No French in the second week of Roland-Garros, it was a habit. None in the third round, it is already more rare, a sign that tricolor tennis is not doing well. “We need to bring the lines together, to tighten up so that the info flows”, explains to the microphone of Prime Video the newly retired Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, former world No.5.
Today a television consultant, “Jo-Wi” would like to be able to give his time to help players on a daily basis, but feels that it is not easy for him: “I’m not saying that I’m going to be a coach and that I will train a player 24 hours a day. On the other hand, I’m happy to talk to them from time to time, to tell them what I’ve been through, to be available to them on a daily basis. When I come here, I don’t have access to the players’ locker rooms.”
Earlier in the day, Fabrice Santoro had targeted him “well-settled Federation employees” and had not minced his words regarding the situation of French tennis. “On a more global level, we cannot accept the results of French tennis with the means we have, it is not possible to be satisfied with that”, declared the former 17th in the world.
Santoro also regrets that the governing bodies do not call on his services: “It’s also a shame sometimes, and here I’m going to talk about myself, I spent quite a few years on the circuit, and since I stopped my career, I was contacted by four foreign federations and I never received a phone call from the French Tennis Federation. This does not mean that I would have saved French tennis, but I think that at my small level, with my experience, I could have helped one or two players.