Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Monday January 6, 2025 at 12:09 p.m.
For the second time since 1986, no French player appears in the top 50 of the WTA rankings, with Caroline Garcia, the French number 1, now ranked 58th.
If the French tennis players started the season well, with the first ATP title won by Alexandre Müller in Hong Kong and the promising semi-final of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Brisbane, and are logically reaping the rewards in the ATP rankings, it is (a lot ) more complicated for their female counterparts. During the two WTA tournaments of the week, in Brisbane and Auckland, only one French player was present: Selena Janicijevic.
Engaged in the qualifications for the New Zealand event, she made it through the first round of qualifying but not the second. And it's not better in Challenger, with the elimination of Elsa Jacquemot in the round of 16 in Canberra. Chloé Paquet and Elixane Lechemia were involved in the United Cup, and the first lost her two singles matches, against Switzerland and Italy, while the second also lost twice in doubles, alongside 'Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Only three in the top 100
In the WTA rankings, still dominated by Aryna Sabalenka ahead of Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, there is no longer any French woman in the top 50. What had already happened between April 2021 and January 2022 reports Jeu, Set et Maths, as well as in 1986… Still French number 1, Caroline Garcia, who ended her season in mid-September because she was “mentally exhausted” and has not yet started the news, lost 10 places and is now in 58th place. And there are only two others in the top 100, who are also slipping: Diane Parry (-3, 66th) and Varvara Gracheva (-3, 69th).
Then come Clara Burel (-4, 103rd), Océane Dodin (-6, 117th), Chloé Paquet (123rd), Jessika Ponchet (+2, 131st), Leolia Jeanjean (149th), Elsa Jacquemot (+1, 160th) and Selena Janicijevic (+3, 188th). Many of them are involved in qualifying for the Australian Open, a first Major of the year where only Dodin managed to get past the 3rd round last year.
