Simon: "In France, a Grand Slam winner will be 10th in the world"
During a television appearance on Eurosport, Gilles Simon spoke about the current state of French tennis. He compared it to Italy, which has 8 players in the Top 100, compared to 14 on the French side.
Although France has the advantage in this area, Italy has a major asset: Jannik Sinner. Simon stated: "They have a big wave, that's for sure. The Italian federation has worked more and more with the various academies as well, which was much less the case before.
But they made a lot of changes in the structures. They multiplied tournaments at home, at all levels. There is a snowball effect.
When you go to the Challengers at their place, half of the players are Italian, so each time, you have one in the semi-final, in the final or at the end, so it progresses. All this helps explain the large pool they have.
Then, there is the very, very top level. Because everything we just mentioned is a preparation. Of course, not everyone can be Jannik Sinner. There are a few potential Jannik Sinners per generation and they can be born anywhere on the planet.
But the question is: when we have one, do we manage to make him a Jannik Sinner, that is to say, to bring him really to the very top? That's what the Italians have managed to do and that's what, in my opinion, we do a little less well.
I have the impression that, in our training, there is a small loss which means that a player who could win a Grand Slam, with us, will be 10th in the world. A player who has the potential to be Top 10 will be 30th, etc.
In my opinion, this is why we don't win a Grand Slam because, to win ONE Grand Slam, we would need to be lucky enough to have a player who has the potential to win 10."
