<i> Mais Oui</i> , France’s Fortunes Rest on Big Three : Noah, Leconte, Forget Revive Memories of Musketeers of Past Davis Cups

Athos, Porthos and Aramis.

--The heroes in “The Three Musketeers,” by Alexandre Dumas, 1844

Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste .

--The Four Musketeers of French tennis; Davis Cup champions, 1927-1932

Guy Forget shook his head wistfully.

“The Musketeers were a very, very long time ago,” he said.

Even longer ago were the characters Dumas wrote about. Their motto was, “One for all and all for one!” They were daring fighters. They were heroes. They were honorable. They were noble. Most important, they were French.

And the French remember.

So what if it has been 57 years since France last won the Davis Cup? No matter what happens to the French in the Davis Cup again, they promise to play their way. Sure, the United States is favored to beat France in the quarterfinals, beginning Friday night at San Diego, but Yannick Noah, the team leader and dreadlocked guru, already has a response prepared.

“Yeah, but if we win, it’s going to be a beautiful story,” he said.

In France, the team--Noah, Forget and Henri Leconte--will become even greater heroes than they already are. They will be the new Three Musketeers. Their praises will be sung along the Seine, to the top of the Eiffel Tower and among the trees in the Bois de Boulogne, before finally falling silent on the slow, red clay of Stade Roland Garros.

All it would take for a country to rejoice is a victory over the Americans, who have already deprived them once of their Davis Cup heritage by winning in the 1982 final. And the French players who can make it happen? From top to bottom, they seem an unlikely unit, a jarring combination of disparate personalities and clashing styles.

They are Noah, the right-hander with the big serve; Leconte, the swashbuckling left-hander and brilliant shot maker with the breathtaking inconsistency, and Forget, another left-hander, the steady doubles specialist with the Southern California personality.

Is there any way to make some sense of this?

Noah believes so.

“We have three interesting, different personalities and three totally different games,” he said. “I think people are going to discover our team. I think it’s going to be beautiful.”

Noah knows something about the pressures imposed by a country’s pride. In 1983, he became the first Frenchman to win the French Open since Marcel Bernard in 1946. Soon, he moved to New York City to escape the eyes of his countrymen.

“Now I have a wonderful relationship with the people,” Noah said. “When I won the French, it was a little bit difficult for me. The attention was too much. I couldn’t get used to that and I didn’t enjoy that at all. I love to play and I enjoy entertaining the people when I’m playing, but once I’m out of the club or the tournament, I really cherish my private life.

“Before I did anything special, and nobody really care. Suddenly I play a good tennis tournament and I don’t have a private life.”

So what is his private life like?

“Now, it’s very normal,” Noah said. “Especially when I lose.”

Noah does not lose often these days, because, Forget said, Noah is happier than before.

“Outside, his personal life is good right now,” Forget said. “He is in a good atmosphere. Maybe that contributes to the fact that he is relaxed.”

Since fleeing Paris for New York, Noah has moved back to the French capital. But that was not the only change in his life. He and his wife, Cecilia, were divorced. Noah, 28, is now regularly in the company of his girlfriend, Erica Wollweber, a former model from California, who said she still has a job: “Taking care of my tennis player.”

It is this tennis player’s knees that need the most attention. Bothered by tendinitis in both knees for several years, Noah often plays in considerble pain, yet always seems to become involved in five-set matches. Four of the last six matches he has played have gone five sets.

He is the world’s 12th-ranked player and his serves are some of the fastest in the sport, but he readily admits that his overall technique is poor and that his service and physical condition must carry his game.

Against the United States, Noah said, there is a combination of factors working in France’s favor.

“As far as I’m concerned, when I’m healthy and Henri is healthy and confident, we can beat anybody,” he said. “We look forward to this kind of match against a team that is supposed to be better.

“There is nothing to lose. The pressure is a big thing in the Davis Cup and I think the pressure is going to be on the States. They are the favorite and they are playing at home.”

Although Eric Debliker is the non-playing French captain, Noah is the acknowledged leader, despite his soft-spoken manner. He has had long conversations with both Leconte and Forget and, as a result, believes the French have come together as a team in a special way.

“We are just waiting for this big one,” Noah said. “We’re ready. We take Davis Cup serious. In the States, people don’t take Davis Cup as serious as we do in France. For the States, it only gets interesting when they win. They win every sport and they don’t win Davis Cup, so they don’t care.

“But I know if they win, they’ll care about it.”

Noah acknowledged that with his tender knees and Leconte’s tender back, the French are a fragile team.

“We are fragile as French people are fragile,” he said. “We don’t have the competitiveness (as) when you go to school here. With our education, we are not raised to win. We are raised to enjoy. It is not natural for us to be competitive. Yeah, we are this kind, but we can do anything.

“I think people consider us dangerous. They can see that we can be soft, we can be fragile, but we are dangerous. And we are a team. We are totally together. Do not underestimate this.

“It’s not only like players who just go out there and play. We are going to stay together and spend a lot of time together. So winning like that would be really great. It makes it a lot of fun when you can share it all your life.”

