We come back to the selection course for the French teams of padel, which took place this weekend at Tennis and Padel Club du Mas, in Perpignan.

A one month of the European Championships, the breeders Alexis Salles and Robin Haziza summoned 12 players and 12 players at a selection rally in Perpignan. After a year without a tournament for those who do not compete on the international circuits, and while the last camp had been canceled due to Covid-19, it was essential to test everyone in match conditions.

Thus, over these three days of gathering, each of the players will have played a total of 5 matches, with different partners, to see which associations worked best. The coaches were thus able to get a better idea of ​​each other's state of fitness. Remember that for both men and women, 8 elements will be selected for Marbella.

Among the girls, two injured players

This is obviously a big blow. While Jessica Ginier could not make the trip to Perpignan due to an ankle injury, Melissa Martin suffered an abdominal injury as soon as she arrived in Catalonia.

Melissa Martin World Padel Tour lob

To deal with the package of these two left-wing players, the staff urgently summoned Lucile Pothier. The 24-year-old, former top tennis player, who was determined to prove that she has the level to fly to Marbella in a month.

In this context, Robin Haziza was able to do various tests, testing multiple players on the left, in order to try to put together the most competitive team possible. Between Laura Clergue's package and Ginier and Martin's injuries, there are a total of 3 less left-wing players compared to the last gathering. Fortunately, several players are quite capable of evolving on both sides, Alix Collombon and Léa Godallier in the lead.

Will the injured be able to recover by the European Championship? Can Robin Haziza select players who could not play during the camp? At the moment we do not know more. In any case, he must be racking his brains about who to take to Marbella, and especially which configurations to choose !

For men, 6 players for 2 places?

On the men's side, 5 players are considered to be the pillars of the France team in recent years, and we cannot imagine the selection without them. It is obviously about Benjamin Tison, Johan Bergeron, Jérémy Scatena, Bastien Blanqué and Adrien Maigret. We can add to this list a certain Thomas Leygue, which represents the future of padel French and who trains hard in Madrid to live his dream on the World Padel Tour.

In order certainly to determine the two additional players who will compete in the European Championships and to constitute a team as competitive as possible, Alexis Salles was able to test different associations. We therefore know for example that Johan Bergeron, who now plays on the left in the WPT, was able to play a match on that side with his new partner in France, Benjamin Tison, but also on the right with the one with whom he won 3 French championships: Bastien Blanqué. Several other configurations were also tested, as you can see in the images below:

Note that Remy Gourre had to leave the camp this Saturday for family reasons, he was replaced by the local Ludovic Cancel for the matches this Sunday morning.

We will now have to wait a few days before knowing who will be the lucky ones who will represent France at the European Championship in Marbella!

Team Padel May

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