Adrian Mannarino couldn’t stifle his laughter.
He had just been asked what it meant to him to be the top male tennis player from France.
“Well,” Mannarino said in a video interview from a tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, in early October, “this is not a good sign for French tennis.”
Mannarino, 35, is in his 20th year on the ATP Tour. He has never been ranked in the world’s top 20 and has never advanced beyond the round of 16 at a Grand Slam tournament. He won the championship in Astana, however, his fourth career title and second of the year.
The victory moved Mannarino’s world ranking to No. 24, just two shy of his career high from March 2018. But as he heads into the Paris Masters for the 13th time, Mannarino is all too aware of the void of top talent in France .
“We all knew that whenever Gaël [Monfils]Richard [Gasquet]Gilles [Simon] and Jo [Wilfried Tsonga] would age, there would be a time when French tennis would be in trouble,” said Mannarino, of four French players who have all been ranked in the top 10 but are now in their late thirties and have either retired or fallen significantly in the rankings. ratings. (Though Monfils won his 12th career title in Stockholm last week.)
“We are still waiting for the young players to reach the top. There is a lot of talent, but it takes a while to get to the top level,” he said.
There are now 13 Frenchmen in the top 100, but only four – Arthur Fils, Luca van Asse, Hugo Humbert and Hugo Gaston – are aged 25 or younger. Fils has shown the most promise.
At just 19, Fils, a finalist in the 2021 French Open Junior Championship, began the season ranked outside the top 250 and playing on the lower-level contender circuit. It is now at No. 38.
In February, Phils made it on home soil, reaching back-to-back semi-finals in Montpellier and Marseille, where he beat Stan Wawrinka. He won his first ATP title in Lyon, France in May and reached the semifinals in Hamburg, Germany, defeating Casper Ruud before falling to eventual champion Alexander Zverev. Phils upset Stefanos Tsitsipas en route to the final in Antwerp, Belgium last week before falling to Alexander Bublik in the championship match.
Fils also made his Davis Cup debut for France alongside Mannarino in September and was subsequently selected by Bjorn Borg, captain of Team Europe, to be one of the team’s six representatives at the Laver Cup. He lost his lone fight there to Ben Shelton.
Fils said he has modeled his game after his compatriot Tsonga, a major winner who was runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the 2008 Australian Open and reached five other major semi-finals.
“Tsonga was one of my idols when I was younger,” Phils said. “He had a big serve, some great forehands and was in great shape. I try to do the same and play a lot with my forehand and try to serve a lot of aces.”
Mannarino’s style of play is almost the opposite. He is best described as durable and reliable, although he benefits from a left hook serve that draws opponents off the court.
“I’m not really strong, so I’m trying to be a little smarter,” Mannarino said. “I move pretty well and adapt to my opponent’s game most of the time. I’m like anti-danger. I use my opponent’s strength and just try to be as consistent as I can. And if my opponent can miss a few shots, I’m always happy.”
Although just two years younger than Gasquet and Monfils, who have both seen their rankings drop from the top 50, Mannarino is playing some of the best tennis of his life. Last year he reached the last 16 of the Australian Open before losing to the eventual winner, Rafael Nadal. This year, he beat Shelton and Hubert Hurkacz at the Miami Open to reach the round of 16 and has wins over Daniil Medvedev and Taylor Fritz. And yet only once, in 2020, did he reach the third round at the Paris Masters.
“I’ve never had great results at Bercy, but I feel like I really enjoy my time playing there,” Mannarino said, referring to the tournament’s website. As a child, he would sit on the top level of the court with friends from his local tennis club and cheer on the French players. “It’s always good to have the French crowd supporting you, especially the Parisians, because it’s very loud and a good atmosphere.”
France has a rich and vast tennis history. Suzanne Lenglen won Wimbledon six times from 1919 to 1925. Yvon Petra won Wimbledon in 1946 and Yannick Noah became the first Frenchman in 37 years to win at Roland Garros in 1983.
Mary Pierce won the Australian Open in 1995 and the French Open in 2000. Former world No. 1 Amélie Mauresmo won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006. And Marion Bartoli took the Wimbledon title in 2013 .
But there are no French players more revered than the Four Musketeers – Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste – who led their country to the Davis Cup six years in a row, from 1927 to 1932.
More recently, though, Mannarino and Fils met during a training session at France’s national tennis center when Fils was just 15 years old.
“His fitness coach came to me afterwards and said, ‘Oh, Arthur didn’t like it. it was going too fast for him and he could barely keep up,’” Mannarino said. “And then, a few years later, it almost hits me. He has improved so quickly and his tennis is really mature for his age.”
Mannarino knows his time left on the tour is limited by his age. But, so far, he doesn’t see himself as getting old.
“I don’t feel old because I don’t feel like my level of tennis is dropping yet, even my fitness,” he said. “I feel like a kid in my head and I’m trying to enjoy my life on tour. As long as my legs can still run, I will continue to try my best.”