At 25, Leconte said he is maturing. For one thing, he has grown a beard since playing in the Australian Open. It’s just a small change, he said.

“Maybe it will not be the only change,” Noah said.

When he played in Australia and lost in the first round, many thought Leconte was growing something else, a belly. Leconte was 17 pounds overweight and appeared to be hiding a few croissants under his shirt.

Leconte said he has since lost all of those unwanted pounds. He is lean, he is mean--or at least looks that way--and he is certainly a fighting machine.

In the first round of the Davis Cup, Leconte lost the first two sets to Amos Mansdorf of Israel, then came back to win the match.

The difference?

“I fight,” Leconte said. “It was a very, very important match for me and for France. The old Henri Leconte could not have come back. I have learned a lot of things. Now, I am more and more tougher.”

Like Noah, Leconte’s lessons began at the French Open. But unlike Noah, Leconte did not win. He lost to Mats Wilander in last year’s final. Afterward, at the awards ceremony, Leconte heard boos from his countrymen. He was terribly shaken by the booing and took a long time to get over it. The beard was only a symbol of his transformation.

“It’s just for fun,” Leconte said of his whiskers. “I’ve changed a lot since last year because I had so many problems with the French crowd. They expect me to play better and win this tournament. I didn’t play well. They took it hard. For me, it was a good result to be in the final. But you know, it’s a good memory for me, my tennis, to make a final.

“The French people . . . French pride, it is very hard. That is why I have changed. I am harder. I am taking things differently than before. That makes me more and more tougher. It was hard, but on the other side, it was good for me because it made me right.

“One day, they are going to say, ‘He won the French.’ ”

One day, the French may even win the Davis Cup. But time is running out. Noah and his knees will be 29 in May. Leconte’s back problems crop up occasionally, the result of a herniated disk. He had surgery on his back two years ago.

No other French are stepping forward to replace Noah and Leconte, who is ranked No. 13 in the world.

After losing in the first round at Sydney and Melbourne, Leconte did a quick self-appraisal. He decided to rededicate himself to tennis.

He then won both his Davis Cup single matches against Israel, then played another Grand Prix event. He lost in the first round at Milan. Leconte did get to the quarterfinals at Lyon in the last tournament he played, but that was six weeks ago.

Clearly, this new dedication is going to take a while before it pays off.

In any event, Leconte seems willing to sacrifice his free time to, well, actually practice.

“I’m more professional than before,” he said.

Why?

“The time is now.”

Ever since he appeared in the computer rankings in 1981, Leconte has enjoyed a reputation as something of a joker, spraying winners from impossible positions, then blowing easy shots on the next point. He is as unpredictable as the weather and intends to remain that way.

“That is the way I was and the way it is,” he said. “That is the good part and the bad part, too. It is the same with our Davis Cup team. I guess (the United States) is a little bit afraid because we are unpredictable. We can play well and we can beat somebody. We have a good chance, the way I play and the way I’m confident now.

“I love to be ready. It is a showcase for me. That is why I am famous in the States. A lot of people know my game and love my game. It is a special game.”

Tennis came to Forget, 24, in a special way. It was in his genes. In 1986, when Forget won his first--and only--singles title in Toulouse, he became the third Forget to win that tournament. Grandfather Paul and father Pierre had won there in 1946 and 1966, respectively.

Although he is ranked 39th in the world in singles, the shy, unassuming, introspective Forget is a Davis Cup doubles specialist who speaks quietly but has a loud serve. Forget has figured out how much power he may wield in his doubles match.

“I can only play one point and even in that one point, be half of it,” he said. “Yannick and Henri are both two points. If I can play 100%, that’s good, so I fill out my half. All I can do is concentrate on my part. I think it is a little easier for me than them.”

Forget usually teams with Noah but if Noah’s knees are troublesome, Leconte will join Forget for doubles.

Forget lives in Marseilles, but he would probably feel right at home in Southern California. He began surfing four years ago and has been to Hawaii twice.

“It is a very nice sport,” he said.

Forget likes to think of himself as a well-rounded person, as does Noah, so they get along well together. Forget enjoys golf, reads epic novels, attends movies and concerts and listens to Eric Clapton and Robert Cray. He favors the Southland so much, he even had a vacation near San Diego last year.

Forget’s relationship with Noah goes well beyond simple professionalism. In January at the Australian Open, Noah said Forget was having a career crisis.

“There is no problem with Guy’s strokes,” Noah said. “He just didn’t know if he wanted to be a tennis player. We had a very deep discussion. Intense. Now, he is having a different attitude. I believe he can make top 10 with his type of game. He has to want it, because a lot of guys out there want it.”

Said Forget: “We like to talk about other things than tennis.”

It is the closeness of the French players that attracts Forget to the Davis Cup.

“We have been growing up together for many years,” he said. “That is something extra that helps us to win sometimes. Yannick is going to go a few years from now, sure, we’ll have less chances to make it. Once he’ll be gone, one of us will have to be in top 10. You cannot win if you don’t have that. You have to have one very good, like a McEnroe or a Becker.

“We always keep together. We always stick together. We try our best, for one week. But no matter what the result is, we will always have a good time.”