The French connection

Thursday, May 14, 1998

The French connection

MEN’S TENNIS: For Alex Decret, Vince Allegre and Jean-Noel
Grinda,

coming to the United States to play tennis involved

a bit of a culture shock

By Stephanie Chan

Daily Bruin Contributor

French people do shower regularly, and French women do shave
their armpits. Vince, Alex and Jean-Noel just wanted to clear up
those stereotypes.

Meet Vince Allegre, Alex Decret, and Jean-Noel Grinda, the three
Frenchmen of the UCLA men’s tennis team. They have all learned that
being a student-athlete is one thing, but being a foreign
student-athlete is another.

Among those differences is having to deal with those infamous
French stereotypes. French fries aren’t French, and to label them
as so would probably be an insult. These three think French food is
much better than American food – no question. For Decret, American
food equals dog food.

"There have been a lot of weird stories that I’ve heard since I
came here that I wasn’t even aware of," said freshman Grinda.

Another thing that Grinda was never aware of was the number of
rules that exist in "the land of the free."

"This is a country of freedom, but guarded freedom," said
Allegre.

"The biggest difference (between France and America) is that
there are so many rules here," said Grinda. Those rules extend to
tennis as well.

"I’ve been here for seven months or eight months, and I’m still
discovering new rules for the game I’ve played for 12 years."

Grinda did not adopt the game of tennis until age 11. Grinda’s
father, who played on the French Davis Cup Tennis Team, introduced
him to the game, but until age 11, soccer was Grinda’s passion.
Tired of playing goalkeeper and wanting a net between him and his
opponent, he made the switch.

Allegre and Decret grew up playing tennis from the beginning, at
age 6 and 7 respectively. They were also brought onto the courts by
their fathers.

Here in the states, children chant "I want to be like Mike" and
"I am Tiger Woods," but in France, there aren’t Michael Jordan
wanna-be’s and Woods imitators.

"French people don’t have role models," Decret said.

Plain and simple, they see techniques rather than people. They
see form and style rather than image.

"Tennistically, I’ve never had an idol," said Grinda.

They have enjoyed the opportunity to play with tennis’ top
players, however.

"You watch this guy on TV most of the time, and then he’s right
in front of you," said Grinda, recalling playing Pete Sampras at
UCLA.

Could these men be on TV themselves someday?

This is Allegre’s last year at UCLA, and he hopes that
professional tennis is in his future. First on his agenda, though,
is mandatory service in the French army. Unless his petition is
accepted to play full-time tennis, Allegre will be spending his
next two years in the military.

For these three men, post-UCLA decisions contain areas of
complication beyond just nailing down a career. The decision is not
merely the graduate-school-vs.-job-market decision. For Allegre,
it’s the military vs. tennis.

For Decret, who is also in his final year at UCLA, it’s a
different scale of options. His decision weighs on immigration
issues. Decret has been in the states since his sophomore year in
high school and hopes to remain here.

"It’s really a toss-up between what you want to ultimately do
and then what you’re going to be able to do to stay in the
country," said Decret.

"It’s not necessarily what I want to do, but what I can do to
stay here to get that part of my life taken care of so then I could
actually choose."

In France, you have to make choices early. A combination of
school and tennis is not an option. There’s no such term as
"student-athlete"; you’re either a student or an athlete, not
both.

"You don’t have the opportunity; you have to make a choice …
that’s one of the reasons why I came here," said Allegre.

"You have much more time here to choose."

Before making the choice to come to UCLA, these three players
were top junior players in France. All of them were selected to the
French National team.

Here at UCLA, they are key to the lineup. Grinda plays in the
No. 1 singles position, Allegre in the No. 2 spot, and Decret at
No. 4. All of them have been ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis
Association rankings. Currently, Allegre is ranked No. 11 and
Grinda is ranked No. 22.

Allegre and Grinda, along with senior Matt Breen, will be
playing in the NCAA individual championships later this month.

Call them "Etudiant-athletes."

DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin

(Left to right) Vince Allegre, Jean-Noel Grinda and Alex Decret
are the Frenchmen on the UCLA men’s tennis team.