At one stage of his career, Lucas Pouille was the headline act for French men’s tennis with a bright future ahead of him.
By the age of 25, the former world No.10 had reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, as well as the quarter-final stage of two other Grand Slam events. On the ATP Tour, he won five titles, the most prestigious being at the 2017 Vienna Open, categorized as a 500 event. His high-profile wins include defeating Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2016 US Open in a five-set thriller.
However, things started to unravel for Pouille during the later stage of 2019 when he was forced to cut his season short due to a right elbow injury. Less than 12 months later he had to undergo surgery to enable him to play on the Tour injury-free. Since then, he has endured a roller-coaster journey with numerous setbacks. Spiralling down the rankings, he has been outside of the top 100 since July 2021.
Going from Grand Slams to Challenger events is a tough adjustment for any player and for Pouille it eventually took a toll on him.
“I had the chance to experience great emotions, to play in the biggest tournaments in the world, Grand Slam semi-finals, two quarters, win the Davis Cup, titles… Going from that to being hooked by the 300th world in the first round of a Challenger, well, if you are not in tune with that, you cannot win,” he said during an interview with L’Equipe. “I didn’t have the necessary humility and it’s not pleasant to think that you lack humility.“
It was last summer whilst playing at a Challenger event in the UK where Pouille reached his lowest point that prompted him to step away from the sport. Admitting that he is a ‘guy who doesn’t talk the most,’ he grew more frustrated with his training and turned to alcohol. With the help of his family, he eventually realized that time away from tennis was needed.
‘I was drinking alone and sleeping one hour a night. For my mental health, I stopped playing tennis. The trigger was when I saw a picture of my daughter on my phone – she couldn’t see me like this,” he said.
“It’s horrible because I’m still top 10 in my head! When you see Domi (Thiem), and Stan (Wawrinka), I can only imagine what they go through. I haven’t checked my ranking since last May. I lost all my sponsors but clothing. When you’ve lived such high emotions, it’s hard to start over.”
Pouille returned to competition in January where he played a trio of Challenger events – two in Thailand and then one in France. His best run was in Quimper where he reached the quarter-finals before losing to Gregoire Barrere. The player who recently knocked Cameron Norrie out of the Miami Masters.
Motivating Pouille’s latest comeback attempt is the chance of being able to play in the 2024 Olympic Games which will be held at Roland Garros.
“Ten days before Bercy (Paris Masters last November), Pierre-Hugues [Herbert] asked me to hit and it felt good. Then in Bercy, I was asked about the Olympics, which I’ve never played. It clicked. I told my wife I’m giving tennis another try. She was overjoyed. I think about Paris 2024 every single day,” he said.
In reality, Pouille has a tough task of qualifying for the Olympics given the depth of French players on Tour. At present, the country currently has 10 players in the top 100 on the men’s Tour. Pouille is down in 459th place.
