FFT President Gilles Moretton discusses French players’ struggles and measures being taken to improve their rankings

Of the 28 French people in the running at the start (18 men and 10 women), only three (at the time of the interview, granted collectively this Thursday morning to the regional daily press, editor’s note) are still in the running, and the possibility of not seeing any tricolor player in the 3rd round is real. What analysis do you draw from these results?

Do not dream, these results are up to the ranking of our players today, with the exception of Caroline (Garcia), who went through, and it has been the case for some time. She has to find the answers. Afterwards, we are in our place: we have few or no players ranked in the world 40 (although France is the 3rd nation best represented in the world top 100 for men, Ed). I’m not hiding behind my little finger: we have to do better. But I have said it over and over again, success at the top level must be an individual project, and it cannot be a federal project. There is not a country in the world that does as much as us, but when we have accompanied them, it is up to them to lead their career. A champion is a business.

“I’m not hiding behind my little finger: we have to do better. But I have said it over and over again, success at the top level must be an individual project, and it cannot be a federal project.

What are the measures taken by the federation to promote the access of French players to the high level?

Already, we have put in place an “Ambition Grand Slam” program, for players ranked between 250th and 450th in the world, under the leadership of Éric Winogradsky. Now, not everything is perfect, and we have to meet up with Ivan Ljubicic (Roger Federer’s ex-coach has been supervising the French high level since the start of the year and until the end of 2024, NLDR) to make an assessment after Roland-Garros. We have also set up a “future club”, which is aimed at those who are ranked between 450th and 1,000th place, and who have an international project. They are 130 in France. More generally, we saw this year that in qualifying, it’s not bad, but that the passage to the very high level is still delicate, even if, among the boys in particular, we have a group of young people (Arthur Fils, Luca Van Assche, Antoine Ghibaudo, Giovanni Mpetshi) very interesting.

“Unfortunately, things don’t happen overnight and I’m no magician. We are on medium-long term objectives.

And more concretely, what have you put in place within the FFT and the DTN to bring players into the world top 50? At the level of the coaches in particular?

We have very good coaches at the federation, people who have proven and succeeded in the past, so we haven’t recruited any additional ones. On the other hand, we recreated the link with all the members of the tennis family, who no longer wanted to go to the CNE (National Training Centre), and we improved a certain number of things in training, monitoring or physical and mental preparation. But unfortunately things don’t happen overnight and I’m no magician. We are on medium-long term objectives.

What project have you developed in the territories since taking office?

We set up, unanimously by the presidents of the leagues, a program of courses towards the high level, from the age of five, which did not exist. I think that over the last 15 or 20 years, mistakes have been made, on detection and especially in girls, where there are complete holes in certain generations. We have just put in place a performance director in each league. Before, we had a CTRC (coordinating regional technical adviser) but who was a generalist. Now, in each territory, we have a top-level boss.

Some coaches – like the Breton Yannick Quéréwho takes care of Luca Van Assche – deplore the lack of stability in the policy carried out according to the mandates…

This is the problem of federations and elections. Our project is quite different from what was done before, it’s true. And for the coaches, on the pitch, it’s not easy, I agree. Are we, today, on the right track? Only time will tell. Today, the desire is to reopen CFE (federal training centers), after having left the player for the longest time in his club (…). Afterwards, the results, they can’t happen overnight, you’ve never heard me say: “We’re going to have a player who will win Roland-Garros”.

* Gilles Moretton had defended himself on March 31, speaking of “jealousy” and ensuring that before his arrival, “it was war” at the FFT. He is also facing a complaint against X for the resale of 80 Roland-Garros 2020 places when he was president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes League. The case is under investigation.

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