The choice of the heart of Aurore Ughetto, French tennis champion against Alizée Cornet at 14 and head of clinic at Montpellier University Hospital

In the summer of 2003, Aurore Ughetto won the French championship for 13-14 year olds at Roland-Garros, inflicting a 6/0 6/1 on Alizé Cornet who will then knock on the doors of the world Top 10 in his best years.

Aurore Ughetto at 14: in 2003, she beat Alizé Cornet in the final of the French championship. DR

Even then, "I never dreamed of becoming pro".

A childhood in Ardèche and parents who were supportive but attached to studies,  eighteen months in  the federal nursery for future champions, at  Roland-Garros, at & #39;adolescence, a sport- studies during the high school years in Grenoble… for Aurore Ughetto, there was no drama:"I loved tennis but I never thought about it as a career, and I never wanted to drop out of school", repeats the doctor. She didn't throw everything away:"I'approached the medicine exam like a tennis match, with a lump in my stomach before' She entered the exam center, and when the papers were distributed, she had to play. Later, she chose her specialty "in memory of a friend who died prematurely from a genetic disease".

"Could she have had a career in sport ? I went to see her twice at Pôle France , at Roland Garros… her coach at the time told me that he hadn't seen such a promising player ;nbsp;since Amélie Mauresmo",remembers Angel Amado, who followed her for four years, from fifth grade to fourth grade.

"Still coaching in Joyeuse, in Ardèche", in this same club where &amp ;quot;photos of Aurore are still pinned to the walls", he will never "see such a player again& quot;. "I thought at night, I took notes to find exercises that would help her progress. She was a mite, she always wanted to win. She trained with the boys, and she was the one who moved them. On the phone, memories and emotions come back, numerous, over a long period of time stretched out by the rain which canceled the day's classes:"I couldn'not be able to accompany him to the French championships. When she called me, I thought she wanted reassurance. The match had been brought forward, she had already won!"

"We will never know what would have become of her"

He also reminds us that'"Aurore was a very good student". He is not bitter about the epilogue: "We will never know what would have become of her. She has succeeded in her professional life… How many promising young people do not break through in tennis, nor in studies, and find themselves tennis teachers all their lives…"  

"Could I have been a pro ? There are so many hazards… you also have to be there at the right time, and the mind plays such a big role… We push players a lot by making them believe that they will succeed but an injury, a heartbreak, everything can change “, continues Auore Ughetto .

And then"Letting everything go for tennis, that wasn't how I was raised. Tennis, I fell into it by chance, and I remained in a caring cocoon for a long time, in a small village, a small club… In Paris, I found myself at the age of just 14 doing 6 hours of tennis a day, it was much more intense, much less caring, with a lot of competition between the girls, it caused me a lot of injuries. The semi-pro life is where I experienced it. We eat tennis, we sleep tennis, we travel all over the world, but we only see the tennis courts. I don't envy the lives of the players, it wasn't made for me. For me, I had to be first in the class… I was able to put in hours and hours of work to pass the medical exam, but I wouldn't have couldn't give them to tennis, as Alizé did. "Under the pressure, I don't know how to do it, I really need kindness", concludes Aurore Ughetto.

"It's a bit like a match"

There won't necessarily be any kindness to land the position of PU-PH (University Professor of Hospital Practitioner), which the thirty-something is aiming for in a few years.

It combines university teaching, research, and clinical practice: “It's at the beginning, it's a long journey. We see a lot of good doctors. When you want to embark on these careers, you have to stand out from the crowd and be politically adept to gain support from the team, the hospital, the faculty … But Aurore has this thirst for learning, this intellectual capacity and a dynamism that are a little out of the ordinary. Not to be the best, but to do well", salutes Professor Philippe Gaudard, head of the anesthesia and cardio-thoracic and vascular resuscitation department at l& ;#39;Arnaud-de-Villeneuve hospital, echoing his colleague Jacob Eliet. He believes in her and supports her.

For a long time, he knew nothing of his sporting exploits as a child. "She drew from this sporting experience a combative and determined spirit", he analyzes afterwards.

She doesn't talk about it to her patients anymore. Yet it is they who make the link between his two lives. We pointed this out to him the other day: "It's normal for you to do such a job! You're used to being doped with adrenaline!"

Resuscitation anesthesia, "it's a bit like in a match", concedes the doctor, who recounts how she plants herself on her legs as if on the court in the heart of the action. "You have to be alert and not letting emotions take up too much space, you have to make the right decisions at the right time, in a coordinated team exercise where you need the eye of someone who takes a step back, precision of the technical gesture… these moments are strong". Before, we train or train. Afterwards, we debrief.  

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