Training future champions: spotlight on the decline of the French public model facing private academies
For a long time, France embodied one of the last strongholds of the public training model in world tennis.
A structured, centralized system, designed to identify, train and support the country’s talents from their first balls to the highest level.
But as the sport has globalized, another model – that of private academies, born in the United States and exported to Europe and then the Middle East – has established itself as the preferred option for a growing number of young players.
The French model: 50 years of tension between federation, academies and families
This feature offers a breakdown of the specific evolution of the French system, placing it in a global perspective.
Because France, with its powerful federal heritage, offers a unique observation field: that of a country where elite training was almost never left to the private sector, until the landscape flipped.
Understanding this transformation means telling the story of fifty years of tensions between public institutions, private actors and families in search of performance.
1960–1970: The beginnings of the federal model, the State builds the framework
At the end of the 1960s, France was still searching for its way in terms of sports training. The country was marked by the idea that the State had to organize, finance and harmonize access to high-level sport.
The FFT followed this general movement, like other French federations, by launching the first structured national camps and pilot centers.
These facilities, still rudimentary, brought together young prospects around coaches mandated by the federation, sometimes with makeshift boarding schools near partner clubs.
It is worth remembering that at this time, INSEP, which would become one of the pillars of elite training in France, did not yet exist in its modern form. It would not be officially created until 1975. Before that, the model remained fragmented, without a true centralized campus.
Yet one strong idea took hold: training had to be public, national and vertically organized. Within this logic, the federation became the necessary pathway for any ambition.
1970–1980: The American wave and the birth of a private counter-model
At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, a small, quiet revolution began to take shape.
The United States saw the emergence of the first private tennis academies, born from the initiative of entrepreneurial coaches seeking to break free from public structures.
The most emblematic of these was founded in 1978, in Bradenton, Florida: Nick Bollettieri’s academy, which would later become IMG Academy.
Bollettieri (1931–2022), the legendary American coach, introduced a complete break with the European federal model.
Intensive training, constant competitiveness, individualized follow-up, a variety of support staff… and an unprecedented use of storytelling around young players. This “laboratory” saw itself as a business before being a sports institution.
In Europe, this model was initially perceived as an exotic curiosity, almost an American whim. Yet it ushered in an entirely new paradigm: private, commercial, international training, free in its pedagogical choices.
1980–1990: The golden age of the European federal model
While Bollettieri was gaining visibility, Europe, and France in particular, was consolidating its own model. The 1980s marked a very successful period for federal centers.
Specialized structures developed: national training hubs (“pôles France”), youth elite hubs (“pôles Espoirs”), regional centers, and of course INSEP, which quickly became a symbol of public sporting excellence.
The results obtained validated the method. Several major French players, such as Yannick Noah, Henri Leconte and Guy Forget, evolved in the federal environment, even if some of them completed their journey outside the strict orbit of the FFT.
The dominant narrative was clear: a top-level French player is born and built within the federal system. At that time, American academies, while fascinating, remained a distant universe.
1990–2000: Globalization shakes boundaries and opens the doors to academies
The 1990s were the decade of tennis globalization. Travel increased, junior circuits became international, and families began to compare training methods across countries.
The United States offered infrastructures and a sporting lifestyle that were radically different. Spain, at the same time, saw the rise of its own private centers, around Barcelona, Valencia or Majorca, specializing in endurance work and clay court play.
Private academies became career accelerators. In the United States, IMG continued to host and guide the trajectories of future champions.
Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and later Maria Sharapova, who arrived as a teenager in Bradenton in the early 2000s.
In Spain, private structures that emphasized flexibility and intensive practice attracted young players from Northern Europe, drawn by the climate and technical rigor.
However, a nuance is needed: the vast majority of European players still trained within national federations or traditional clubs. But the idea that a competing model existed—and worked—began to take root in the collective imagination.
2005–2015: Global boom and the transformation of academies into international brands
From the mid-2000s onward, academies scaled up. They were no longer just training venues, but became global brands, often structured as businesses.
Ambitious marketing, luxurious facilities, international boarding, mental support, video analysis, state-of-the-art fitness rooms: they professionalized to the point of competing with federal training on its own turf.
