David Brunat is a consultant and writer. He recently published
A model princess
, Héloïse d'Ormeson editions, May 2022.
My dear friend,
Allow me to grant you the title of friend even if we have never met, neither on the courts nor in the city, at least during my lifetime.
But know that I have conceived for you a lively affection and a good touch of admiration since I passed the weapon and the racket on the left and that I discovered your exploits several decades after my final flight to the beyond.
I have long occupied a place of choice in the paradise of heroes and heroines of the yellow ball, which was moreover white in my time, white like the dresses and turbans that I wore and which contributed to my sporting legend and media.
Since my departure from this earth, I have had every opportunity to follow tennis from the top of my little corner of the starry sky.
David Brunat
Since my departure from this land, beaten or grassed, in the year of grace 1938, I have had every opportunity to follow tennis from the top of my little corner of the starry sky.
To observe its tremendous evolution in all respects – from playing styles to dress codes, from equipment to economic models, including rules, player and public behavior… And to encourage “
tennis players
” , as they said in my time, whom I consider to be my heirs, my descendants, my glorious successors.
And when I saw you win your first tournaments, I said to myself that you were undoubtedly from the family of the "
Divine
", as I had been nicknamed.
I have discreetly encouraged you, without any referee ever realizing it, and I hope that my support, tacit, mute, posthumous but fervent, has had some impact on your results and on your remarkable career.
I confess that when you won in 2006 at Wimbledon, where I myself lifted the trophy six times, I crushed a small tear of emotion.
You know the praises and dithyrambs descended upon me in my prime like a shower of aces from Serena Williams or smashes from Steffi Graf or like the grace and beauty that surrounded my rivals such as the American Helen Wills .
I was the best player of my generation, and perhaps the greatest of all time, that being said without vanity on my part.
I was undefeated from 1919 to 1926. A terror.
A planetary star.
A diva.
A goddess of courts and fashion.
Oh, what memories!
What honors!
What emotions!
And what great pride to have represented my country with such success!
No one has ever known the emotion that gripped me when the court that bears my name came out of the ground.
David Brunat
Well, despite everything, one regret, one huge regret: I never played in the Roland-Garros tournament.
And this, for the good reason that I turned professional before the construction of the tournament which bears since 1928 the name of this glorious pilot adept of majestic flights with his plane like me with my racket.
And so, as a result, I have never stepped on the courts of this magnificent setting.
Which obviously did not prevent me, as you know, from winning the French Championships and Internationals on several occasions (which were then contested alternately at the Stade Français and at Racing), in particular the 1922 edition, so there is a whole century, champagne, Madame the director of the tournament!
No one has ever known the emotion that gripped me when the court that bears my name came out of the ground - ocher and crushed - in the early 1990s. It is magnificent, elegant like a lapel of Roger Federer the "
Divine
», with its pure lines like a canvas by Matisse or a volley by Chris Evert, and it exudes I don't know what powerful and soothing harmony.
In short, it is all in my image!
That my memory is so beautifully maintained in the temple of French tennis which you now guard has filled me and continues to delight me.
From the top of my tennis empyrean, I washed down the event with large swigs of cognac, because you know that I used to take it before hitting the ball, legal and beneficial doping.
I was just sipping a little drink with my old friend Jacques Henri Lartigue, the immense photographer who has so often immortalized me in his lens, when I learned, last December, that you were named director of Roland-Garros.
Nice Christmas gift for yourself and all your fans.
With Jacques Henri and other children of paradise, we emptied the bottle to celebrate the event.
Bacchus gave me a short speech on the retraining of athletes - which you embody with brilliance.
Suzanne, Amélie, same fight!
It is that of France which wins, of tricolor tennis in the firmament, of active intelligence, of modernity, and also of the liberation of women.
David Brunat
Roland-Garros in person will deliver the text of this spiel from beyond the grave to you by air if it amuses you.
And regarding this knight of the sky whom I adore, I observe with great interest the development of the Roland-Garros endowment fund, recently created on the initiative of several descendants of my favorite ace of aces, and chaired by a certain Joshua Garros.
I think I'm going to pay my donation to this happy initiative and start a fundraiser in paradise...
Suzanne, Amélie, same fight!
It is that of France which wins, of tricolor tennis in the firmament, of active intelligence, of modernity, and also of the liberation of women.
I greet you very warmly, my dear friend, my dear sister, my heiress, and I wish you an excellent tournament, hoping that a French woman will lift the Cup.
And what a cut!
… The Suzanne-Lenglen Cup, of course.
Health and prosperity, Madam Director!