The battle of the Arthurs in the next round of the singles:
L16: Arthur Féry WR 768 vs (4) Arthur Reymond (FRA) WR 622 (CH = 581 in March last year)
The battle to be King Arthur!
The French Arthur (who I know pretty well) made a lot of press in France in the last year.
During lockdown he couldn't play. Everyone had a 1km travel ban except for essentials (didn't include tennis training). He was really depressed.
So he and his brother were doing runs round the neighborhood when they saw one house has a really old, 1950s clay tennis court - complete disaster - not used for ages - all full of tree roots - huge bumps all over the place - rock hard.
He said to his mum 'what a shame, it'd been great to have a usable court nearby'
And his mum said 'well, why don't you re-build it?'
So Arthur, his brother, and his dad spent months and months, digging and scraping, and levelling, and whatever, got new clay, paint, etc - and hey presto, some 6 (?) months later, they'd built a new court, as smooth as a pool table (they say).
And Arthur says he put on a huge amount of muscle, really enjoyed it, came out of his 'gloom', and life really looked up.
Also, the media went mad. As he says 'now I know a little of what it's like to be a top tennis player - only I got it from building a court, not winning a grand slam