When we met him four years ago, Sean Cuenin was still a teenager. Silent but driven by a rage to win anchored deep within him. The Toulonnais' path seemed clear towards the (very) high level. He shone among the juniors alongside Les Fils, M'Petshi Perricard, Van Assche (1)… In 2022, he narrowly missed the main draw at Roland-Garros and won his first matches on the secondary circuit. However, the prodigy gradually disappeared from the radar.
After a last appearance at the end of 2023 on a Future in Tunisia, for “honor a contract”more sound, more image. Physical glitches? Yes. But above all a general fed up with tennis. “I preferred to stop”he reveals today, when he has only just signed his return to the circuit.
A “robot in the factory”
“I no longer wanted to play at all. I no longer really knew what I wanted to do with my life”says Sean Cuenin. At the start of 2024, he came to recharge his batteries with his parents in Toulon, having left home at the age of 11. First for the Pôle France, in Poitiers, then for the National Training Center (CNE), in Paris, until he turned 18. An ideal framework for forging the talents of tomorrow (read opposite). Not for Sean, who, with his character, is always on the edge of the frame. “The CNE was not made for me: life in Paris, far from my family… I had the feeling of being in the factory, we were a bit like robots: you get up, you do this, you do that and you don't have a sayhe describes. I was forcing myself to please my coaches.”
The pressure is building. “I had a lot of them because I was considered among the best. My coaches were very demanding because they really believed in me. I had several (Benoît Carelli, Éric Winogradsky, Emmanuel Planque), with whom either it didn't go very well or it didn't work.” concedes Sean Cuenin, who now wants to play tennis for himself.
“No one at the Fed supported me”
It explodes. Slam the door of the CNE in April 2023. “I was sick of tennis. Like really sick of it!” He cuts the first time. Can be tested in the summer in Cannes, “chez [Jean-René] Lisnard”Or “everything is going well”. But at his return tournament, “in Serbia”the knee gives out. “I was injured for three, four months and there, I was really at the bottom… Not happy, really!”
Without resources, Sean Cuenin ruminates on his unhappiness, thinks about getting his coaching diplomas… “My parents are my first supporters. We talked a lot, so that I don't have any regrets. It's good because at no time did they push me towards tennis, they are happy because I am happy I had the support of my family, my friends but no one at the Federation.he notes.
“I really do things for me”
Whatever. This break makes him “a lot of good”. In May 2024, he leaves to compete in the interclubs in Italy and Germany, “to touch a little sorrel”. The victories keep coming. THE “smile and the desire to play” come back. The Toulonnais then travels through open tournaments “not far from home”: “I won the six I did. It gave me confidence. I thought about it and made the decision to start again hard. I had missed it.”
Direction the French Touch Academy, under the orders of Régis Laverne (ex-194e at the ATP), in Cap-d'Agde, where he is based today. His return to Future? Two main draws in Monastir (Tunisia) and a final at the beginning of November.
In the fall, Sean Cuenin also participates in interclubs with Arras (Pro B), alongside a certain Benoît Paire, another player with a strong character. And from which he seems to be inspired. “My approach has changed, that's clear. I feel like I really do things for myself and if someone doesn't like it, it doesn't matter. I've always been told to shut the fuck up, like Roger Federer. But that's not me. Now, in training or in a match, if I want to freak out, I freak out. If I open it, I open it. Cause I'm me, I'm Sean and I'm like that since I was little I know that I am far from perfect in terms of attitude, but I have this flame that is lit in me and that I did not dare to have before.confides the Varois, without hiding. Everyone has their own way of doing things: Rafa Nadal needed to train six hours a day but Benoît Paire, if he had done that, he would never have exceeded 300th place in the world: he needs to break his rackets .”
“Never lose the fun on the pitch”
In this way, but also with a “better service and stronger play”always focused on his forehand, Sean Cuenin will therefore return to the Future circuit this January, with the idea of staying there as short as possible. “I want to progress, but without pressure. The idea is to climb back to 500 ATP place in a year. If I do all that, it's to break into tennis, as I have always desired.”
Then the Toulonnais specifies: “But my main objective is to keep this pleasure that I have found on the court and never lose it. If I am happy, I know that with the tennis I have, it can go very quickly .”
1. It was also the last four of Roland-Garros juniors in 2021.
“No jealousy”
Sean Cuenin belongs to the same golden generation as Arthur Fils and Giovanni M'Petshi Perricard, today 20th and 31st at the ATP and rubbed shoulders at the CNE. “They are my best friends in tennis. Seeing Arthur and “Gio” succeed didn’t undermine me. There is no jealousy. I am proud of them and I wish them the best, says the Toulonnais, also invited by Fils to train in Dubai in December. Before, I often compared myself to others. It only hurt me. But in fact, to each their own. If they are in the top 30 at 20, that’s great and if I get there at 28, that’s OK too…”
