Rene was born in Paris on July 2, 1904 in the family of the industrialist Jean Lacoste, the owner of a network of factories producing cars “Spanish-Suiza” (La Нispano-Suiza Automobiles). Being not quite a healthy child – he was pestering chronic bronchitis, Rene became interested in tennis.
One day, in 1910, they invited the French journalist Pierre Albarran, a major tennis authority, to the Club de sport, located on Saussure Street in Paris, and showed a thin, pale boy. He held the racket in the middle of the handle, ran around the court like a hare, and hit the balls with the accuracy of a metronome. The guy made an impression on the “examination committee.” Albarran recalls that everyone was of the same opinion: this young man had a good future, but no one had the idea that at 21, Lacoste would be the first racket of the world.

What an amazing path he has come! What will and perseverance this young man showed in exhausting training, to whom his father recommended leaving the sport at the age of fifteen, believing that his son is completely lacking in abilities! At twenty, Lacoste became a real athlete, able to train for three hours in the morning, and fight for another three hours in the afternoon (at that time it was unusual), reminding with his game a perfectly adjusted, non-interruption mechanism. Continue reading →