Luca Van Assche was born on May 11, 2004, in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium, where he lived for three years before moving to France. His father is an operations director for a shipping company, while his mother is an Italian teacher. After starting to play tennis at the age of 4, he left home for one year as a 12-year-old to go to Poitiers for the Pole France training program.
Van Assche was a very strong junior player. The clearest example of this was when he won the 2021 French Open boys’ singles title. He overcame Arthur Fils in the final, who would also become an accomplished ATP Tour player. The Frenchman spent 2022 initially competing on the ITF Futures Circuit, before beginning to play on the ATP Challenger Tour.
Van Assche ended the 2022 season very strongly. He made three Challenger Tour finals in October and November, finishing as the runner-up in all three cases. However, it was the fourth time lucky for Van Assche at the very end of 2022 in December. He claimed his maiden Challenger Tour title in Maia, defeating the third seed Elias Ymer and fifth seed Aleksandar Vukic on the way to the final. The Frenchman overcame Maximilian Marterer 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 to take the title.
Van Assche had further success on the Challenger Tour in 2023 by winning two more titles in the first half of the year. The first came in Pau in February, where he triumphed in the final against Ugo Humbert. Van Assche then triumphed against Juan Pablo Varillas on clay in Sanremo in April.
2023 also saw the Frenchman obtain his first Grand Slam victory on home soil at Roland-Garros. This was achieved by hammering the former semi-finalist at the event Marco Cecchinato 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. The No. 29 seed, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, proved to be too strong for Van Assche in the following round.
Van Assche had an even better run at the 2024 Australian Open, making his first Grand Slam third round at the tournament. He achieved this with two consecutive wins in five sets against James Duckworth and Lorenzo Musetti, before exiting to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
