There have been no Frenchmen or women in the main draws for a long time, but among the juniors, tricolor tennis continues to shine at Roland-Garros.
Gabriel Debru qualified this Friday for the final of the tournament.
He beat the Croatian Dino Prizmic (6-1, 0-6, 6-3) in the semi-finals after a match interrupted by rain.
He will try this Saturday morning to succeed his compatriot Luca Van Assche who won last year.
đ„ THE FINAL FOR GABRIEL DEBRU!!
Back after the rain, the young Frenchman finished in style and qualified for the final of the junior tournament by beating Prizmic 6-1, 0-6, 6-3!
@gabriel_debru đ#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/ED7bT8qBbH
â FFT (@FFTennis) June 3, 2022
Gabriel Debru is 16 years old and comes from Grenoble.
No one knows if his final is the start of a long and successful career.
Before him, several finalists and winners of the junior tournament at Roland-Garros did not have a huge career afterwards.
Except that Gabriel Debru has rather promising dispositions.
In the depths of the ATP ranking (780th), the Grenoble resident passed a qualifying round in the main tournament.
On May 16, he became the youngest player to win a qualifying round for a Grand Slam tournament since Bernard Tomic at the Australian Open in 2008, beating Arthur Fils.
Last November, by beating Andrea Pellegrino, in the first round of the Roanne tournament in three sets (4-6, 6-2, 6-3), he scored at only 15 years and ten months, his first ATP points.
He was at that time the only player under the age of 16 to feature in the World Top 1000.
Very powerful in the service - it is not uncommon for his balls to already exceed 200km/h -, Gabriel Debru seems at this time to have a bright future.
But without any guarantee.
Garcia and Mladenovic in the doubles final
Two other French women will be in the final.
Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, who are playing together again, have reached the final of the French Open ladies' doubles tournament where they will face the Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, also a finalist in the singles tournament, on Sunday.
The French overthrew the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, associated with the Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 after more than two hours of interruption due to the rain.
The 2016 champions are back in the final âïžâïž@KikiMladenovic and @CaroGarcia đ«đ· defeat Kichenok/Ostapenko 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/D5EkXBrGPr
â Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 3, 2022
They return to the final of the Parisian Grand Slam for the first time since 2016, the year of their title.
The two French players, who had not played doubles together on the WTA circuit since 2017, reformed their victorious pair of the 2019 Fed Cup at the start of the year.