{"id":25768,"date":"2020-06-09T08:30:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T12:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=25768"},"modified":"2020-06-06T21:42:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T01:42:13","slug":"yannick-noah-the-last-frenchman-to-triumph-at-roland-garros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/06\/09\/yannick-noah-the-last-frenchman-to-triumph-at-roland-garros\/","title":{"rendered":"Yannick Noah – The last Frenchman to triumph at Roland Garros"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the French Open meant to have taken place currently, Last Word on Tennis decided to fill the void by revisiting some famous matches at Roland Garros.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our second trip down memory lane is to the 1983 tournament when Yannick Noah became the first Frenchman to win his home Slam in 37 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Background<\/b><\/h1>\n

Noah was born in Sedan in 1960, to a Cameroonian father who returned to his homeland after an injury where an 11-year-old Noah was discovered by Arthur Ashe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually he was brought to <\/span>the French Tennis Federation’s training centre in Nice in 1971, turning professional six years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A year later he won his maiden tour title but had to wait to make his mark at the highest level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he had played in a Davis Cup final in 1982 where France were defeated by the USA 4-1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

French Open 1983<\/b><\/h1>\n

As the 1983 French Open came around, Noah had only reached two Slam quarter-finals, in the previous couple of years in Paris.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly, he was defeated by Victor Pecci, Sr in four sets and the following year lost to Guillermo Vilas in straight sets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He started the 1983 edition in impressive form, thrashing Anders Jarryd for the loss of just three games in the first round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second round saw him turn the tables of Pecci, winning in four, and he advanced to the quarter-finals without dropping a set.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here he met third seed Ivan Lendl who had reached the final of the previous two Slams but Noah played outstandingly to be two sets up before Lendl hit back, taking the third set.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roared on by his home crowd, Noah took his game to another level, finishing the Czech off 6-0 to reach his first Slam semi-final.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surprisingly,\u00a0 he would play fellow countryman Christophe Roger-Vasselin who had beaten world No. 1 Jimmy Connors in straight sets.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a massive boost for Noah as he had lost his previous four matches to Connors including two on clay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast Noah had never lost to his compatriot and as expected he eased into the final winning 6-3, 6-0, 6-0, as the occasion seemed to get the better of Roger-Vasselin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mats Wilander stood between Noah and a first major and the Frenchman was given a rapturous reception when he arrived on court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He then produced an exceptional performance covering the net as he won 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 in what was surely the match of his life as became the first Frenchman to win his home Slam since Marcel Bernard in 1946.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lack of home success since<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Since then, none of his fellow countrymen have replicated his feat, or even reached the final with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga coming closest, a losing semi-finalist in 2013 and 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

There has been a similar struggle on the women\u2019s side with Mary Pierce the last Frenchwoman to win at Roland Garros twenty years ago with Francoise Durr preceding her in 1967.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened next<\/strong><\/h1>\n

After his triumph, Noah would never again get close to repeating the feat with only two further quarter-finals at Roland Garros, the following year losing to Wilander after being two sets up and again to the Swede in 1987.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n