A poignant testimony. Former Grand Slam semi-finalist (Australian Open, 2019) and winner of the Davis Cup with the Blues in 2017, Lucas Pouille told L’Equipe about his long descent into hell in recent years. After tumbling to 459th place in the world, his worst ranking for eleven years, Pouille must go back to the second division box of the circuit to hope one day to get closer to his past standards.
He didn’t give up. But at 29, the Northerner has completely disappeared from the radars of high-level tennis, the fault of years of hardship and an increasingly fragile body. So much so that his daily life now rhymes more with having to fight to emerge victorious from a round of Challenger than competing in Majors.
“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 we are not in tune with that, we cannot win, he says. I didn’t have the necessary humility and it’s not pleasant to think that you lack humility. If he explains that he has “mourned” the climax of his career, Pouille recounts having gone through personal moments of immense doubts. And even “depression”, shortly after a relapse that occurred during the Madrid Tournament in May 2022.
“A depression that led me to sleep an hour a night and drink alone”
A dark period that led him to make the decision to completely stop playing tennis a month later. “I find myself in Nice hospital for a fortnight doing the hyperbaric chamber to help me heal faster. I am surrounded by people who are sick, dying, with terminal cancers… And I am here for my little broken rib. It can help you put things into perspective, but, me, it pissed me off. I started having a darker side and going into a depression that led me, after Roland, England, to sleeping an hour a night and drinking alone. »
“I was sinking into something creepy. (…) I locked myself away, I didn’t talk to anyone about it, he continues. Since I’m not the guy who talks the most… You arrive exhausted at training, more irritable too. I was in a bad phase. And I made the decision to say stop. Otherwise, I would have ended up in Sainte-Anne, among the madmen. For my sanity, it had to stop. »
After having completely disconnected from his sport and benefited from those close to him, he will finally find the strength to relaunch at the start of the 2023 season. His objectives now? “Stay healthy” and do everything to compete in the 2024 Olympics. “I think about it every day. This is the only event in which I have not participated. Doing the Games in Paris is the experience of a lifetime. I want to try. If I get there, that’s great and if I don’t, I won’t have any regrets because I would have done everything for it. »