French Open ace in tears after battling melancholy and alcohol points to qualify

Lucas Pouille was seen sobbing at his participant bench on Thursday after qualifying for the French Open. A former world No 10, he has since slipped to No 670 and has been trustworthy about his struggles with melancholy and alcohol. But the Frenchman will lastly be again in the primary draw of a Grand Slam and was rewarded with a particular guard of honour together with his younger daughter.

Pouille was decreased to tears after qualifying for his dwelling Grand Slam match with a 1-6 7-5 6-0 victory over twenty second seed Jurij Rodionov. It marks his first look in the primary draw of a Major since final yr’s French Open when he acquired a wildcard however misplaced within the first spherical.

His success in qualifying was much more vital given his current battles. A semi-finalist on the Australian Open simply 4 years in the past, damage and lack of kind noticed him tumble down the rankings earlier than he hit a low level throughout final yr’s grass-court season.

Ahead of his triumphant run by way of French Open qualifying, Pouille admitted that he suffered from melancholy and began turning to alcohol. “I started to have a darker side and go into a depression that led me, after Roland Garros, in England, to sleep only one hour a night and drink alone,” he informed L’Equipe.

The former world No 10 was pressured to deceive his then-coach Felix Mantilla, including: “It was impossible to close my eyes. I was all alone with Felix. I would go back to my room and look at the ceiling. I was sinking into a creepy thing. I stood up with my eyes blown up.

“Every morning, Felix asked me: ‘Don’t you sleep?’ – ‘Yes, yes, I have allergies, carpet, pollen, grass…’ I was lying to him.” But Pouille managed to show issues round after realising that he wanted to cease earlier than issues turned even worse.

“I locked myself in, I didn’t tell anyone. (…) I was in a bad phase. And I made the decision to say stop. Otherwise, I would have ended up in Sainte-Anne, at the crazy house. For my mental health, I had to stop,” he defined.

The emotional scenes continued within the locker room, the place Pouille and his two-year-old daughter Rose got a guard of honour from the French Open ball children. “Now it’s already been four years since my injury, then getting down mentally,” the 29-year-old informed Roland Garros after qualifying.

“Now it’s all about playing for pleasure, enjoying being on court, enjoying practising and trying to reach my goal, which first of all is to get back into the top 100. Then to be able to play the Olympics next year (in Paris) would be amazing. It’s been so hard, but now that’s why I appreciate all of this so much.”