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Another French flop in the making
Home hopes of a first French Open win in the men's singles in 21 years have taken a heavy blow with the defeats of top players Sebastien Grosjean and Arnaud Clement and already the recriminations have started.
Home hopes of a first French Open win in the men's singles in 21 years have taken a heavy blow with the defeats of top players Sebastien Grosjean and Arnaud Clement and already the recriminations have started.
Former stars such as Cedric Pioline and Henri Leconte have laid into the current French generation of players saying that they lack the proper motivation and fail to prepare themselves properly.
Going by Grosjean's abysmal straight sets loss to Italian qualifier Potito Starace, they have a point.
The Marseille-born player has all the talent in the world including one of the best forehands on the circuit but his best performance to date in eight appearances at Roland Garros is a semi-final in 2001.
Grosjean was at a loss to explain his defeat.
"Physically I was okay, It was just that I really didn't have the right kind of conditions to prepare myself properly for this tournament," he offered.
His trainer Thierry Tulasne agreed that Grosjean just was not ready for the war of attrition that is clay-court tennis at this level.
"A really poor game from him," he said. "Physically, he just wasn't in it and he was always up against it.
"I just don't know what we can do about it. All I know is that he struggles to put in the preparation work he needs, his body just doesn't accept it.
"We will have to go back to the drawing board. He will have to work hard and build himself the physique of a true athlete."
Grosjean, however, said he was dismayed at the criticisms coming from the likes of Pioline, a player who made the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open but who failed to make it to a final at Roland Garros.
"I did what I could," he said. "I have been ranked fourth in the world and it seems to me that I know how best to prepare myself.
"I really think it's a shame that the older ones say those things. They never liked to talk about it when they were still playing"
Grosjean appeared to be alluding to the string of notable French failures since Yannick Noah's emotional title triumph over Mats Wilander in 1983.
Leconte, Tulasne, Guy Forget and Pioline all tried and failed with only Leconte ever reaching the final and Grosjean appears destined to join them.
But it was not all doom and gloom for the home fans as Grosjean and Clement apart, the French have qualified six players for the last 32.
The problem is that all of them are basically journeymen players who are not expected to end the long men's singles drought.
So for the Roland Garros faithful, there's always Amelie Mauresmo in the women's tournament.
