Report from Roland Garros: The State of Tennis in France (I)
Part I of a series focuses on the recent history and renaissance of the gameFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Liza Horan
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06/03/06 -
This first article in a series examines the roots of the game and its recent history and renaissance in France
By Liza Horan, Editor
Paris--It used to be that a Grand Slam tournament that stretched to 15 days was a bad thing--that bulging dark skies finally deluged the one spot on the planet that required dry conditions that particular week.
And, chances would be that that tournament would be Wimbledon. But this week the phenomenon was of a 15-day major was brought on by man and his pursuit of money, yet all in the name of tennis.
In efforts to increase the draw of fans, and their disposable income, to Roland Garros for the spectacle of world-class tennis for an extra day, the tournament owner (FFT) started play a day early, on Sunday.
The players who didn't like it, such as No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 4 Maria Sharapova, were most vocal, but the fans loved it. Spreading first-round matches over three days seems to have been worth it. Will the other majors follow?
The FFT's position makes sense. As the governing body of tennis here, it's charged with three objectives, the first being most dependent on funds raised from the championships and fees from facility and individual memberships:
-to promote, organize and develop tennis in France (professional and recreational)
- to bring tennis clubs together and help organize their activities
- to ensure that the tennis values are respected; those values are effort, respect for the opponent, and sportsmanship
Click photo to view larger image in new window; photos by Liza Horan
The four majors are strewn about the planet, but are partners in growing the game in their own territories
In the shadow of Les Mousquetaires, the French can watch their modern heroes inch closer to the finals. |
These responsibilities are in line with the governing bodies of the other Grand Slam nations--the U.S., Great Britain and Australia--and all feel the pressure to produce champions.
"The commercial success totally depends on the names," says Philippe Bouin of
L'Equipe, the daily sports newspaper in France. "But if Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils don't succeed, we still have a huge way to showcase tennis at Roland Garros."
People want a
cause celebre, and the most powerful tool to induce them to purchase a ticket to watch tennis and a racquet to play tennis is the pros themselves. So, there is a great emphasis on the early detection of talent.
French national coach Thierry Tulasne, who is on the front lines as part of the FFT effort, agrees. “When we have good results it helps to get the children to play tennis,” Tulasne said Saturday, just before Paul-Henri Mathieu, whom he coaches, took the court to face defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Since the days of Yannick Noah, Guy Forget and Henri Leconte, France has been anxious to find a prodigy to put its passion behind and wagers on. Gasquet, the 2002 junior world champion who lost to third-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina in the second round, is a perfect example of the FFT system and was predisposed to the game because both parents are teaching pros and his father owned a club.
Ten years ago, when the country was eager for the next great hope,
Tennis Magazine France devoted a cover to Gasquet. He was nine years old. That was a little much for Bouin's taste, he says, but "Gasquet’s been considered the next marvel for some time."
Not so for Amelie Mauresmo, surprisingly. She trained independently until age 11 when the FFT invited her to join their performance program. Bouin recalls Mauresmo training with three other girls, including Anne Gaelle-Sidot, but that she didn’t receive any markings of "the next marvel."
However, it didn’t take long. By age 15 she was playing the junior international circuit and one year later, in 1996, she burst out of the pack to become junior world champion. Today she is the reigning Australian Open champion and top seed at Roland Garros. For more on Mauresmo’s impact on French tennis, click here for The State of Tennis in France: Part II.
Oui, oui, things are looking good for France, but it wasn't always this way.
"At the end of the '60s the situation of Roland Garros was not very good,” explains Bouin. “It was shaky. The Americans didn't like to come.”
One man saw the opportunity, and now the Roland Garros stadium bears his name: Philippe Chatrier.
Chartrier was a professional player who arguably made his best contributions to the game after he retired from competition. He first applied his tennis expertise as a journalist, then became an activist and landed the position of President of the FFT. The game was never the same in France.
"Chatrier decided to renew things so he put his emphasis on the tournament and the detection of players,” says Bouin. “Yannick Noah was in that first generation."
