The tennis showcase in France closes its doors on Sunday.
And the French players, as often, have already disappeared from the shelves.
One generation is approaching the expiration date, another is still too green despite some promises (Gaston, Ferro).
Without a flagship product, it is difficult to attract customers to the little yellow ball.
For the eighth year in a row, the number of licensees is down.
If the mass of practitioners is estimated at around 4 million, they were only 972,007 to push the door of a club last season.
Slow erosion (-0.7% compared to 2019) but constant.
Far, very far from the golden age of the early 1990s when we were close to the million and a half.
A bar that Bernard Giudicelli, the president of the FFT, elected in February 2017, dreamed with a little too loud voice to reach before the end ... 2020.
Second sport in terms of licensees behind football
However, tennis remains the second sport in France behind football in terms of licenses.
Even if the number of courts has also fallen (less than 32,000), there are still 7,400 affiliated structures to welcome amateurs.
And the federation has spared no efforts to try to meet the new expectations of Sunday players or Monday competitors.
First, by playing the digital card in an ultra-connected world.
Ten'Up, the application implemented last year, is the practitioner's digital toolbox.
You can book a court in any club, register for a competition, find an opponent, etc.
with a single click.
To encourage vocations (especially those of parents whose children are enrolled in tennis school), discovery licenses at three euros are offered for a maximum of three months, once per season.
"Our sport is no longer attractive because we no longer see it"
Renovate, reform tennis, attract a new audience.
It is a bit of the challenge that the clubs also launch themselves at their level each year.
But between Boulogne-Billancourt in Hauts-de-Seine or Évreux in Eure, the problem is not the same.
In Boulogne, it is even the overflow.
"We refuse the world and we have waiting lists for young people and this year for the first time among adults," comments Philippe Joliot, the president of the club which has 4,100 members.
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In the Hauts-de-Seine, "a land of tennis where children have acquired the culture thanks to their parents" as the manager likes to recall, the situation is more to the advantage of the little yellow ball than in Évreux .
"On our territory, we have head-on competition from other sports such as football or handball," confirms Clive Rothwell, the former sports director of Évreux Athletic Club Tennis, which has 500 licensees against 1,200 30 years ago.
According to him, these disciplines remain more accessible because they require less technical expertise.
“In football, in hand, you can immediately start playing games.
This is not the case for tennis which requires time.
According to him, the solution would be through promotional operations in schools, for example.
The more regular broadcast on television, beyond Roland-Garros, would make younger people want to practice.LP / Arnaud Journois
For Jean-Marie, tennis player and teacher in Essonne and who notes the slow erosion of licensees in the clubs where he trains, the visibility of tennis in the media is one of the main problems.
Spectacular, technical, demanding, his discipline nevertheless unites everything according to him to please.
“Our sport is no longer attractive because we no longer see it.
With the exception of Roland-Garros, it is no longer visible the rest of the time on television, except on private channels not accessible to the greatest number.
We are suffocated by football.
My little girl came across spots promoting horseback riding on a children's channel.
Consequently, she only spoke to me about horses.
I think a good spot with the most spectacular slides by Gaël Monfils would make kids want it.
"
"Rediscover conviviality, sharing, social ties ..."
In order to break the archaic, even retrograde image (but without angering the purists), new game formats (sets in four games) or events have also been created.
More suited to lifestyles or professional constraints.
The TMCs (multi-chance tournaments over a day or two) have thus multiplied.
The 4th series players (bottom of the scale) can challenge each other in "free matches", which count for their ranking, without having to go through the tournament box.
In its quest for diversification, the federation has also bet on padel to conquer new markets.
In Spain, however kingdom of Nadal, aficionados of this racket sport which is played in doubles, suitable for all ages and attracts more women, have overtaken those of tennis.
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In short, a lot of innovations to go up the slope.
Bernard Giudicelli, who is seeking a new four-year term in December, easily blames Covid alone for not having found the million lost since 2012.
For his opponent, the former player Gilles Moretton, all these measures remain far from the essential: putting people back at the heart of the project. “Tennis is about contact,” he says. We must find conviviality, sharing, social ties in the clubs. This is 99% of the tennis problem in France today… ”