(VIDEO) Pouille sings National Anthem with home crowd on Roland Garros return amid alcohol and gambling battle

ATP
Monday, 29 May 2023 at 12:30
Pouille_Lucas_RolandGarros2017

Lucas Pouille is experiencing the best moments of his career in the last four years after qualifying for Roland Garros and he celebrated it with the crowd in Paris.

Pouille was once a really great player getting to a career-high ranking of number ten a few years ago. He beat Nadal in a match once, and made the Australian Open semi-final on top of just being a very good and consistent player. It all fell apart in the last three or four years as the French player battled depression and later on alcoholism.

His tennis suffered and his career got completely derailed because of it.

Mounting a comeback

Pouille made an effort to overcome all of that and he did slowly making his way back into tennis. The return wasn't smooth, there was a lot of losing and a lot of doubt but he never gave up. He gave it his all and everything is coming to fruition this week in Paris. Having to play the qualifiers was a big challenge but he rose up to it.

He played some amazing tennis, probably his best in years to make it through the qualifiers and secure a spot in the main draw. The opponent in his first round was a player he beat in the qualifiers which only added to his confidence ahead of the match.

First grand slam win in 4 years

As you might have guessed it Pouille stepped out and dominated the match, quite literally from the start. He won in three sets and celebrated it heavily with the crowd who was backing him all the way from the qualifiers to the main draw. The crowd started to sing the French national anthem after the match and Pouille joined in. You can check out the fantastic moment below.

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