For those who are not French, Noah is A-list here. When the legend, who has become at Top-10 selling music artist and humanitarian, passed through the public spaces Philippe Chartrier Stadium the other day, he was surrounded by security men and drew mostly gasps from paralyzed fans. Their faces wore wonderment, while his was a giddy yet humble smile looking down at the ground.
Ahh, the days of Noah, Forget and Leconte. Those were also the good old days for the United States, who counted Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors among their lucky charms. Tennis was all the rage as people wore their Tretorns, Lacoste shirts, and tennis bracelets, and played the game with fervor.
"In the '70s it was very easy because tennis was trendy,” says Bouin, who was in the thick of the scene then. "It was a way to move up the social scale. Everybody was going to training camp then.
Today both France and the U.S. are chasing the numbers of recreational players in the 1970s.
Figures dipped in the ‘80s, and has slowly been increasing due to initiatives Chatrier launched during his tenure from 1973 to 1993. He primarily sought to identify and develop talent with the goal of creating world-class champions, and to grow the recreational side of the game.
To this end, Chartrier launched the new concept of training centers that combined academics and pro tennis development, and built Roland Garros into the national training center and powerhouse tournament it is today.
In efforts to create enduring recreational opportunities, Chartrier launched the "5,000 courts" project to build that many new courts in small towns. It was successful in creating opportunities to play, but it also backfired, Bouin says. The tennis clubs were being abandoned by recreational players who, whether or not they carried the necessary FFT license, opted to play on the free public courts. People were playing, but not paying for court time or an individual membership to the FFT.
Still, the proliferation of courts is such that countryside towns are more likely to have a public tennis court than a movie theater; a situation the basketball-heavy New World yearns for.
These days Chartrier's work is carried out by his successor Christian Bimes, who was recently elected to a fourth term. He leads the FFT's nearly 300 employees at Roland Garros headquarters, and 200,000 volunteers elsewhere.
Tennis seems to be healthy and growing in France. While the FFT continues to churn out world-class players (59 in the main singles draws), increase individual memberships (1.05 million) and courts (33,467), the job can be made lighter or heavier depending on the destiny of Mauresmo and the other French players left in the draw. The better they perform, the greater the visibility of tennis in France.
Clickhere for more info on this in The State of Tennis in France: Part II.
"The situation in France is not as good as it used to be, but the money is still coming in because of Roland Garros," says Bouin.
France: The roots of the game
As an outsider, it’s clear that tennis is part of the fabric of French culture. Everyone knows who the players are. Courts are available in public parks such as the Luxembourg Gardens in the center of Paris. The press corps follow tennis year-round, not only when pro events come to town.
The reason is simple, says Philippe Bouin of L’Equipe, the daily sports newspaper: "The sport is very deeply rooted here.”
Jeu de paume arrives in the 6th century: The great ancestor of modern tennis was jeu de paume, a type of handball played on a court. The ball was batted around with a mitt, which eventually developed into a wooden racquet. This game was created by the Byzantines in the 4th century, and became known in France in the 6th century.
11 centuries later… The game's heyday came in the 17th century when it evolved to "real tennis," It was pretty easy to find a court--with 250 in Paris and another 2,000 throughout the country--and likely so to find it already in use.
By the king’s order: Tennis fever spread like mad to point that the game's popularity was seen as a detriment to its future--students were skipping classes and skimping on study time in order to play real tennis. Finally the king took action by banning students from the courts.
The modern game: The widespread popularity of tennis calmed down a bit in the 18th and 19th centuries. The game started becoming more organized on an internationally basis in the late 1800s, with the birth of "lawn tennis" in 1874. The first French tennis club was founded three years later. The French Lawn Tennis Federation, which was the precursor to the Federation Francaise de Tennis (FFT), wouldn't be created until 1920.
Tennis-speak: Today, the French roots remain. The name of the game and its language come from the French. "Tennis" was derived from tenez, which a server would call out before putting ball in play during jeu de paume. Literally it means "hold." The score term for zero, of course, is love, which comes from "l'oeuf;" literally, "the egg," which a zero resembles.
For more information:
History of Real Tennis: http://www.real-tennis.com
Real Tennis on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_tennis
Comite Francais de Courte-Paume: http://www.club.fft.fr/courte-paume/info.htm [French]
