“I think ego plays a big role,” he said. “The impatience to return to the highest level. I had the chance to experience great emotions, to play in the biggest tournaments in the world, to make a Grand Slam semi-final, two quarters, to win the Davis Cup, titles… Going from that to being toppled by the 300th in the world in the first round of a Challenger, well, if we are not in tune with that, we cannot win. I did not have the necessary humility and it is not pleasant to think that you lack humility.”
Pouille, who dealt with several injuries, including elbow surgery in 2020, said things got darker recently.
“I started having a darker side and going into a depression which led me, after Roland-Garros in England, to sleeping an hour a night and drinking alone,” he said, adding that when his team questioned why he was looking so haggard, he lied to them.
“I was lying to him. I shut myself away, I didn’t tell anyone. (…) I was in a bad phase. And I made the decision to say stop….For my sanity, it had to stop.”
Pouille stepped away from tennis for six months starting last June to recover and take care of himself.
Pouille and his family were on hand to enjoy his revival this week. In a strange twist, he will meet Rodionov again in the first round, as the lucky loser was drawn next to Pouille in the draw.
No matter what happens in that match it will be hard to top the beauty of this special moment, shared by Pouille and his daughter Rose.
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