William ‘Fozzy’ Foster, a tennis esports player from the UK, has been crowned winner of the 2023 Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas.
He defeated China’s Shenghao ‘Kafe’ He in the Grand Final to become the first back-to-back winner of the competition, after he won the 2022 Roland-Garros eSeries last year.
This year, Fozzy overcame 400,000 entrants from the qualifying stages in Tennis Clash to win the best-of-five final 10-8, 10-9 and 10-8, with his stellar performance taking place within the iconic Philippe-Chatrier Court at Roland-Garros in Paris.
Eight entrants, representing five countries in France, Great Britain, China, Colombia, and Israel, qualified for the Grand Final. Initially playing each other once in a round-robin group stage, the top four players progressed to the semi-finals competing in a best-of-three single elimination match to decide who would progress to the finals.
The tournament also featured participants from its partner-led qualifiers with Maricela Espinosa Villada and Rayann Chaghla making it to the final stages of the Women in Games and Handigamers qualifiers respectively. These form part of Fédération Française de Tennis’ (FFT) continued effort to make its eTennis tournament as inclusive as possible.
Fozzy’s run to victory began with a fourth place finish in the round-robin, before going on to face Noam Abitbul (Israel), winning out 10-8, 6-10 and 10-4 and then defeating Shenghao ‘Kafe’ He in the final.
Gilles Simon presented the winner and runner-up trophies following the match, along with the €5,000 prize money, which was split €3,500 and €1,500 respectively.
The Grand Final took place in a dedicated gaming space within the iconic Philippe-Chatrier Court in Paris, and was live streamed in French by popular streamers LittleBigWhale and Rivenzi as well as world-renowned former tennis player Gilles Simon.
“I’m ecstatic to have won the Roland Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas for a second year in a row. I’ve qualified for next month’s Olympic Esports Series but I’ll definitely be back again next year to compete.”
William ‘Fozzy’ Foster
The stream generated 160,000 live views. For the first time, it was also live streamed in English on the Twitch and YouTube channels of Tennis Clash.
William ‘Fozzy’ Foster said: “It was a really hard-fought tournament and though I didn’t have the best start, I just had to keep the faith and it somehow worked.
“I just tried to stay calmer and hold my nerve as that mental element of the game is key. It was very much like a chess match but I’m ecstatic to have won the Roland Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas for a second year in a row.
“I’ve qualified for next month’s Olympic Esports Series but I’ll definitely be back again next year to compete.”
Gilles Moretton, French Tennis Federation (FFT) President, added: “We are so pleased to have held yet another successful Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas which exceeded all of our expectations for both viewership and entries.
“We’d like to congratulate Fozzy on his victory and wish all the best to all 8 finalists, who will give their best to come back next year. It is a huge honour to organise the biggest and most inclusive etennis tournament in the world, and we look forward to reaching even more players and viewers in the years to come.”
Roland-Garros eSeries’ charity initiative
One of the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas’ commitments is with the #FAAPointsForChange charity initiative, launched in partnership with Canadian player and world number 10 Félix Auger-Aliassime.
Through donations, the initiative seeks to support the education and protection of children in Togo with the NGO Care. All year round, for every point won in competition, Félix donates €5, while BNP Paribas matches this with €15.
Each point of the top eight of 2023 Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas was turned into a €15 donation. With the 549 points that were scored in the Grand Final, the FFT made a €8,235 donation.
This is the second year that the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas has been played on Wildlife Studios’ mobile title Tennis Clash, which has been downloaded over 120m times.
400,000+ players have played 4.2m+ matches in the three open qualifier events, signifying a 70% year-on-year increase in player participation and an increase of more than 150% in matches played.
This year marks BNP Paribas’ sixth year as title partner, and Renault’s second year as official partner for the competition. This was also the second year the event hosted the earlier mentioned women’s-only qualifier in partnership with Women in Games, and the first year the event hosted the aforementioned qualifier for people with disabilities in partnership with Handigamers.
Full list of 2023 Roland-Garros eSeries finalists
- Winner: William “Fozzy” Foster (UK) – Australian Open Winner
- Runner-Up: Shenghao “Kafe” He (China)- Open Qualifier #3 Winner
- Semi-finalist: Noam “DaBAst” Abitbul ( Israel) – Open Qualifier #3 Runner-Up
- Semi-finalist: Anass “Anteo” Benghazi (France) – Open Qualifier #2 Winner
- Round Robin: Sharon “Abeke” Am-Shalem (Israel) – Open Qualifier #1 Winner
- Round Robin: Maricela “MariLCTC” Espinosa (Colombia) – Women in Games Qualifier Winner
- Round Robin: Rayann “NorakiRbrd” Chaghla (France) – Handigamers Qualifier Winner
- Round Robin: Axel “Kalexo” Guenin (France) – Community Clash Qualifier Winner
For more information about the Roland-Garros eSeries by BNP Paribas, visit https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/page/roland-garros-eseries-by-bnp-paribas.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
