Lucas Pouille: “For my mental health, I had to stop”

In an interview with L’Equipe this Sunday, Lucas Pouille looks back on the dark times he went through in recent years. The former French No 1, who is now attempting a comeback, says he sunk into depression and alcohol during his lows

Lucas Pouille at the 2021 Monte Carlo Masters Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic

Haresh Ramchandani

March 26, 2023

He had it all. Incredible talent, a ball strike of great purity, a solid team. In 2016, at the age of 22, when he exploded at the top level by reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open (beating Rafael Nadal along the way in New York), Lucas Pouille seemed predestined to take up the torch of French tennis that had been struggling to find a new leader after the quartet Tsonga-Monfils-Simon-Gasquet, who were by then beginning to slide from the elite level.

But everything didn’t go exactly as planned. Despite a run to the semi-finals of the 2019 Australian Open, under the coaching of Amelie Mauresmo, Pouille quickly let his wings burn. His body, that completely let him down, including an elbow operation in 2020 followed by a host of various injuries, was only the reflection of his soul in pain, more and more distant from the world of tennis.

Lucas_Pouille_Montpellier_2021 Crédit : JB autissier / Panoramic

Now aged 29 and ranked 459 in the world, Lucas Pouille is attempting a courageous return to the circuit. Quarter-finalist at the beginning of the year at the Quimper Challenger, he had to put the halt signal back on for a few weeks because of yet another physical problem. But he is now back on his feet, ready to leave next week for a series of Challengers in the United States after preparing in the south of the France alongside his childhood friend Enzo Py, a former French junior champion like Pouille but someone who never broken through on the circuit.

👊🏻🔥☀️💧🎾 pic.twitter.com/lM3bztl6Vl
— Lucas Pouille (@la_pouille) March 15, 2023

It was there, in Cannes, that the former world No 10 and winner of the 2017 Davis Cup looked back upon his darkest hours. In an interview with L’Equipe, Pouille explains that it was largely the prospect of the 2024 Paris Olympics that motivated him to bring out his old Prince rackets from the closet. Ready to give it another go with all the necessary humility that he admits he may have lacked when the first difficulties arose, clinging to the memory of his recent glory for way too long.

“Today, “I mourned that period,” he says before explaining why he had so much trouble doing so. “I think the ego plays a very important role. The impatience to return to the highest level. I had the chance to experience great emotions, to play the biggest tournaments in the world, to make a Grand Slam semi-final, two quarters, win the Davis Cup, titles… Go from that to getting beaten by the world No 300 in the first round of a Challenger.. if we are not in tune with that, we cannot win. I didn’t have the necessary humility and it’s not nice to think that you lack humility.”

I started to have a darker side and go into a depression that led me, after Roland, in England, to sleep an hour a night and drink alone. I was sinking into a creepy thing
Lucas Pouille

Pouille explains that he has probably let himself be intoxicated by the glory and money that arrived too soon. “When you’re young and you make money, you take advantage of it, you see priorities where they aren’t in reality. I have more maturity now. I have my daughter. That is more important than buying nice clothes or a nice car. That was not my case before. Today, I am happy with simple things. But inevitably, your lifestyle changes. From Grand Slam semis to Challenger first rounds, there are a few zeros less.”

Lucas Pouille avec sa fille Rose, Instagram — Lucas Pouille (Source : Instagram)

The Frenchman finally says he hit his lowest point last year at the beginning of the grass season, at the end of a stay in the hospital of Nice to treat a rib fracture. “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. It was impossible to close my eyes. I was all alone with Felix (Mantilla, his coach at the time, Editor’s note). 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. 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.”

Pouille did not touch the racket again until the end of the 2022 season. He picked it up again in sort of a last-ditch attempt but warns that a new physical injury will mean the end for him, and this time for good. That is obviously the last thing that all his fans wish for him.