Former top 30 world ranking Giovanni Mpechi Pericard has made a frank admission about his battle with depression and burnout after suffering a serious collapse in the rankings.
The 201-centimeter Frenchman made his big breakthrough in 2024, when he climbed to 31st place in the world and won his first ATP tour titles in Lyon and Basel. During the tournament in Switzerland, he consistently overcame players such as Felix Auger-Aliassime, Holger Rune and Ben Shelton, relying on his powerful serve, which proved to be an insurmountable obstacle for his rivals.
Just when it seemed that the then 21-year-old tennis player, who holds the record for the fastest serve in Wimbledon history at 153 miles per hour (nearly 246 km/h), would become the next big name in French tennis, his progress suddenly stopped. This season, his balance on the tour is only 8 wins and 18 losses, and his collapse continued to 145th place in the world after being eliminated in the first round of the Brussels qualifiers.
The former world number 29 decided to lift the curtain on his problems and share with the French publication L'Equipe about the difficulties he is going through.
"Nothing is working, except for my serve. The last few months have certainly been difficult. There have been many negative things, both in my game and outside of it. I am trying to put the pieces together little by little, but it is not easy. It will take a long time," said the Frenchman.
This year, Mpeshi Perikar has not managed to win a single match at the Grand Slam tournaments, and his only victory at a Masters 1000 event came in Rome against Jacob Fearnley. Despite having one of the strongest and most effective forehands on the tour, this is proving to be woefully inadequate at this stage.
After the US Open, Mpeshi Perikar was left without a coach, training only once every two or three days and even stopped watching tennis altogether.
"It all comes down to a little depression, burnout. My friends were there for me and helped me because not all the ideas I had were very good. They helped me immensely at a time when things were really not going well at all," the tennis player revealed.
The Frenchman, who earlier this year worked with US Open finalist Greg Rusedski, is currently on an eight-match losing streak. In this negative series, he suffered losses to world number 227 Remi Bertola in Brussels, as well as to 817th-ranked Etienne Donat at the Challenger in Rohan.
Despite the difficulties, the 23-year-old remains hopeful that he will be able to turn the tide of events and return to his best level.
"It's a difficult steep slope and it's a long one at the moment, but I have to keep going. It's not easy. I have to change my attitude. It's difficult, it's really difficult. I think things will work out, but it will take time," concluded the French tennis player.