Picture Credit: Twitter
Lucas Pouille, the world number 675 tennis player from France, won his first Grand Slam match in four years after defeating Jurij Rodionov from Austria by 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 on May 28, Sunday at the French Open. The 29-year-old was overwhelmingly emotional following his major win, which led him to singing the French national anthem “La Marseillaise,” along with the home crowd on Court 14 at the Roland Garros.
He has also become the lowest ranked tennis player to advance to the main draw of the clay court showpiece event, after Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, who was the world number 762 at that particular time.
Coincidentally, Lucas Pouille advanced to the main draw of the French Open by defeating Jurij Rodionov in the third qualifying round by 1-6, 7-5, 6-0. Since the Austrian was the lucky loser in the qualifying stages, the French had the chance to defeat him once again in the tournament, which he successfully managed to do.
Meanwhile, the world number 675 also won against Tomas Machac of Czech Republic by 7-5, 6-3 in the first round and Chun-hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei by 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 in the second round of qualifying.
A prominent user on Twitter posted the video of Lucas Pouille’s rendition of the La Marseillaise along with the home crowd in France. The tweet has now gone viral on the platform with tons of likes, comments, quotes, and retweets.
Check the video here:
Afterwards, he talked in detail about the moment to the press and said, “It was special. It was the first time for me that I was playing against the same opponent in three days in the same tournament.”
“I was quite stressed when I saw the draw, but then I realised also that it was a good draw. Good first round in Roland-Garros when you see like Alcaraz playing a qualifier or Medvedev or some other player. I say, 'OK, you beat him in the qualies, so he is afraid of you, and just take this advantage for you and just give 100 per cent, and you'll see,” Pouille opined.
Moreover, according to reports, the 29-year-old Frenchman battled a severe bout of alcoholism and depression last year after suffering career defining injuries, which nearly prompted him to quit tennis altogether.