Many tennis giants call Monaco home—Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Daniil Medvedev, Grigor Dimitrov—but only one player at the 2022 US Open represents the tiny nation: Hugo Nys.
On Sunday, 31-year-old Nys advanced to the men’s doubles quarterfinals, his deepest run at the US Open in seven tries. His partner, Jan Zielinski, is Polish, so don’t expect to see the two on the same side of the net at the next Olympics trying to top Monaco’s lone Olympic medal—a bronze from the 1924 Paris Games, in architecture. (Olympic teammates have to be from the same nation.)
But Monaco does have a Davis Cup team, and later this month, Nys will be in Lebanon trying to get Monaco into Group One, which would be a coup for the microstate that began competing in the Davis Cup competition in 1929.
But first, Nys is here in New York, where he took a moment to tell his story and explain what it’s like to represent the second smallest independent state (after the Vatican).
“I was born in France and learned to play there,” Nys said. “I started to play for Monaco in 2014. I started to play the Slams, the 250s, all the ATP circuit in 2017.
“My father, Jean-Christophe, was my coach until I was 16. He taught me tennis, and he was driving me everywhere. At age 16, we both realized that I needed something else because he was not pro. So I went to Switzerland first, then I went to Monaco to train for eight years. I changed the practice base two years ago. I’m now practicing in Toulouse, France.
“My grandfather, Francis Nys, actually played in the Slams in the ‘50s. He died in 2017, just before I made it to the Top 100. But he played Wimbledon [in 1954, reaching the Round of 64] and French Open [from 1949-59]. I don't think he played Flushing Meadows.”
Here is more from our interview with the Monegasque.
USOpen.org: Monaco is so small. Is there just one tennis club there?
Hugo Nys: In Monaco, there are two tennis clubs. But my club, the Monte-Carlo Country Club, is the most beautiful in the world. It's not only me, but all the players say it's probably the nicest place to play tennis.
USOpen.org: So many top professional players live in Monaco. Are you neighbors with any of them?
Hugo Nys: No, we don't live in the same building. I couldn't afford it. But yeah, we do practice together sometimes. And winter is really busy; everybody's getting ready for the Australian Open there. It’s a good atmosphere.
USOpen.org: You said you can't afford to live in the same building as Djokovic, or did you mean...
Hugo Nys: All of them!
USOpen.org: Wait, they all live in one building?
Hugo Nys: No, maybe not. But I just have a small studio. A federation studio. I'm a doubles player, so I earn good money, but not as good as them. Far from them.
USOpen.org: Of the long list of players who live in Monaco, who lives nearest to you?
Hugo Nys: The closest? Maybe Dimitrov.
USOpen.org: How close, in a country that’s only two square kilometers (less than one square mile)?
Hugo Nys: Like, 500 meters.
USOpen.org: Do you get a lot of press in Monaco?
Hugo Nys: We have some small press. They are following our results. But the main press—it's tough to get a sponsor, for example, because the problem is we have Djokovic and everyone living here, so those guys, they play for Monaco, but who cares about them? But we do have a lot of support from the Federation. The Federation is really involved. They help a lot: providing the coach, the apartment, getting us ready for Davis Cup. We have everything [we need] to play in good conditions.
USOpen.org: What else is cool about representing Monaco? Do you get fans?
Hugo Nys: You know, it's only [maybe] 6,500 people from Monaco. So maybe there are one or two [in New York], but they didn't tell me they were here. But we actually got a lot of support from Jan's side because they had a lot of Polish people here and he also played for the University of Georgia, so he had a lot of friends here. We started competing together in March.
USOpen.org: Do you two have nicknames?
Hugo Nys: He's ‘Z.’ My nickname is ‘Hugito,’ but he's not calling me that.
On Tuesday, ‘Z' and 'Hugito’ will meet the No. 1 men's doubles seeds and last year’s US Open champions, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, in the quarterfinals. Neither pair has dropped a set.
