Tennis: Former European Team Champion Hervé Gauvain Has Died

Hervé Gauvain loved sports above all else. Tennis was particularly important in his life. He also played golf alongside his career.

Hervé Gauvain was a gentleman. Fair play on the court, immensely kind in life. He was born in Chalon-sur-Saône, in Saône-et-Loire, but made the Alpes-Maritimes and Var his home.

European Team Champion

And it was on the clay courts of the Nice LTC that he wrote some of the finest pages of his history, at the end of the 70s, winning French team championship titles and, above all, a European team championship title in 1980.

At that time, his teammates were Yannick Noah, Christophe Casa, Bernard Paul, Dominique Bedel, Patrice Beust, Gilles Moretton, and Jean-Louis Haillet. All greats!

A manager at the French Tennis Federation and national coach, the man who had been French junior champion with a two-handed backhand and then French junior champion with a one-handed backhand (!) moved to Saint-Raphaël in 1997, appointed head of the prestigious CREPS in Boulouris, where he saw many prodigies pass through.

It was not uncommon to see him walking the courts of the GTC Valescure (and of course the golf course) in Saint-Raphaël and the Tennis-club Gallieni Fréjus (which became the TC Gallieni "Pascal-Albuixech"), to give his advice with the humility that characterized him.

Sixth French player

Respected and respectful, Hervé Gauvain, who was the ^6th French player at his best (and 110th in the world), but who was never able to get past the first round at Roland-Garros despite six attempts, was also the husband of Florence, former French number 10, and father of three grown daughters, Sybille and the twins Lorraine and Delphine.

Hervé Gauvain had been battling illness for several years, which he passed away on Wednesday at the age of 70.

To his wife, his daughters, his family and his friends, Var-matin presents its most sincere condolences.