Several major projects emerged or expanded: the Mouratoglou Academy, founded in 1996 by Patrick Mouratoglou and Bob Brett in the Paris region, then relocated to Sophia Antipolis (French Riviera) in 2011.
The Rafa Nadal Academy in Majorca, founded by legend Rafael Nadal, whose official opening in 2016 crowned a project initiated years earlier around the Nadal family.
Not to mention the growth of French centers such as the French Touch Academy in Cap d’Agde (Hérault) from 2018, launched by Charles Auffray.
Finally, some academies set up in the Middle East or Asia, backed by international private funding.
2015–2020: The monopoly crumbles, trust shifts
As the private sector professionalizes, federal structures appear stuck in an old model.
The narrative among families and players changes. Federations are accused of administrative rigidity, aging facilities and sometimes opaque selection processes.
Conversely, private academies highlight individualization, diverse coaching profiles, international openness and mental support. The shift becomes visible in the choices of young talents.
The case of French player Gabriel Debru is emblematic: winner of the Roland-Garros juniors in 2022, he left the FFT at the end of 2023, by mutual agreement with the federation, to join the Piatti Tennis Center in Italy, run by Riccardo Piatti, one of Europe’s most renowned private coaches.
This kind of move, once rare, has become common. Since then, the young player has left the ATP circuit to follow the American college route, joining the Champaign-Urbana campus (University of Illinois).
Sinner, Rune, Alcaraz, Gauff… all came through private academies
But Gabriel Debru is not alone. On today’s tour, many champions have also chosen the private route.
Holger Rune (Mouratoglou Academy at age 13), Jannik Sinner (Piatti Tennis Center at age 13), Coco Gauff (Mouratoglou Academy at age 10), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Mouratoglou Academy at age 17), Alexandra Eala (Rafa Nadal Academy at age 13) and Carlos Alcaraz (Ferrero Tennis Academy at age 15) are perfect examples.
This choice, still marginal years ago, has now become a royal road for talented young players.
2020–2024: The private model dominates the top level — for those who can afford it
Today, however, top-tier private academies charge between 50,000 and 90,000 euros a year.
For example, IMG Academy (around €70,000/year, rising to €90,000/year with boarding) and Evert Tennis Academy (over €50,000/year with boarding) in the United States.
And in Europe, the Rafa Nadal Academy (around €56,000/year) and the Mouratoglou Academy (around €40,000/year).
Moreover, once travel costs are included, the annual budget can exceed 75,000 euros and even approach 100,000 euros.
And while for many families this investment is out of reach, for those who can afford it, these academies offer an environment that is hard to match: international schedules, high-level sparring partners, multidisciplinary teams, immersion in the culture of the tour.
But gradually, sporting trajectories seem to be splitting into two worlds: talent identification, still largely handled by federal systems, and elite training, now captured by the private sector.
In this configuration, pure talent is no longer enough. Funding, networks and the ability to join a premium structure become decisive elements of a career.
For example, Holger Rune benefited from the ChampSeed foundation, created by Patrick Mouratoglou, to be able to train at the academy.
Today: a dual system, but almost no cooperation
World tennis now operates according to two parallel circuits. On one side, the federal system, which retains its historic mission of talent identification and mass training. On the other, the private sector, focused on the elite, individualization and international paths.
These two worlds could complement each other; instead, they mostly coexist while ignoring one another, each claiming its own legitimacy, effectiveness and philosophy, even though some federation presidents—including Gilles Moretton in France—have announced a desire for collaboration.
“I have reached out to all the academies together with all the FFT teams,” he explained. “We must acknowledge the quality work done in the private sector and stop snubbing it and shutting it out.
We’re going to create this public-private alliance, with training choices, training locations, tailored to each young player, to whom we’ll offer à-la-carte options,” he told our colleagues at RMC Sport in 2021.
The central question remains: in a sport where training is being privatized and costs are soaring, should access to excellence remain a financial privilege? Or can federations reinvent their role and once again become a genuine vehicle for social mobility?
The history of the last fifty years clearly shows one trend: the monopoly is gone, and competition now also plays out behind the scenes of player development.
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