contested in June at Roland -Garros against the well-known Greek pair in Quimperlé of the Tsitispas brothers.
Current N.62 (Jacq) and N.68 (Guinard) in doubles, they have the cumulative ranking to enter directly into the Australian Open table, which would allow them to play their second Grand Slam tournament in January .
Very complementary games
“We get along really well and we have very complementary games. I’m left-handed, he’s right-handed. He’s tall, I’m shorter. I like to be more at the net, he more at the back. All of this meant that we immediately played very well together, especially since we also have a fairly similar state of mind, made up of a lot of grit and motivation,” summarizes Grégoire Jacq.
“Greg knows everything about doubles strategy and theory very well, because he was a coach before to Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Nico Mahut and many others. He puts this expertise at our service and I can take advantage of it because I play more with the qualities of a singles player. In the end, it’s a pretty good match between him and me,” adds Manuel Guinard.
As they get along like thieves, the two players play together as soon as they can in doubles, which is not obvious when you also have a career in singles like Manuel Guinard. “Of the doubles that we play, we still do 75 to 80% together. This frequency allows us to progress our association,” explains Grégoire Jacq, who also just won the Rennes Challenger in September with the Dutchman Sander Arends, another doubles specialist licensed at TC Quimperlé.
From Biarritz Olympique to TC Quimperlé
Because, since this year, and to remedy a weakness which had appeared during the previous Pro A interclub championships, TC Quimperlé has “invested” in doubles players and has two pairs which are part of the Top 100 in the world: Pel- Arends and Guinard-Jacq.
But contrary to what one might think, it was not Manuel Guinard who asked Grégoire Jacq to come and play with him in Quimperlé. “I was looking because my club Biarritz went down to Nationale 1 (the third level). As the N1 championship (where the TC Quimperlé reserve plays) takes place in May and we are in the middle of the doubles tournament season, I asked Manu if Quimperlé was looking for a doubles player. » TC Quimperlé obviously jumped at the opportunity with this efficient pair on the ATP circuit, which still remains on a snag in Blanc-Mesnil (3-3) after a successful first against Bressuire (6-0).
Senegal
