No tricolor in the third round… French women's tennis continues its long descent into hell

Given the atmosphere created by the French supporters at the Australian Open, it's better to have your eardrums well connected when you're not used to seeing spectators vituperating against the opponent of our little French protégés. So, the regulars at Melbourne Park, who have a little sensitive ears, took precautions and reserved their tickets for the second week, the usual graveyard for the French.

Next year, a ticket for the second round in the women's table will perhaps be enough for them to spare themselves any excessive decibel, if we trust the dynamics of the French women on the island-continent: only five tricolors aligned in the first round, including a wild card awarded to Chloé Paquet and a player who came out of qualifying, Léolia Jeanjan, only one left after the first round, and then no one left after the second.

Chain of poor performances

This is the second time since 1987 that no French player has managed to qualify for the third round of the Australian Open. The “There are no more French women at the Australian Open” therefore arrived early, very early, just after the elimination, this Thursday, of Varvara Gracheva by the German Eva Lys (6-2, 3 -6, 6-4), returned from the dead after being drafted as lucky loser. For French women, we are more at a pace of loser in short, in line with a complicated year 2024.

The clearings were rare, with only Loïs Boisson (20 years old) winning a WTA tournament. It was in Saint-Malo, for a small WTA 125, during the Open 35, where she beat her compatriot Chloé Paquet in the final. We also had a bit of excitement with Varvara Gracheva until the round of 16 at Roland-Garros or with Océane Dodin, until the same stage of the competition, during the 2024 Australian Open.

Otherwise, the rest of the season was just a series of disappointments. As this year in Melbourne, no tricolor qualified for the third round of Wimbledon and the US Open, the former French n°1 Caroline Garcia ended her season earlier than expected to resolve her concerns mentally, before going on to an eighth Major in Australia without reaching the second week. Not to mention the relegation of Billie Jean's King Cup team (the Fed Cup for old-timers) to the second division.

“We have good players”

A sign that good performances do not result from in-depth work, but rather from a temporary miracle, Diane Parry, after her defeat in the first round in Melbourne, indicated, in an attempt to explain the poor form of the French, that tennis worked in “periods” and that good passes were simply “a chain of circumstances”. Everything is going very well.

However, the general alert has not yet sounded within the French tennis federation. In an interview with AFP, Gilles Moretton, the president of the FFT, probably felt that he was humming with his eyes hidden and his ears blocked. Africa Saga to remember the blessed times, “having good players. I think Clara (Burel) and Diane (Parry) have the potential to be in the 20.” The first (23 years old) is currently 101st in the WTA, while the second (22 years old), 66th and first French, just lost to a member of this top 20, Donna Vekic, for her entry into the running.

And the future does not seem to look promising. “There are fewer and fewer little girls who play tennis and who stay,” analyzes coach Loïc Courteau, with our colleagues at France Info. Obviously then, there are fewer players who reach the high level and who obtain results. » In December, Gilles Moretton admitted to having “still a lot of work to do on women's tennis. Today, we have 30% of female graduates compared to 70% of men in France.

Still any hope?

A reduced talent pool that the president of the FFT, re-elected in December for four years, hopes to expand: “We must allow as many people as possible to play tennis, that’s what we have started to do and I think that We will reap the rewards later. » It remains to be seen when the “later” will end. So, to avoid going into depression for several years, we still saw a small (slight) clearing in the very dark sky which could save our health during the next tournaments.

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Even if she is still very young, Ksenia Efremova (15 years old), who arrived from Russia in France in 2019, is perhaps the only one who can save French women's tennis in the coming years. French number 1 among young people and already 840th in the WTA rankings, the teenager is in a good school. After attending the Mouratoglou academy, she is today in good company with Jean-René Lisnard in Cannes. The same one who managed to make Mirra Andreeva (15th in the world) a war machine. At 16, the Siberian was already disgusting members of the top 10 in Grand Slam tennis. We'll meet Ksenia Efremova in a year.