FORMER world No.10 Lucas Pouille will take on Cam Norrie at the French Open today after giving up tennis last year to fight alcoholism and depression.
"For my sanity, I had to stop," admitted the 2019 Australian Open semi-finalist. "I couldn't do it any more. I would have ended up in hospital among the madmen."
The blond Pouille, whose mother is Finnish, had looked like the dashing future of French tennis.
He beat Rafa Nadal at the US Open aged 22, won the Davis Cup in 2017, became French No.1 and reached the last four in Melbourne when coached by Amelie Mauresmo.
But elbow surgery in 2020 started a downward spiral of injury and loss of form which led to him hitting rock bottom last summer during the British grass-court season.
This story is from the May 31, 2023 edition of Daily Express.
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This story is from the May 31, 2023 edition of Daily Express.
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