Mens Tennis Forums banner

Why hasn't a male player won a GS for almost 30 years?

  • Structural problem in french tennis

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • Lack of luck

    Votes: 8 12.9%
  • Just not good enough

    Votes: 18 29.0%
  • All mental midgets

    Votes: 33 53.2%

What's the problem with french tennis??

6K views 101 replies 51 participants last post by  redshift 
#1 ·
Honestly guys, it's becoming more and more embarassing.
No GS won by a male player for almost 30 years despite the fact they have more ressources invested in tennis and more players than all the 4 countries represented by the currently top 4 combined.
How can it be explained??
Mental strenght?? well, if it was really a french specifity then they wouldn't perform as well as they do in other sports (team sports especially).
Not good enough?? perhaps.........
Unlucky??? 30 years of no luck?? give me a break.......
A bit of both?? probably.....
 
#6 ·
Gasquet doesn't believe in him. He plays the best tennis to lose. A tactical headcase.
Piatti should me be mad watching him 2 meters behind the baseline trying to grind out Ferrer :facepalm:
He should have played S&V and chip and charge. Perhaps, he would have lost too but it couldn't have been worse than he did.
 
#7 ·
Current top 3 + Murray are too good.

Tsonga is inconsistent and has obvious flaws in his game that limit him. With luck he could still win a slam should he remain injury free.
Monfils is an idiot who always gets injured
Simon's got about as many weapons as Iceland
Gasquet's a flake.

I don't think there's anything wrong with french tennis structurally since you're producing a lot of good players, you just haven't had quite the right player come along lately to be really great.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Well considering all the success you had in the last 30 years,your situation is certainly not one to complain!
Hell, you even won a GS in 2003 through Roddick.
Keep in mind that tennis is the second most practiced sport in france so you can easily understand why french tennis fans are so confused about this malediction.
 
#11 ·
Not Gasquet thats for sure.
 
#12 ·
On second thought, i would say luck plays a big part.
Take tsonga: the guy would have most certainly won a Slam during the 90's but the slowness of surfaces since 2000 + the huge improvment in term of défensive skills through some players(nadal,djoker, Murray) make it almost impossible for him to win a grand slam unless he considerably improves his bh and his defensive play.......or unless ATP creates an indoor GS.
 
#16 ·
France have 4 players that have been in the top 10 at some point in the last few years (Tsonga, Monfils, Simon, Gasquet) yet only Tsonga is there at the moment. Those four clearly have the potential to be right at the top of the game but lack the consistency and tactical awareness to make the most of their abilities. Therefore, I went for option 4.
 
#18 · (Edited)
We seem to get this thread after every GS, and the answer is still the same. Hardly anyone wins a slam. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Del Potro (once) are the only recent winners. It so happens none of them are French.

Why is this so surprising?

Look at the results Murray has had in terms of his record against top 10 players, MS titles, the fact his best surface is hard courts (=2 slams on hard), and yet you still can't say it is that surprising he has not won one. There are 3 players who are better than him. Sometimes he beats one then loses to another. C'est la vie.
 
#19 ·
It´s a mix bag.

You have Tsonga, that has been really unfortunate with injuries and Monfils that also had some injuries, but for the most part clearly doesn´t know how to use his talent and potential. A mental wreck.

As for Gasquet, he simply doesn´t have the power game to crack the Top4´s game. In the 80/90´s he would find sucess. Not in this era.
 
#20 ·
I don't see any problem with French tennis.

11 guys in top 100

4 of them in top 20.

If the French have a problem in tennis, what should the States, Italy, Russia or Germany say....
 
#24 ·
States, Russia and Germany have won Slams in the last 25 years (and plenty for US and Russia) despite tennis being a far less important game than in France (second most practiced sport in France behind Soccer, i repeat) so sorry but those countries's problems are far less important than France's problem (it just happens that they now know a small period without any outstanding player).
Italy??? Tennis is far less important than in France and it can be seen both in term of number of registered players and money invested in tennis.
 
#30 ·
I've heard a lot about many reasons why French players never were number 1 and have not won a slam for 30 years : all these reasons are true (the main one being that people maybe enjoy too much life in France ;) )

but frankly speaking, we've had players all having great qualities, but not all of them .

Noah had everything except the technique.
Leconte had the greatest talent of all but had a bad physique.
Tsonga not good enough technique.
Monfils the same and not enough focused, etc ...

As for Gasquet, I like him but he's never had the potential some saw in him : technical, physical and mental lacks. Very good "racket touch" talent, maybe the best one, but Leconte had much better technical bases.
 
#37 ·
I've heard a lot about many reasons why French players never were number 1 and have not won a slam for 30 years : all these reasons are true (the main one being that people maybe enjoy too much life in France ;) )

but frankly speaking, we've had players all having great qualities, but not all of them .

Noah had everything except the technique.
Leconte had the greatest talent of all but had a bad physique.
Tsonga not good enough technique.
Monfils the same and not enough focused, etc ...

As for Gasquet, I like him but he's never had the potential some saw in him : technical, physical and mental lacks. Very good "racket touch" talent, maybe the best one, but Leconte had much better technical bases.
Gasquet's BH shits all over Leconte's BH, both in term of technique, esthetic and efficiency.
 
#40 ·
Let's see......because they don't really care about tennis??
Following your reasoning then we could also wonder how China has not produced a Grand Slam winner yet.:wavey:

fan of French tennis
I like Monfils but he waste his talent,easy to injured,too much showmanship,so he always make me headache
Tsonga is good,but Top4 is better
Gasquet is mental midget

anyway,if they keep fit this year,I still believe France can win the DC
Who fucking care about DC???
And it's not like we've never won it in the last 20 years......
 
#44 ·
Well at least they are better than the English players. Murray considers himself a Scotsman, not Englsh. I think the main problem with the French players is that they are not as physically well trained as the Spanish, so lose concentration when things get tough. Also, they are not tatically as smart as the Spanish and the top 4 players.
 
#45 ·
Well at least they are better than the English players. Murray considers himself a Scotsman, not Englsh. I think the main problem with the French players is that they are not as physically well trained as the Spanish, so lose concentration when things get tough. Also, they are not tatically as smart as the Spanish and the top 4 players.
Good point.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top