I see a 15 year old French lad, Gabriel Debru, ranked 1000+ has got himself past 2 rounds of singles qualifying and beating ATP 220, Andrea Pellegrino in the main draw.
Another big, physical ATP specimen in the making little doubt (if not a super talented French wunderkid), to do that at his age.
How do the French (and the Italians now) keep doing it and we can't?
The town where I lived/live has a population of about 50k. Not big.
There are two large tennis clubs, with about 3 indoor courts, and 6 outside courts each.
There are also seven other clubs, all with indoor as well as outdoor courts.
(Some technically are just outside the town boundaries, in a separate 'suburb', but they are 10 mins max from the town centre and 100% part of the town in terms of accessbility ie. if you live on the south side of the town, you'll choose either the town clubs your side, or the suburb club 5 mins in the other direction).
And all these clubs are not expensive to join, about Euro 100-150 p.a. on average, for a full year, no extra fees, play whenever you like, indoor or out.
And they all offer tennis lessons, group session, very affordable, some directly subsidised by the state, and all of them accepting sports vouchers (which kids from families on social welfare, or other means tested criteria, are given for free to exchange against sports programmes). Practically every kid who is sporty will play tennis at some point (even if they go on to be a footballer, say). (And a lot of kids who aren't that sporty too). But the elite (of all ethnicities) will practically all pass by the doors of tennis. And many will stop.
Yes, they've had a rather messy few months with injuries and changing partners to get into ATP tour draws. It would be good to really get back into a winning groove.