Relaxing Saturday after an emotional Friday: Thierry Gaston, Hugo's father, the new hero of French tennis after his victory over Stan Wawrinka, takes advantage of his Saturday to stroll through the streets of Paris.
Far from the small town of Fonsorbes, very close to Toulouse, where the Gaston family has always lived, and where Hugo keeps coming back when he's not playing.
Thierry Gaston is a happy father and he tells us how his little "Hugo" became a great "Gaston".
How did your son react to his victory on Friday over Stan Wawrinka, 17th player in the world?
THIERRY GASTON.
I think he doesn't realize yet.
We came to Roland-Garros as a family for the occasion, with his mother, his brother, his girlfriend.
We saw him from afar after the match.
He is in the bubble and we cannot live these moments intensely with him.
He is the only Frenchman still in the running, it's weird!
It's going so fast that he doesn't have much time to think about it.
He must train, take care of the various obligations.
He may wait until the end of the tournament to realize.
The general public is discovering it, but French tennis has known it for some time.
How do you see his career?
He followed the usual course of the federation.
It was important for him not to cut corners.
It allowed him to harden himself.
He patiently rose through the ranks.
He arrived in juniors and won competitions, like the Orange Bowl for example, then was 2nd in the world in juniors.
He started playing tennis at a very young age, around the age of 5 ...
Yes, I was president of the Fonsorbes club and my wife was in the office.
We often went to the club and Hugo came with his big brother.
He was picking up a racket and playing against a wall.
To all the teenagers or adults who passed by, he asked them to come and play with him.
You could tell he had something special.
One day, I told Marc Barbier
(Editor's note: departmental technical director who became his coach)
to come and see him.
It was also my role as leader to point out promising young people, he happened to be my son!
Hugo was invited to a detection two days later, which is where he really made his debut.
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Why did he already have something special?
Already, there aren't many left-handers.
And when I saw him play against the greatest, I already saw him with the same palette as today.
Compared to other children, he was above.
How did he develop this passion?
When he was little he thought only of playing tennis.
Even inside the house.
There was a 3m space against a wall he was playing against.
We had to remove fragile items.
And no need to tell him to stop because he found another place and continued.
He was watching Agassi's videos and trying to do the same thing again.
Then he started to like Nadal a lot, because he's left-handed like him, even though they don't have the same game at all.
What does it have to do with sport?
He is passionate about sport and all sports!
Whenever there is a sports meeting, Hugo is in front, regardless of the sport.
It supports all French teams.
When the Marseillaise sounds, there must be no noise in the room.
And he is very Toulouse too.
He follows the TFC, the Toulouse Stadium.
He is a staunch supporter.
Was his rather atypical size a problem in his career?
His size, we have always talked to him about it.
He was never the greatest.
He knew that in order to exist he had to develop other qualities.
All his coaches played on it.
Because if he is able to serve an ace at 200 km / h, it is not something that he will be able to do the whole game.
He had to look elsewhere for his progress.
And since he's a huge hard worker, it worked.
He loves to work, even if tennis remains a game for him.
He sees it as a pleasure.
It takes some of the pressure off him.